I'm no expert, but I know from observation that you need lighter fluid. Squirt a bit on the charcoal, light a match, and jump back.

From there, I'm at a loss.

"squirt a bit" !!


Just read the instructions or totally hose the briquets, stand back and flip a match on it. Coals ready in 20-30 minutes. There are cleaner, non-fluid methods involving small chimneys and newspaper.

For some reason I expected this to be about tiki torches or something, oh well...

Don't use lighter fluid -- it tastes icky and (sorry) is yet another petroleum product on which we spend our money.

What you need is a chimney starter. You can buy them for about $10 (or more, if they're shiny and fancy). You can also fashion your own from a big-ass stainless steel can, but then you have to buy something that comes in a big-ass stainless steel can. (Plus, it won't have a handle.)

Best to spend a few bucks on the chimney starter. They work well and don't leave that lighter-fluid after taste.

mudpuppie makes a good suggestion.... better than my first thought, which was to urge you to go get some "match light" charcoal, which is charcoal with the lighter fluid already added. Just put a pile in the grill, throw a match on and watch the fire start. When all the briquets have somewhere between a partial and total covering of ash, the fire is ready for cooking.

How long do you usually wait before you start cooking on it?

Oops, missed that part.

You want to wait until the charcoal is covered with a coating of ash. In other words, it's starting to turn white. If you're using a chimney starter, this is the point at which you'd dump the charcoal, put the grate back on, and wait for the flames to die down a bit. Then you're ready to start cooking.

It's also a good idea to pile the charcoal on one side of the grill so that you have a hot side and a cooler side. It's hard (impossible, actually) to regulate temperature on a charcoal grill like you can on a gas grill, so you need to set up a couple of different zones.

As for corn, I prefer to grill it in foil for a while before putting it directly on the grill. I find that if it goes right on the grill, although it gets nice and charred, it also gets a little dry. I wrap it in foil, grill it on the cooler side of the grill for a while, then unwrap and put directly over the heat for some color.

Use a charcoal chimney. This one has plenty of capacity; enough to fire a load of briquettes for a small hibachi 3 times over, and for a 22 & 1/2" kettle grill in one go. Newspaper is OK as tinder, but several ounces of 4/0 steel wool added in with the paper, on top of the paper wad, (or some fatwood chips) gets things hot, fast.

Chimney's do work great, but I've never used one, nor do I use fluid, cut some dry kindling, layer charcoal on bottom, some wadded newspaper then kindling on top, light the paper, get a little fire going, you want it burning about 5 mins, when it dies down walk away, come back 15-20mins later.

Whoah I'd never even heard of those chimney thingies. Looks like the only one available is on Amazon Japan and it's 4,500 yen! And will take a couple of weeks to be delivered - and of course I want to have a BBQ in about 4 hours time. But definitely something to think about for the future.

So I guess I'll have to find some fire fluid/lighting magic stuff and try that this time.

Thanks everyone!

depending on how cooperative your briquets are, you may be able to start it with alcohol drenched cotton wool stuffed among the briquets. That's the way my husband usually does it, then maybe he feeds it some wadded newspaper or something... not sure.

For reasonable people, a chimney starter is indeed the right way to go. A simpler way to know when it's ready to dump (CAREFULLY) into the grill: when red-hot flames are shooting out of it and it looks like Dante's inferno inside. If you think you might grill again, you really do want one.

If you can't find one, the classic method is: make a pyramidal pile of briquettes. Douse liberally with lighter fluid, and then add some more. Light.

The ultimate method is to put a lit cigarette in the middle of your pile of unlit charcoal, and then to pour a large bucket of liquid oxygen (on a long rod) over it. It will be ready to go in 3 seconds if you have a heavy brick grill. If you have a thin steel grill, you won't anymore.

Pile charcoal in a pyramid.
Douse liberally with lighter fluid.
Light a splint and throw it on, or use one of those long lighters.
Use prongs to turn over the coals every once in a while, until they're all ashy-gray.
Shake out the coals, put on the grill top, and start cooking.

Definitely cook your corn in some tin-foil, with a little butter or oil in it.

The ultimate method is to use a heat gun, which can heat up the charcoal above its auto-ignition temperature. No lighter fluid required.

In a pinch (or in the time before Weber realized that they could make money off of selling chimneys) you could take a metal coffee canister, open both ends, punch a couple of dozen holes in the side, and use that. You want to dump it with tongs when the top charcoal pieces are white hot if you go that route.

I use the martha stewart method. Tear an egg carton in half, but 6 briquets in, one in each little thingie. Use a VERY judicious amount of white gas (coleman fuel) to soak into the cardboard of the egg carton. Pile briquets around this contraption. Light.

I am not using a whole lot of petroleum this way, but it DOES provide a bit of a satisfying poof.

Oh yes. Put the can of fuel away before lighting, just in case.

The reason you lighter-fluid people's fires don't light very well is that you must soak the briquets and then wait at least five minutes before lighting them so that the lighter fluid doesn't just burn away, leaving the coals a little warm but not aflame by any stretch.