Charcoal BBQs & Grills

Charcoal BBQs give your food a distinct smoky taste that is not achievable with other cooking methods. Charcoal BBQs are also easy to clean, just throw the cooled coal away and clean the remaining ash with a simple cloth! Using a charcoal BBQ is also healthy as the food cooked on the barbecue loses its fat, which, in contact with the high temperature of the barbecue, melts and falls off the food.

Choose the charcoal you want and use enough to create a layer on one half of your grill. Longer cooking times usually need lump coal and for quicker cooking times you should use briquettes. Open the lid, vent and bottom vent on your grill to set it up properly. This also helps oxygen reach the coals so they can burn hotter. Season it by removing the grate, cleaning off the debris and coating it lightly with oil before replacing. Then just light the charcoal with your chosen method of a chimney starter, electrical charcoal starter, lighter fluid or just some newspaper and you’re set up ready to go!

Don’t start cooking as soon as your charcoal starts to turn white, as this could lead to meat searing on the outside but not cooking thoroughly. You can start cooking on the charcoal when the coals have turned grey on the outside! From lighting the charcoal, this process should take around 15 minutes.

Check out our blog on BBQ cleaning tips

BBQ ash from your burned down charcoal is essentially wood ash, so yes you can use it on your garden to enrich your soil. Wood ash is a rich natural source of potash, which is a potassium-rich salt that can act as a natural soil enhancer or compost. If your charcoal is made of mostly sawdust and wood, which most products here in the UK tend to be, then it’s perfectly safe and even beneficial to use BBQ charcoal in your garden beds.