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Briquettes
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Man and charcoal go back a long way - many tens of thousands of years in fact. The link between man and compressed charcoal briquettes has been somewhat shorter - try the early 1920s. It was around then that Henry Ford Mark 1 decided to recycle the sawdust left over from making Model T body frames as fuel for his forges. As history has so clearly shown - there were no flies on Mr Ford when it came to boosting the bottom line. Before long, excess briquettes were being sold through Ford dealerships to backyard barbeques.
With the kettle barbecue boom of the 1970s and 80s, briquettes started to appear in Australian supermarkets and hardware shops. Some manufacturers have always made a genuine attempt to offer a safe, high quality product and they clearly list the ingredients on the packaging. But others do not and the reason is customers could be turned off to read that they contain an interesting ingredient first used by Henry Ford in his briquettes - dust from coal bins.
When buying briquettes look for a brand that has a high carbon percentage (70% is good) and an 'other' category that is as low as possible (say around 5 %). If they don't list the ingredients and their percentages, they don't deserve your business.
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I'll take 30 pounds of briquettes
if you throw in that tomato red and white Edsel. |
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It's worth the effort to carefully read labels as ingredients such as mineral coal do not do much for the taste or health aspects of food. Neither do adulterants
such as clay or limestone or the various nitrates used to help make
the entire cocktail combust. When these are teamed with fire starters
containing substances such as hydrocarbon solvents, you have the
opportunity to bring a little taste of Chernobyl right into your
own backyard.
You can minimise any health issues by buying products from reputable manufacturers (I use Australian-made Heat Beads© BBQ Fuel when I can't get my hands on pure charcoal). Just make sure you are very patient when you use them. Don't
be tempted to put food on the grilling surface until every briquette
is an even white or grey colour. If you're in a hurry, move them
around with tongs to see that they heat up evenly. Never, ever be
tempted to boot up your fire by using fresh (unheated) briquettes.
When you light the firestarters, particularly
in a kettle barbecue, hold your breath. No, I am not kidding. If
you must breathe in - turn your face as far away as possible from
the barbecue.
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This depressing sight proves
that you pay for clay and other adulterants when you buy briquettes.
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Lump charcoal
If you want to enjoy your 80th birthday in the
nursing home with some of your wits intact and most body bits functioning,
this is the stuff to use. It is completely natural being the solid,
porous remains of hardwood that has been super-heated with a minimum
of oxygen. What is left is mainly carbon (around 90%).
And, because it's natural, it's not as user-friendly
as the briquettes. For a start, it comes in lumps - not identical
smooth-edged little pucks - so it tends to burn faster because of
a greater surface area. For the same reason, it also generates more
heat than briquettes (around twice as much in some instances). A
big advantage is that extra lumps can be added straight to the fire
without the need for pre-heating.
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This is why it's called lump
charcoal. |
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These, of course, are generalisations. I have
had some lump charcoal that has lasted longer than any briquette
and I have used other stuff that has burned so quickly it resulted
in chickens that have been beautifully browned on the outside and
red-bleeding-raw inside. The message is that you have to experiment
a bit with lump charcoal to find out how much to use in your barbecue.
Using chemical firestarters for a lump charcoal
fire defeats the purpose. What you need is a charcoal chimney. These
can be either purchased or home-made and are metal cylinders with
holes punched in the base and sides to create an updraft. Simply
put some newspaper in the bottom, pile on the charcoal, light it
and you are in business. It usually takes just 20 minutes from go
to glow.
In kettle barbecues, the charcoal lumps should
be arranged directly on top of newspaper leaving plenty of room
for air circulation. I roll up newspaper pages and then twist them
into rounds (like doughnuts ) so that there is an air space in the
middle for better combustion.
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An effective charcoal chimney
made from a three litre tin of fruit juice. |
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A tip to remember when you change over from briguettes
to lump charcoal (and I hope you do) is the need to protect the
sides of kettle barbecues from the more intense heat generated.
If you have a painted kettle barbecue, don't worry because it probably
looks a mess anyway. If it is coated with porcelain (as they all
should be), fold a square of aluminium foil into three or four thicknesses
and place it behind each pile of charcoal to reflect the heat away
from the wall (shiny side out).
Another important thing to realize is that lump
charcoal can throw sparks - sometimes lots of them and for quite
a distance. Fight the temptation to grill, roast or slow smoke in
your rayon taffeta ball gown, nylon nightie or lycra cycling pants.
An unfortunate choice of outfit has the potential to drastically
lower your self-immolation (look it up) threshold. Depending on
your age/sex, it could also throw local property values into an
irreversible tailspin.
Click here for the latest Australian bbq news
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Foil helps protect the sides
of kettle barbecues. |
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