5 Mistakes Beginners Make When Using Charcoal

i put together a list of five mistakes that beginners make when using charcoal but before we get into them let me know in the comments where you think you're struggling or where you think you might be able to use a little help when it comes to using a charcoal grill so let's dig in mistake number one using lighter fluid don't do it when i first started using a grill i would use lighter fluid or i would buy the charcoal that's already pre-soaked in lighter fluid and you get the same results every single time the food ends up tasting just like the lighter fluid nobody wants to eat lighter fluid so get yourself a chimney these are inexpensive and when you make the purchase you'll be able to use the same one for years and years mistake number two is not allowing the charcoal to become fully ignited before you put it onto the grill if you're using a chimney the charcoal will start lighting from the bottom up so how do you know when it's ready you want to look at it and when all of the charcoal is completely iced over it's ready to put on the grill you'll get better results if you'll wait and just give it a few minutes it usually takes 20 to 25 minutes for a full chimney of charcoal to become ignited mistake number three is not cooking with zones when i first started i would pour all the charcoal out just spread it evenly on the bottom of the grill but when you do that you don't have a cool zone or what you could call a safe zone you need different zones you need a cool area and you need a hot area that way one if you're going to put a sear on and cook it indirectly you can move it to the other side and two you're going to have flower ups and you'll be able to move the food over away from the flames and get it in what you call a safe zone for a few minutes you can always move it back and forth as you need to secondly when cooking with zones you're able to concentrate more charcoal into one pile and it gets a little hotter on top of that charcoal you need a good hot fire to be able to properly sear your food mistake number four is not allowing the grill enough time to come up to temperature before putting on the food when i first like the grill i like to put the lid on with the vents fully open and give it a few minutes to come up to temp lets the grate get hot that way when i start putting food on it i can get a good sear when you're smoking foods you want to give it a little time to get to the target temp you might have to make some adjustments on your vents and let it stabilize before you actually put the food on one thing i've learned since i started using a charcoal grill is that you really have to have some patience that leads us to mistake number five and that is rushing the cooking process most of the time when grilling i like to get a good sear on the food on both sides then i move it over to the cool zone and cook it indirectly until it comes up to the desired cooking temperature a lot of folks like to start flipping it or moving it around before that it's ready and when you do that you don't really get a good sear on it a tip is when you try to flip a piece of meat or something on the grill and it's still sticking to the grape you need to wait a few minutes it's not ready now when you're smoking food it's going to take hours to get done so you might as well be prepared for that and know up front that it's going to take a while to get done especially during longer cooks also you want to get used to leaving the lid on and not taking it off to look every few minutes there's an old saying that says when you're looking you ain't cooking i know it's hard to wait especially when you're hungry but it's worth it if you want to get more serious about using charcoal i put together an online course that you might be interested in i'll put the link in the description below the video you can check it out it's all in video content similar to these videos that i upload to youtube i've thrown in a few recipes and some written content that you can print and keep with you when you're using the grill and once you enroll you can access the course anytime you like you can go back and repeat videos as often as you like and you can keep it forever if you've gotten any value out of this video give it a thumbs up and let me know in the comments below if you haven't already done so hit the subscribe button and click the little bell so that you can be notified on all of my videos do a lot of grilling cooking in general and even some homesteading video be glad to have you on board so until the next one god bless you all

Channel: Kitchen Alpha

Views: 1,412,823

Keywords: charcoal grilling for beginners, grilling, charcoal grill, grilling with charcoal, grilling with charcoal tips, lighter fluid, charcoal, using a charcoal grill, using a charcoal chimney, charcoal grill chimney starter, charcoal tips, grilling tips, charcoal grilling, weber kettle, weber grill, weber, grilling for beginners, grilling for beginners charcoal

Id: ieRNhjBIN_M

Length: 4min 15sec (255 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 18 2021