Fruit charcoal? Bamboo charcoal? Mechanism charcoal? The most comprehensive barbecue charcoal explanation by FeatonCharcoal.
As a senior barbecue manufacture and a practitioner in the barbecue leisure industry, I would like to share with you some practical techniques for selecting barbecue charcoal, tips for quickly ordering charcoal, controlling the firepower of barbecue charcoal, tips for cleaning barbecue charcoal, I hope it can bring you some help.
Part I Barbecue Charcoal Classification and Selection
At present, the common barbecue charcoal fuels on the market can be divided into four categories: natural trees, log charcoal, machine-made charcoal, and natural granular charcoal. These four fuels are slightly different in composition, production methods, burning time, burning heat, and burning time.
1. Natural trees
Natural trees are the most original and longest-inherited barbecue fuel. They are often various fruit trees, such as apple wood, pear trees, jujube trees, lychee trees, etc. After the trees are directly felled, they are sawn into sections and then split into appropriate sizes. Let it dry and use it directly when grilling. It is mostly found in the secret roasting workshops handed down by the people, such as the old workshops of traditional food such as roast duck, roast suckling pig, and roast whole lamb.
Features of natural trees: original ecology, original taste, suitable for barbecue food with special flavor; but raw materials are scarce, the use environment is relatively limited and inflexible, and the open fire is smoky, easy to jump sparks, and the burning fire is difficult to control during barbecue, so it is not suitable Common household use.
2. Log charcoal
Log charcoal is a barbecue fuel made by processing logs after felling, including various hardwoods, fruit trees, miscellaneous woods, etc. This kind of fuel is currently the closest to the original ecological and practical barbecue charcoal. Its shape mostly retains the shape of the branches of the log itself, and it is easy to ignite. When grilling, it emits a smell of firewood from childhood memories. The barbecue family has apple raw charcoal. It is distilled and extracted wood tar and other harmful substances. It is safe and healthy, and it is very suitable for barbecue charcoal for household barbecues.
Features of log charcoal: second only to natural trees, original ecology, original taste, no smoke, lack of resources, easy to ignite, but the burning time is slightly shorter than machine-made charcoal.
3. Mechanism charcoal
Now when you play barbecue, you basically use machine-made charcoal. There are two common types: long and spherical. Charcoal will be denser during the pressing process, which is why it is not easy to ignite.
Mechanism charcoal has a wide range of raw materials, such as rice husks, cotton husks, corncobs, corn stalks, sorghum stalks, bean stalks and other woody debris; when used for barbecue, bamboo chips, rice husks, coconut shells and other machine-made charcoal are the best. Spherical machine-made charcoal is the most combustible and resistant to burning.
Features of machine-made charcoal: high density, high calorific value, no sparks, relatively difficult to ignite (it is recommended to be ignited with igniter wax), long burning time, very convenient for commercial use and household use.
At present, the quality of machine-made charcoal in the market is uneven, so you should be cautious when choosing. Some unscrupulous merchants will add some leaves, plastic products and other sundries to the scraps to reduce costs. This kind of charcoal will have some peculiar smell when it is burned. Health is also harmful. It is impossible to directly judge the material of machine-made charcoal, and we can only avoid some low-quality charcoal from the price point of view, so when buying charcoal, you should not be greedy for cheap, and try to choose barbecue machine-made charcoal from regular brands.
3. Natural granular carbon
Natural granular charcoal is a new type of barbecue fuel. European and American countries are now more enthusiastic. It is a kind of barbecue fuel that mixes various natural wood chips in a certain proportion according to needs, and then presses them into small particles; different mixing methods, It can produce different aromas when it is burned; it is mostly used for smoking and roasting in ovens, with intelligent feeding, time controllable, and the roasted ingredients are particularly delicious.
Granular charcoal features: unique fragrance, large smoke, suitable for smoking and roasting, and need to be used with professional smoking and roasting stoves.
Of course, there is also a thing called steel charcoal or white charcoal or hard charcoal that you may have heard of. The so-called steel charcoal is hard coke smoldered with large charcoal (harder than bituminous coal and yellow coal). The sound of the collision of the finished products and the metal collision.
The sound is similar, so it is called steel charcoal. Because of its high combustion value and high burning temperature, it is generally used for steelmaking or other industrial production, and it has a sulfurous smell when it burns, and generally the charcoal purchased from regular channels at normal prices will not be steel charcoal.
The part II: the lighting technique of barbecue charcoal.
Choosing the barbecue charcoal that suits you is only the first step before grilling. How to light the barbecue charcoal quickly and easily is also very knowledgable. Currently commonly used barbecue charcoal ignition auxiliary equipment includes a flamethrower, ignition wax/solid alcohol, and ignition barrel.
1. The flamethrower is the most direct method of pointing charcoal. The snap-on gas tank flamethrower is very common in outdoor and daily life. When grilling, especially when machine-made charcoal is used for grilling, you can directly arrange the charcoal in a pyramid, pay attention to the gap between each other and the smooth ventilation, and then use a flame gun to spray fire at the gap between the charcoal at a 45-degree angle, pay attention to spraying. The fire nozzle of the musket should be kept at a distance of about 15 cm from the charcoal, so as not to burn out the flame nozzle due to high temperature tempering.
2. Commonly used ignition media are ignition wax and solid alcohol. Solid alcohol does not need to be explained. Ignition wax is an ignition material made of artificial mineral oil. Personally, I prefer to use ignition wax because I always feel Alcohol has a strange smell, and the pilot wax has higher heat and long-lasting firepower, so it is easy to light charcoal without worry.
Let me share with you the specific steps I use to light charcoal with ignited wax:
a. Put the charcoal in a pyramid shape on the charcoal net, pay attention to keep ventilation, and then take an appropriate amount (usually 5-6 packs are enough) to ignite the wax and stuff it in the gap of the charcoal pile.
B. Ignite the pilot wax, and the flame after the pilot wax burns can drive the burning of surrounding charcoal.
C. Add other carbon blocks around the burned carbon blocks to ignite together.
D. About 10 minutes, the charcoal is fully ignited and you can start grilling.
3. The fire bucket is a must-have charcoal lighting equipment for foreigners. It is a cylindrical bucket with particularly good ventilation. The bottom and surroundings are mostly hollowed out. Especially for lighting spherical charcoal, it is a very wise choice to use the fire bucket.
Pilot wax and fire bucket are a great combination of ignition equipment. Let me share with you the specific steps of use:
A. Take an appropriate amount (usually 5-6 packs) to ignite the wax into a small pile and ignite it
B. Put the charcoal in the kindling bucket, pay attention to keep the ventilation, and then put the kindling bucket containing charcoal on the small pile of burning igniting wax
C. The flame after burning the pilot wax can drive the burning of the charcoal in the fire bucket
D. About 10 minutes or so, the charcoal is fully ignited. Pour over the charcoal grid and you are ready to grill.
PS: If it is a long strip of charcoal, you don’t need to ignite it with a fire bucket. You can directly pile the charcoal into a hollow trapezoid at the bottom, and then stuff a few packs of igniting wax to ignite it.
In addition, in addition to being used as an auxiliary tool for lighting and burning charcoal, the fire bucket can be used as a stove directly by finding some dry branches as energy in an outdoor environment. It can also be used for cooking noodles and boiling water for tea, and it can even be used with pots It is a very practical outdoor equipment for cooking, etc. You can keep one in the trunk of your car just in case you need it.
Part III BBQ Charcoal Fire Power Control
When grilling with a charcoal grill, it is difficult to control the temperature of the charcoal fire. How to strike a balance between high-temperature direct heating and medium-temperature indirect heating directly affects the delicious taste of barbecue. The following ways to control the charcoal fire may help you!
1. Slope heating method
This heating method can provide a larger heating area. The specific method is to pile up charcoal on one side of the charcoal basin and leave the other side empty, and stack the charcoal on a slope in the middle transition.
2. Semi-area heating method
This is great when you want direct grilling at high heat but need a safe grilling area to prevent overheating. You can fill half of the bottom of the charcoal basin with charcoal and leave the other half empty.
3. Canyon heating method
This is one of the favorite grilling methods of many grilling masters abroad. Pile charcoal on both sides of the charcoal basin for direct high-temperature grilling, and the middle low-temperature area for indirect grilling to ensure that your barbecue is evenly heated.
4. Island heating method
Place a small pile of charcoal in the corner of the stove to create a charcoal island, cover and let it heat up. This method is very suitable for long-term low-temperature and slow-roasting of large pieces of meat, and it is also very suitable for smoking and roasting meat in an ordinary oven, but it is best not to use this method to directly grill.
The above method of controlling the temperature by placing barbecue charcoal, the content source refers to the book “Grilled Food Generation”.
Part 4 Cleaning of BBQ Charcoal
When the barbecue is over, the charcoal needs to be handled carefully. Don’t think that the charcoal basin is dirty anyway. You need to use it every time, so just leave the charcoal in it. The charcoal ash contains moisture. If you don’t clean it in time, the charcoal basin is easy to rust. When there is plenty of time, wait for the charcoal to cool naturally before cleaning. If time is tight, wrap the charcoal in aluminum foil and let it cool in water before tossing it in the trash. Remember not to pour water directly into the charcoal basin, such a charcoal basin will become useless after several times of use.
