If you read the BBQ Rules post and listened to JB’s rant, you’ll remember that one of his major issues was around the use of lighter fluid or self-starting charcoal. I happen to agree completely with him; the quickest way to ruin a meal is to have it smelling and/or tasting like petroleum products. In my opinion, the best way to get your coals hot is with a charcoal chimney starter. Now I’ve heard a lot of folks out there complain about mixed results with these, so I thought I would take this opportunity to provide a huge public service and post instructions on how to get great results consistently. Not to mention save a bunch of money (that ought to get your attention) and improve the overall flavor of the food you cook on your grill or smoker.
Your first step is to get your hands on a good chimney starter. My personal favorite is the Weber Rapidfire Chimney Starter. I’ve got a couple of these, and as you can see from the picture below they get a lot of use. This one is about 4 or 5 years old, and when you consider how much use they get, it was worth forking over an extra $10 for the quality of the product.
You’ll notice that the chimney is sitting on the table of my Weber Performer. That’s right, the model with gas starter. The gas starter I still haven’t used; in fact, I don’t even have a gas canister around to test it. That alone should tell you how I feel about the chimneys. Anyway, on with the instructions…
The next step is to put charcoal in the starter. I do this first as I reuse charcoal from previous cooks, and this allows lose ashes and smaller bits to fall through the bottom and not clog up the airflow. For this example I filled the chimney about half-full of fresh charcoal. TIP: if you are reusing charcoal from a previous cook, put the fresh stuff in first as it improves airflow. You’ll also notice I took it off the table of the Performer; no sense in getting it all dirty or being tempted to melt it down by doing something foolish like lighting the chimney on it…
You can see the leftover charcoal in the picture above. You have two options at this point; put the used charcoal on top of the fresh charcoal in the chimney, or simply use a variation on the Minion Method by firing the chimney and then pouring the lit coals over the old charcoal. If I was using one of the WSMs, I wouldn’t bother lighting any leftover charcoal in the starter. It always works better with fresh charcoal by itself. However, since I was grilling and wanted a hotter fire (not to mention I was hungry and impatient) I went ahead and used option 1.
Now it’s time for the all-important newspaper selection. I used the funnies for this one, but you can use the section of your choice. The key is to use two full sheets of newspaper, no more, and no less. I kid you not. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. More is not better, but what you will use if you don’t follow instructions. For those that aren’t sure what two full sheets of newspaper looks like (or get papers that resemble the National Enquirer) here’s a picture:
The next step is to LOOSELY roll up the newspaper. You will be lighting it on fire soon, not whacking the dog with it. The word is LOOSELY. No extra points are awarded for style here. A tight roll will not burn properly.
The next step is to roll the LOOSELY wrapped newspaper into a doughnut shape. This is not the shape you get into by eating them, but the actual shape of a doughnut. Leave a small hole in the middle, this is important for airflow.
The next step is to stuff the LOOSELY-wrapped, doughnut-shaped paper into the bottom of the chimney. IMPORTANT: make sure that the hole in the center of the “doughnut” is facing so that air can get up into the chimney. This creates a nice place for the heat to rise and get those coals going; if you clog this off you may find yourself getting out more paper and cursing the process, when in fact you should be cursing your inability to follow directions. Here’s a picture; the hole doesn’t show up very well, but believe me when I say it was there in the center someplace…
Next step is to light the paper on fire. Hard to fark this part up; get yourself a lighter or a match and fire up some of that LOOSELY-wrapped paper. You don’t need the towering inferno going, just get a little flame going on the newspaper and set the chimney down to do its thing. IMPORTANT: Please make sure you set the chimney down on the grill or other non-flammable surface. I probably don’t need to tell most of you that, but some folks out there just don’t seem to exhibit a lot of common sense… It’s also a good idea to keep this out of the wind, as that will affect the rising of the heat, not to mention blowing bits of burning newspaper all over the place.
Now it is time to go away for awhile and finish any prep work you have for whatever it is you are cooking. Depending on the amount of charcoal in the chimney, it can take anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes to get a nice flame going on your coals. I always like to check it after 5 minutes; mostly this is habit gained from a time before I figured out the LOOSELY-wrapped doughnut-shaped technique. Prior to this it wasn’t unusual for me to find out that the charcoal hadn’t started because not enough heat was generated by too little oxygen getting through the wads of newspaper stuffed up the arse end of the chimney. But I digress… When you have some nice flames going in the chimney and the charcoal is burning to your satisfaction, pour it into the grill/smoker and start cooking. Here’s an attempt at a picture with the flames coming out; it was a bit too light to see them in the photo; perhaps one of these days I’ll get around to taking a picture after dark and replacing this one.
So there you have it. If you follow these instructions, you can save money on lighter fluid and expensive soaked charcoal, both of which are guaranteed to impart nasty tastes to your food. You can also assure yourself of a high percentage of charcoal starts on the first attempt. I haven’t had a single failure since I started using this method, and I start a lot of coals, so I know it works. Flame on…
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I don’t use mine as much since I don’t need it when using the BGE. But it is still my go to method when using my offset or other grill. You did a great write up!
I’ll stop using mine when they pry it from my cold, … oh, wait, that was the other thread. If I ever break down and buy a BGE I suppose I wouldn’t use it for that, but I’m too cheap to buy a weed-burner and haul around propane tanks everywhere so the chimney is the best option for me.
i know this is like a year after the original article but i have a question. why would you be lighting the chimney starter this way instead of using the igniter built into the Performer grill. i just bought the Performer grill and chimney starter and am just trying to figure out how to use the two together. if you are starting your coals in this way, do you ever have a need for the built in igniter system? thanks!
I use the chimney for other kettles that don’t have the lighter and for my WSMs as well. And the real reason? Too cheap to buy propane for the igniter on the Performer.
Also, I’ve used the igniter on Pigdog’s Performer and I’m less than impressed, especially in windy conditions. What I have found works is to center the chimney right above the igniter flame and leave the igniter on long enough to get the bottom coals started. Then let the chimney take over and do the work from there. When using this method, there’s no need to use newspaper, although I suppose you could just use the igniter to get the paper lit…
wow thanks for the year-later reply. one other question – last night i did the chimney on the performer, no newspaper, and lit my lump charcoal. there was a lot of sparking from the lump charcoal. is this normal? just like some popping and embers shooting up. didn’t feel safe to be honest so even though they didn’t all seem to be lit, i dumped them into the grill before they seemed ready. is it an issue using lump charcoal with a chimney starter? do you prefer briquettes or lump? i’m very excited about this grill but i clearly am learning from nothing. thanks again for your reply.
It’s not unusual for lump charcoal to throw of sparks when hit with a flame like that. I’ve used a MAPP torch to light lump in Bubba Ho-Keg and have even seen it in a chimney when using mesquite lump.
I normally use briquettes in the Webers and lump in Bubba Ho-Keg, but have been known to use lump in the WSMs and once in awhile in the kettles. FWIW, I’ve stopped buying blue bag Kingsford and switched to the competition briquettes, if for no other reason than better burn times, less ash, and they can be used in Bubba Ho-Keg in a pinch.
I’ve been using the Performer igniter with lump in the paired Weber baskets that came with the grill. I’m not satisfied. The coals don’t fire evenly and I don’t feel that two baskets of coals is enough for direct cooking. I believe the chimney starter will fire the coals better. I’m wondering if they hold more coals than the two baskets combined. Any ideas?
I had similar complaints with briquettes using the paired Weber baskets in the Performer. I don’t recall ever using the chimney starter in conjunction with the igniter, but if I recall a single chimney of briquettes will just about fill the two baskets. I never used lump with the baskets, and I would imagine that the size of the lump might have some impact on how it fit in the baskets.
I would assume that the igniter would work with a chimney as long as the wind isn’t too bad and you center it directly over the flame; I’ve used other flame sources than paper before and had great success.