If you want to start grill over charcoal, you will need to know about its advantages and disadvantages compared to other grilling techniques.
Although it is a very old and popular technique, sometimes it can be even dangerous.
You will also need to know about different kinds of fuel and different ways of starting fire.
This article will cover all these topics.
Grilling over charcoal has following disadvantages.
The first disadvantage of this cooking method is that it cannot be used indoors.
Charcoal burning produces poisonous carbon monoxide, which is very dangerous for your health.
In addition, cooking on charcoal will not impart as rich flavor as cooking over hardwoods will do.
However, you can avoid this by adding water-soaked wood chips to the fire.
Burning wood chips will produce a lot of wood smoke.
On the other hand, charcoal grills are cheap and easy to purchase in appropriate sizes.
So, you weighted pros and cons of a charcoal grill and decided to buy one.
Now you have to choose what kind of charcoal you will use.
There are two kinds: processed charcoal briquettes and lump charcoal.
Processed coals are shaped into rectangle form.
In addition, they may be pre-impregnated with solvent for ease of starting fire.
Lump charcoal is a pure form of charcoal, because it is not ground and shaped.
It burns hotter and responds to changes in airflow more quickly.
The last thing we will discuss in this article is fire.
You can use four different means of starting fire: chimney starter, electric iron, aliphatic petroleum solvent and denatured alcohol.
Be careful when using aliphatic petroleum solvent, because it can be hazardous.
In addition, it can impart undesirable chemical flavor to your food.
Denatured alcohol does not have such problems, so you should better use it instead.
Now you are aware of advantages and disadvantages of charcoal grilling.
You know about different kinds of charcoal and means of starting fire.
This essential information is enough to start cooking on charcoal.