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I agree with the Chimney idea. Well worth the money. Normally when you have a small grill you need to use just a small amount of charcoal. Too much=too hot=overcooked meat=not worth a damn.

i use the chimey also. three full sheets of newspaper underneath does the trick everytime. what til flames shooting out the top die down then yer ready. a leaf blower can speed up the process. DON"T PUT CHIMNEY ON CONCRETE! we were smoking some butts, hams, and yard bird at camp a few weeks ago and where on the third or fourth chimney. for some reason we put it on the driveway instead of the unused grill where we had been putting it. i was sitting about five feet away from the chimney (sippin on some bloody mary's after the morning hunt) when BAM! sounded like a rifle shot. i thought someone had tossed a round into the fire as joke. scared the shat outta me and blew out a hunk of concrete. i had to switch to brown licker to calm my nerves

Lighter fluid sucks! Get a chimney and taste your food instead of lighter fluid.

H20fowlkiller wrote:Go propane im sure you can get a cheep one somewhere no fooling with coals and can constantly control the temp for ex. i cooked steaks tonight also and ran 3 burners at full blast to aroun 700 deg. not exactly sure but somwhere around that and seared both sides and set the steaks on the top racks till i could get the grill cooled down to about 400 ish.
As far as charcoal goes make sure you vents on the bottom are open atleas a little if the coals arent white then they arent ready once they are all completely white you can spread the pyramid

you lose the taste though!!! hell if i wanna use Propane, I may as well put it in a skillet on the stove

Also it is harder to grill outside when it is cold because so much of the heat dissapates into the surrounding air. In the fall and winter I use extra charcoal and smaller portions.

edub20 wrote:you lose the taste though!!! hell if i wanna use Propane, I may as well put it in a skillet on the stove

I use propane (never had a complaint of bland taste - just the opposite) and what I do to keep from losing the tatse is use a heavy metal wood chip box with a top and pin holes along the side that goes over the flame with wood chips inside for smoke (don't even soak them in water) or make a small, sealed foil pouch that goes over the flames (approx 5"X5") filled with chips and poke a couple of pin holes in the top (takes 10 min or so to start smoking). This gives you the smoke and flavor you lose by not using charcoal, and you get the choice of flavor to match the meat (hickory, apple, peach, mesquite, etc). The pin hole lets the smoke out, but keeps the pouch anaerobic so it doesn't burst into flames (if you get flames,your holes are too big or too numerous). You would be hard pressed to pick which grill my food came off of - charcoal or propane....don't believe me, try it for yourself!

Charcoal Brickets are made from a petroleum based binder. You will have to let you charcoal get White/grayed all over. This insures that the heat has removed this binder. Ever tasted a hamburger that tasted like lighter fluid? Never use Charcoal lighter, it only adds to the lighter fluid taste. Buy a chacoal chimmney from Home Depot. It lights real easy from paper. Once coals are lit for 3/4 of chimmney, dump on your grate. Add more "green" coals ( thats slang for new coal) to your fire if you need more. More is better than not enough...Once coals on bottom grate turn gray/white , your ready to cook.. i like a HOT fire for steaks. Keep lid on to reduce flare ups. NEVER NEVER NEVER add new coals to your fire while cooking. If you do then .....you guessed it...your food will have a hint of petroleum taste .....Get them started in your chimmney..then add them......There is an excellent little pamplet my buddy puts out on Hog Wild BBQ thats talks about fire..go to his website and buy it...you'll be competing in memphis in may in No time....good luck

Some of y'all are making fire building entirely too hard.

Gas sucks and lighter fluid sucks. Men use charcoal, I'm sure gas is great and all but there is nothing fun about it or good about it. Gas is kinda like a fart. Everybody thinks its funny but they taste bad and it stinks. So get you some charcoal, I like lump charcoal but briquettes will work, just don’t get the ready light or match light.. Get the coals going and drink a few beers enjoy yourself. I used a 30 dollar grill from Wal-Mart for years and it worked just fine. Leave the top about halfway open and them bottom closed or cracked.

Here is a little info on the charcoal chimney, you are going to need one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimney_starter

GET-N-RITE wrote: Gas is kinda like a fart. Everybody thinks its funny but they taste bad and it stinks.

Apparently you had the wrong people cooking for you, i finally converted my dad recently after cooking him a steak and he said it was the best and juiciest steak ever and i marinated them for as long and in the same marinade he uses but i could sear all the juices into the meat and then turn the heat down and then cook the middle like it was in an oven

ufgators68 wrote:Some of y'all are making fire building entirely too hard.

that was my original point !!

young un really messed it up listening to "the help"

let's get something edible... and work from there


OBTW, Gas can work if you pile the bottom with large chunks of hardwood !!

H20fowlkiller wrote:

GET-N-RITE wrote: Gas is kinda like a fart. Everybody thinks its funny but they taste bad and it stinks.

Apparently you had the wrong people cooking for you, i finally converted my dad recently after cooking him a steak and he said it was the best and juiciest steak ever and i marinated them for as long and in the same marinade he uses but i could sear all the juices into the meat and then turn the heat down and then cook the middle like it was in an oven

Naw bub I am a Grand Champion.....Me and my buddies won the cooking competition in Oxford and we hope to have few more trophies this year. It’s all about the smoke n fire. With gas there is not any smoke unless you add your own. I am sure you can have good steaks on gas grills beings you are searing and not smoking, but might as well be cooking it in or on the oven

H20fowlkiller wrote:sear all the juices into the meat and then turn the heat down and then cook the middle like it was in an oven

I've always done it the other way, cook low and slow, then sear it to finish. Studies have been done that showed by searing first, the end result weighed less than searing last. May have been Alton Brown (Good Eats) that showed this, if not him, then someone on Food Network. They used the exact same size and cut of meat that weighed the same raw and cooked them on the same temp grills only one was cooked on the hot side first to sear then moved to the cooler side and the other was cooked on the cooler side first then moved to the hot side to sear.

Learn your grill, your fuel, your favorite cuts of whatever meat it is and try to please yourself with what you've prepared. Do this enough with enough different things and you'll learn more than anyone can teach you. If someone else there telling you what to do hates your food then I'm sure they'll be passing a Wendy's on the way home that they order from.

I see alot of Topwaters using lighter fluid. Eventually they run across people that do this for a living and know how to cook. They finally see the light on what really good charbroil food tastes like.