How to Light A Grill with Step-By Step Instructions and Tips
So let’s start at the beginning… How do I light the fire ?
Here is an easy step-by-step guide for both Gas and Charcoal grills.
There are four basic steps to light a gas grill:
1. Open the lid. Check that all burner control knobs are turned to off and that your Liquid Propane (LP) tank is not empty.
2. Turn the LP Gas tank on.
3. Generally, when lighting a gas grill, only one burner should be turned on for ignition. Once the fire has begun, other burners can be turned on and the already lit burner will light the other burners.
4. Close the lid and preheat until the thermometer reaches 500°-550°F or higher. This will take 10 to 15 minutes. Before cooking, adjust burner controls as recipe directs.
Note: It’s important to keep your grill clean. You should brush the grill grates twice a cookout: once after you preheat the grill with all burners on high to remove anything that was stuck-on from the last cook, and then after you take the food off the grill. One of the reasons that you preheat the grill with all the burners on high is to burn off anything that was left from the previous cook. Here is a complete guide to cleaning your grill and smoker. And, I am partial to this grill brush.
How do I light the Fire if I am using Charcoal?
Use a chimney starter and either a tasteless, odorless and non-toxic paraffin firestarter or a crumpled sheet of newspaper. Never use gasoline and other highly volatile fluid to ignite charcoal. If you use lighter fluid, never add it to hot or even slightly warm coals and beware that the lighter fluid will flavor your food if you don’t burn it off entirely—I am not a fan of lighter fluid!
Can I start grilling as soon as I see flames?
Do not cook on the charcoal when you can still see flames. Charcoal briquets take 25-30 minutes to reach their desired temperature. You know that the charcoal is ready to cook on when it is covered with a white-gray ash and glowing red under the ash. And that “hand over the charcoal thing while saying Mississippi” doesn’t work to gauge the heat of the fire. Everyone has a different heat tolerance and it’s not a good indicator of heat.
My charcoal was fired up and when I put the lid on the grill, the fire went out. What did I do wrong?
This is one of the biggest mistakes. You most likely choked the fire or cut off the air supply. Air vents should be opened before lighting briquets and left open while grilling. This is actually how you regulate the heat on a charcoal grill. The more open the vents, the more the oxygen, and the fire feeds off oxygen. For the hottest fire, open the top and bottom vents all the way. For a cooler fire, open them halfway and to extinguish the fire, close the vents. No oxygen = no fire!
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Copyright 2023 Elizabeth Karmel