Grill Maestro

I was watching some Food Network TV show with Alton Brown when he gave this great tip for how to get your charcoal chimney starter started without much frustration. If you put too little newspaper, it burns up without starting the coals. If you put too much, there isn’t enough room for oxygen to flow and your fire gets choked out.

Alton’s tip is to spray your newspaper with a little bit of canola oil, letting it soak, and then lighting it. The canola oil has to burn away before the newspaper it has soaked does and so it acts like a wick on a candle. The advantage is now the amount of newspaper you have is guaranteed to last you long enough to get the coals going and you don’t over pack it. While I don’t have a chimney starter to give this tip a try, it makes sense to me!