How do I light a charcoal barbecue properly?

Most bad barbecue food comes from two errors made in the first half hour: cooking over coals that are still flaming, and spreading the coals evenly so there is nowhere cooler to move anything to. Both are fixed before a single thing goes on the grate.

Safety

What you'll need

• Charcoal — lumpwood or briquettes
• A chimney starter (optional)
• Newspaper or natural firelighters
• Long tongs and heatproof gloves
• A lid for the barbecue

Step by step

1. Use a chimney starter if you possibly can.It is a metal cylinder with a grate part way up. Charcoal goes in the top, two or three sheets of scrunched newspaper or a natural firelighter go underneath, and the chimney effect draws air up through the coals. It lights a full load in 15–20 minutes with no lighter fluid and none of the chemical taste that comes with it.
2. Never use petrol or any accelerant.Petrol, meths and white spirit produce vapour that flashes back to the container. This is a burns-unit injury, not a mishap. If you have no chimney, use purpose-made firelighters — the natural wood-wool ones taste of nothing — arranged under a pyramid of charcoal.
3. Choose the fuel deliberately.Lumpwood charcoal lights faster, burns hotter and burns out sooner, and is better for a short, fierce cook. Briquettes light more slowly, burn steadily for far longer at a lower temperature, and are better for anything with the lid on. Do not use instant-light bags for anything you want to taste good.
4. Wait for the ash, not for the flames.Coals with flames licking off them are still burning off volatile compounds that taste harsh. The signal is that the flames have died and most of the surface has gone ash-grey — pale grey in daylight, glowing orange underneath. For a chimney that is roughly 15–25 minutes. Rushing this is the most common single mistake in barbecuing.
5. Bank the coals into two zones.Tip the lit coals into one half of the charcoal grate only, and leave the other half empty. You now have a direct zone over the coals for searing and for thin fast items, and an indirect zone beside it with no coals underneath for finishing thick pieces and for anything with a sugary glaze.
6. Let the grate heat, then clean and oil it.Put the cooking grate on and leave it over the coals for five minutes. Scrub it with a wire or bristle-free brush while hot, then wipe it with a wad of kitchen paper held in tongs and dipped in oil. Food sticks to a cold, dirty grate and releases from a hot, clean, oiled one.
7. Cook in two stages, moving between the zones.Sear on the direct side to get colour, then move across to the indirect side to cook through. For anything thick — chicken pieces, a whole joint, ribs — this is the difference between charred outside and raw inside, and cooked properly. Put the lid on over the indirect side and it behaves like an oven.
8. Control the heat with the vents.The bottom vent controls how much air reaches the coals and therefore the temperature; the top vent controls the draw. More open is hotter. Close them both fully at the end to smother the coals and save what is left for next time.
9. Let the ash cool completely before you touch it.Charcoal ash stays hot for many hours and has set fire to wheelie bins and sheds. Leave it in the closed barbecue overnight, or douse it thoroughly with water and check it is cold before it goes anywhere near a bin.

Tips

• Cook to temperature, not to look. Barbecued chicken in particular chars long before it is cooked through — a probe reading 75°C at the thickest point is the answer.
• Sugary marinades and barbecue sauces burn quickly. Cook the meat plain on the direct side, then brush the glaze on and finish over the indirect side.
• Flare-ups are fat hitting the coals. Move the food to the indirect side and let it die down; do not spray water on it, which throws ash over the food and can crack a ceramic barbecue.
• One chimney of coals gives roughly an hour of useful cooking. For anything longer, add unlit coals to the edge of the lit pile as you go so they light gradually.

Common mistakes

• Spreading the coals in an even layer across the whole grate — There is then nowhere cooler to move food to. Everything cooks at one temperature, which is far too hot for anything thick, and there is no way to recover a piece that is colouring too fast.
• Putting food on while the coals are still flaming — It sears in soot and harsh volatile compounds, and the heat is wildly uneven. Twenty minutes of patience makes a bigger difference to the food than any marinade.

Questions people ask