Charcoal grilling can be intimidating. You don’t have knobs to immediately adjust the flame, there’s no ignition button to magically start your fire, and unlike universally consistent propane, every charcoal burns differently. While these compounding variables might sound like a flame-induced headache, with a bit of fundamental charcoal knowledge you can grow to embrace—and eventually leverage—these irregularities to become a much better griller. Let’s bring you up to speed.
Charcoal Briquettes
These are what’s inside that big Kingsford bag at your grocery store. Made by compressing bits of wood, sawdust, and additives into uniform nuggets, briquettes are often the cheapest and most accessible form of charcoal. Because they’re densely packed and identical in size and material, briquettes are known to burn longer and more consistently than other charcoal. However, there are drawbacks: Briquettes produce a lot of ash, burn comparatively less hot, and the additives can impart a chemical flavor onto your food.
