The first thing that I am going to tell you to do is GET RID OF THE LIGHTER FLUID, unless you like the taste of burnt fuel on your meat. Buy a chimney starter at the grocery store for around $10 and ditch the lighter fluid. If you must use lighter fluid I will describe how to correctly use it later in this article (Yes there is a correct way). The Items you need are as follows:
1. A Chimney Starter
2. 2 Full Sheets of Newspaper
3. A Fire Source (Match or Lighter)
4. Charcoal
First, take the grate off of the grill and open any vent holes on the grill for air circulation. The more air you can produce over the coals the hotter and faster they will burn. This is a very important lesson when making any fire, you need oxygen to make it burn hot. A sealed grill will do nothing more than extinguish the fire. Now that you have established good circulation in the grill, turn over the chimney starter and stuff the newspaper into the bottom. Set the starter in the bottom of the grill and fill it up with coals. Apply fire to the newspaper in the bottom of the starter and let it burn. You will see smoke coming out of the top of the chimney, that means that it is working. Fresh air drafts up from the bottom of the starter and supplies oxygen to the coals as they start to burn. The paper ignites the bottom coals, and as they burn, they light the coals above them. Within about 15 to 20 minutes you will see that your Chimney Starter in full of red hot coals. When the top coals are red hot you are ready to pour the coals out onto the grill. There are different ways to set up your grill depending on the type grilling you are trying to do.
DIRECT GRILLING
This is the type of setup most people are accustomed to. Direct grilling means that you put the coals directly under the food to be cooked. This type of grilling is typically used to make steaks, hamburgers, pork chops, and any other types of flat meat.
INDIRECT GRILLING
Indirect grilling is the method of surrounding the food with the heat, but not putting the heat directly under the meat. The method is used to slow cook meat without burning it. Indirect grilling is used to cook thick pieces of meat such as pork roasts and spare ribs. This is my favorite way to grill most types of meat. The best way to set up a grill for indirect grilling is to place a drip pan under the area where the food will be, and surround the pan with the hot coals from the chimney starter. Since this type of cooking usually lasts many hours it will be necessary to add coals every hour or so, to keep the fire nice and hot. A few damp mesquite chips doesn't hurt either. Something else that works great, is to use a stick to knock the sot off the the burned coals to keep them nice and hot. And remember air circulation keeps your coals hot.
ROTISSERIE GRILLING
Full instructions on rotisserie cooking will be outlined in a later article, but for the purpose of setting up your grill follow the instructions below. Remove the grates from the grill, and leave them off for the remainder of the cooking. After your coals are red hot line them up on the front side of your grill so that as the meat rotates, the front side rotates into the heat. Make sure to put a drip pan under the meat to catch all of the juices from the meat. For a good smoked flavor mix in some soaked mesquite wood on the side to smoke out the meat. I try to soak large chunks of mesquite wood overnight before putting them on the grill. This makes the wood smoke for hours. Rotisserie cooking is great for chicken, pork roasts and tenderloins, and large pieces of beef. You can even do ribs on the rotisserie.
GAS GRILLS
If you are using a gas grill, you can set it up to any of the above configurations by choosing the correct burners to turn on. Some gas grills also come with accessories to assist in setting your grill up for rotisserie cooking using heat reflectors.
THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF COALS
You will need to add coals your grill every hour or so to keep the fire burning. Before adding the coals knock the burned coals with a metal poker to get all the used sot off of them (They should look red hot). I usually add about 20 per side if I'm doing indirect grilling (and a piece of damp mesquite wood). Once you get to know your grill and experiment with different amounts of coals, you will know exactly how many to add to get the desired heat. Adding too many coals can be worse than adding too few. You don't want to make you grill too hot by pouring a whole bag of charcoal into a small Weber. If you grill is too hot, it will burn your meat and dry it out (just like that small, burned, dry, hamburger you had at your neighbors house last weekend). I like to start with a full chimney starter and then add some fresh coals if necessary to create a single layer of coals. This should create a good medium heat grill which should work for most type of grilling.
Using Lighter Fluid
If you must use lighter fluid, there are a few techniques that will make it easy. First, pile the charcoal in the center of the grill, so it looks like a pyramid. Stack it as high as you can, to get the best results. Now soak the coals with the lighter fluid. Let them set for at least 5 minutes or more. This lets the lighter fluid soak in, for easier ignition of the coals. Carefully light the coals with a long match. The coals on the bottom of the pile should burn up through the ones on top causing a good hot fire. You shouldn't have to put any more lighter fluid on the coals. Remember, the lighter fluid is just to ignite the coals. Once the bottom coals get going they will spread the heat to the whole pile. When the pile is red and white hot, spread out the coals across the grill into a single layer.
