Toss aside that squirt bottle of lighter fluid, my friend, you don’t need it any more. That slight tang of gasoline your 10 oz. filet once had? It’s a thing of the past. And no longer do you have to smell chemicals while you grill. No, the chimney starter has solved that problem once and for all. The best thing about a chimney starter, other than the lack of a chemical additive to my food, is that it takes as little time, or less, to get the coals ready than it did with lighter fluid. You disbelieve? Well, read on my friend. One other thing: You’ll have to buy cooler tools to accessorize with (wink-wink).

For someone who’s never seen one before, a charcoal chimney (There’s plenty of ‘em, take your pick) can be slightly intimidating. Er, I mean, confusing. Yeah. You look at it, with its simple instructions that might be a little too simple, and you wonder. So you shrug and go buy some more lighter fluid. Well, here’s the answer you’ve been looking for, and you’ll swear by it from now on. If I could make that a guarantee, I would. These directions are simple, but not too simple. They’re just a little more than what you get on the product packaging:

1. Wad up two full sheets of newspaper loosely. Three sheets is too much, one sheet is too few. Two sheets is just right.
2. Flip the chimney over so the shallow end is facing up.
3. Stuff the wadded newspaper into the shallow end.
   

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4. Flip the chimney back over so the deep end is facing up. Make sure you place the chimney inside your grill, or at least on something non-flammable. Seriously.
5. Put in some charcoal (And ONLY Kingsford–By GOD). Some people fill it level to the rim, some pile it high, and some just put in a smattering. Try a few different ways and see how you like it best. I like mine near the rim, but not all the way up.
6. Put fire to it. If you wadded the newspaper too tightly the fire won’t stay lit. You have to wad it loosely.
7. If the smoke lasts for longer than about 90 seconds, you’re in business. You can go do some food prep for about 10 to 12 minutes while your coals are ripening.
8. You’ll know when the coals are ready. In daylight they’ll be ashy white and frikkin HOT. At night they’ll be glowing like little red lava balls, and will also be frikkin HOT. Once they get to that stage, put on your welding glove (told you you’d need some cool new tools!) and dump the charcoal into your grill.
9. At this point, you need to determine how much charcoal you need for the job. Likely, you’ll need more than is now ready, especially if you’re cooking beef or a thick chicken breast. No problem, just add some more charcoal, stir it up with your charcoal stirrer (a small hoe works perfectly) and give the heat a few more minutes to spread.
10. When is the fire ready? Well, use this scale: Put your bare hand about four inches above the grill’s grate and start counting using the “Mississippi Method” until the heat becomes so intense that you have to remove it or it’ll start cooking:

• A HOT fire will force you to move your hand in two to three Mississippis.
• A medium-hot fire is four to five Mississippis.
• Medium is six to eight.
• Low is anything nine and up.

A good tip at this point is to go ahead and put your grate on and clean it with your wire brush. The grate will be heating up so you’ll get those nice grill lines in your food.

Tip: Take that old bottle of lighter fluid, burn off the remainder of the fluid, wash out the bottle (really well) and recycle it as your grill-side water bottle to handle flare ups.

Now, you’re ready to grill.

Top image by Sarah Serendipity. Bottom image by Matt Mitchell.