The fastest and easiest way I've found to start a charcoal chimney

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Originally published at: The fastest and easiest way I've found to start a charcoal chimney | Boing Boing

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That brings me back. Watching the 90s video files from his 90s website on my 90s (dial up) internet access.

https://web.archive.org/web/19970613224345/http://ghg.ecn.purdue.edu/

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This adds so much to the man, the myth, the legend of GHG!!!

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I am so glad you were responsible & accurate & posted the REAL fastest way to light a charcoal grill. And it cooks the grill in the process.

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Waxy sawdust fire starter sticks work just fine. No excess smoke. No ash flakes. Fast and water resistant in shower conditions.

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I’m waiting for someone to invent a laser system to ignite charcoal BBQs, like someone has used a 2Kw laser to make coffee.

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idk some paper works fine for me. Maybe it takes 20 minutes instead of 5 but I got stuff I need to do in the mean time, so nbd.

I do think one chimney is not always enough for a 20" weber kettle if you want a white hot grill, so I sometimes do 1 and a half or two.

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You could also plan to light the coals about 5 or 10 minutes earlier, then continue to use wadded up newspaper. It will still get the charcoal ready when you need it.

Honestly, not everything on the planet needs to be instant. If the five extra minutes is too boring, use the time to mise en place. Prep the ingredients. Marinate the meat a bit longer. Sharpen your knife. Or open up the grill app on your phone and fiddle with the WiFi temperature probes, which seems to be how I manage to waste time waiting for the charcoal to glow.

And for the love of friends and family, keep the butane far away from the chimney! One little mistake and that bottle will either fire off like a missile to hell, possibly burning and/or injuring someone; or blow up sending broken bits of metal shrapnel and flaming coals in every direction.

(Voice of experience here — I once used my neck to stop a spray paint can’s plastic cap when a can hiding in a trash fire decided it wanted to be free. Sucker shot out of the flames and crossed the 20 feet to me just as I saw the explosion. I got very lucky that day that the ersatz napalm didn’t hit my face.)

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Note that if you do go the liquid oxygen route, follow the video and pour it onto an ignition source. If you soak the charcoal in oxygen and then light it, it can detonate rather than burn.

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Yep to rusty_brooks and jaded. Personally I use starter cubes as the paper method sometimes doesn’t do the job but I’m not opposed to paper. (Cue angry attacks about paper.) I use the 20 or so minutes to do other stuff. Like sit and enjoy an adult beverage,

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Paper here. Not afraid of ink - I do enough other things to poison my body that a little ink won’t even register. 'tis true though - the chimney is magic. No lighter fluid shall ever foul our household…

Not mentioned in these chimney threads is what an awesome heat source that little jet engine is before you empty it. Perfect for searing some tender steak or tuna, and if you dare, it’s a decent wok source. (yes that’s unstable and dangerous) I even notched mine on the top to let the flames out. Until I went overboard with some >100kBTU burner this was our go-to for wok-cooking.

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Briquettes in the chimney, any fire lighter underneath. If I need to speed things up I get the garden blower out for a few seconds.

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Hi you all do realize that you can purchase an electric starter in lowes, etc, that’s just a big nichrome loop that you stick in the charcoal, plug in & walk away for 5 or 10 minutes right? It works wonderfully….
Have a great & safe holiday.

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If you’re into smoking briskets, then save the used butcher paper for later. Being soaked in beef tallow, it makes the best fire starter ever. That’s something that I’ve known about my whole life, but I guess a lot of people don’t? Jeremy Yoder spells it out here: My Top 10 Barbecue Essentials | Mad Scientist BBQ - YouTube (start at 14:44 in case the link doesn’t work properly).

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I once went to a furniture design event where a designer described his thought process for creating a chair. He literally said, “I had a platform on which you could sit, but you had no place to put your arms, so I designed supports on either side of the chair where you could comfortably rest your arms. I also designed extensions from the platform that would hold it at a comfortable distance from the ground.”

He said this with total seriousness. Nobody in the audience reacted. He was describing a chair’s arms and legs as if they hadn’t already existed for thousands of years! And using a lot of words to do it.

As I read through this article, all I could think of was that chair designer. So many words for something so simple. But I suppose someday there will no longer be newspapers to burn, so maybe we should take this seriously.

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I’ve been considering getting the Sunday NYTimes delivered just so we can light our outside fireplace. But for now we just use discarded boxes from all our deliveries.

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Or save the paper towels you use to wipe out your cast iron skillet grease. Works a treat.

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Dude. One single piece of paper towel, newsprint, or piece of paper bag (or hell the bag the charcoal comes in), and a tablespoon or two of cooking oil, and you’re done. No need to over engineer it, the chimney does most of the work.

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Yes, the chimney is the technology. But let the guy have his fun.

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if only he had titled it ‘a fun way to use a charcoal chimney’, instead of ‘the fastest and easiest’…

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