Grill Maestro

The key to starting a charcoal fire is to be patient and not get too overzealous with the lighter fluid. Here’s what you need to do: Make a pyramid of charcoal briquettes. Soak the briquettes in lighter fluid and then wait as it soaks into each coal. Then, after about five minutes, pour on a [...]

The latest Cook’s Illustrated reviewed four chimney starters. Chimney starters are cylindrical canisters that you can use to quickly start a charcoal fire. You stick the charcoal briquettes in a top chamber, stuck in some newspaper, and light it. The cylinder traps in a lot of the flame and heat so that much of the [...]

Main Street, a pseudo life-style / money blog of TheStreet.com, published a quick hit list of tips near the Fourth of July Weekend. The tips were pretty basic, even to a novice like me, but worth checking out if you’re new to grilling. They briefly discuss the merits of charcoal vs. gas and the use [...]

I always wondered how those charcoal briquettes are made and it wasn’t until I watched an episode of Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe (episode was titled Micro-Algae Man and originally aired on Nov. 1st, 2005) did I realize what was involved in making charcoal. If you’ve ever been to a campfire, then you’ve probably realized [...]