Tired of having your charcoal burn out on you right in the middle of cooking important meals? If so, you found the right article. Here I will show you how to keep your charcoal lit for an extended period of time that will allow you to finish cooking your meat.
Buy quality charcoal. As I always say, you get what you pay for. If you buy cheap generic brands of charcoal, it will burn out MUCH faster as well as it will be trickier to light it up in the first place. Do yourself a favor and shell out a few extra bucks to get some charcoal that will help you cook your food the right way.
Start the fire the right way. I used to ALWAYS see my buddies light up the charcoal the wrong way at summer parties. They would always be bummed out when the charcoal didn't last long enough to cook all the meat they needed.
There's one way to light up charcoal right and I want you all to do it that way, to save yourself time and a head ache.
First, pile the charcoal onto the grill in the shape of a pyramid. When doing this, it's important to pack the charcoal as tightly together as possible. Now, cover the charcoal in lighter fluid and DO NOT wait long before you light it up. The longer you wait to light the charcoal, after applying lighter fluid, the quicker you charcoal will burn out.
Keep the charcoal burning. The trick to keep your charcoal burning is really to keep the charcoal as fully exposed to air as possible. The oxygen helps the flame and in turn will make sure you get the maximum duration of life out of your charcoal.
As soon as the edges of the charcoal begin to turn grey, shuffle them around to allow more air to penetrate them. When the air hits the charcoal, it will cause them to heat up allowing you to finish cooking your meal. Do this every few minutes.
Tip
Quality charcoal is really the trick here. Be sure to find good, name brand charcoal you can trust.