Charcoal Grilling Techniques

Grilling your food over a braai or barbecue seems quite easy and people have been doing it for centuries. There are certain techniques to grilling your food when you use charcoal, whether or not you use charcoal or gas there will always be a better or rather specific ways to cook a tasty meal. In the case of charcoal you need to know that there are intricate ways of preparing and using your charcoal.

The way you stack you charcoal does make a difference believe it or not. It requires more than just dumping your charcoal in your grill. To start off with, stack your charcoal around the perimeter of the grill leave a space open in the middle. Place a tin foil pan in that open space in the middle to be able to catch the grease and fat from the meat. This makes it so much easier to clean your grill. You should then light your fire, avoiding the use of lighter liquid as this can make the taste different and can also be dangerous. To get your fire going use fire lighters instead.

Another tip would be to add the smoky effect. The reason why most people braai with charcoal is because people love the taste of smoky meat. To get this effect you can add dry wood chips over your charcoal once the charcoal has turned gray after the flames have subsided. This technique is like adding salt to a stew, you have to start off small then add as you feel needed. You may want more smoke so you should add more chips. You should add the chips as you cook not before you have placed the meat on the grill.

The main technique you should remember when cooking with charcoal is that charcoal will burn and produce fire. Cooking over a fire is not the best thing; you should start cooking once the flames have subsided. The main reason why something burns is because it feeds on oxygen the less oxygen it has the less it’ll create fire. Therefore you should place a lid on the griller once you have the food on the grill. You should lift the lid to turn the meat but try avoiding this as much as possible as the charcoal will then receive oxygen which will heat the meat up too quickly.    

Charcoal can create a wonderful grill and your food will gain delicious flavor. Always remember that all people have different tastes and will therefore prefer different flavours. You should experiment as much as you like, by doing this you will have the best taste for best suited for you.