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I must admit I used to prefer charcoal chips to briquettes.
First chips smell right and they burn to a light ash. However, many bags have large and small pieces. Some bags I bought had large twigs others had very small chunks. The worst ones had a couple of inches of dust at the bottom. Different size chunks burn at different rates giving uneven heat. I found that I wasted less with smaller bags but then they cost more.
Briquettes are even in size and therefore burn at much the same rate. The thing I don’t like though is the filler which clogs the grate and stops the airflow. On BBQs with space beneath the charcoal grate the dust is not a problem but on cheaper models the briquettes can choke themselves out.
Not all briquettes are the same. You get what you pay for. The cheap ones produce more powder, burn quicker and give off less heat.The best I have found are Australian Heat Beads. It makes sense when you realise how much the Australians love barbecueing that the best fuel is made there.
Lighting the charcoal used to be a problem. I tried the fluids but they either dry up before the charcoal lights or flare up in a dangerous way. I tried rolled up newspaper but that doesn’t really burn long enough. Ordinary firelighters taint the charcoal with a parrafin odour which if you are not careful gets onto the food. Special BBQ lighters don’t have a parrafin base.
I used to put a couple of BBQ firelighters on the grate and pile the charcoal over them. This usually worked but when if didn’t I had to wait until evrything had died down to start again. One thing which I did find - firelighters don’t store well. After a year they will either not burn or will not last very long.
When I had my Meco I bought a Swedish electric BBQ lighter which worked great. It cost £5 on sale. Once I had used it I went back to Ikea to buy another in case the first burnt out but unfortunately they had all sold out. Not a surprise really at £5 each!
I then found the chimney starter. This really is a foolproof way of lighting charcoal. Basically you fill it with charcoal, light a couple of lighter cubes underneath and leave it for ten minutes or so. Once all the charcoal is burning tip it out onto the charcoal grate. You will need a mitt to do this. Buy a long one to reach up your arm.
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