Grill Maestro

Self-starting charcoal is charcoal that’s been coated with something that lets you light it without using any lighter fluid. It’s great because you no longer have to deal with lighter fluid and since each briquette is covered, you will be able to light all of them at once without risk of flare ups or other unpleasantness. One of the downsides is that the burning of these chemicals can generate smoke that will definitely impart bad flavors on your food (and cause problems if you inhale too much of it) if you are too anxious in your cooking.

As a matter of practice, you should wait until the briquettes have turned white (ashy) before you grill, by then all the chemicals will have burned off and you run no risk of inhaling bad fumes. As the fires burn, make sure you’re standing up-wind of them (and so are your guests) so no one inhales the fumes. As long as you do those simple things, you should be safe with self-starting charcoal.