Alton Brown's Hack For Lighting Your Charcoal Grill Faster

Whether you're barbecuing or grilling, if you are the one wielding the tongs and controlling the flame at a backyard cookout, you have a big responsibility on your hands. After all, everyone's hot dogs, corn on the cob, and baby back ribs depend on you getting the charcoal lit in a timely manner. But, before anyone loses their patience, Alton Brown has a tip to pull it all off quickly.

Like many home cooks, Brown uses a charcoal chimney starter — but he has one big hack to upgrade the process: adding some cooking oil to the kindling. The issue with these metal cylindrical devices is that, although the charcoal is able to light and burn down to a usable stage pretty quickly, you have to actually get the coals lit first. And while a wad of newspaper in the bottom chamber is the go-to kindling, it has a tendency to burn out in a matter of seconds, which does not allow enough time for the charcoal to ignite.

To solve this problem, all you have to do is drizzle any kind of cooking oil onto the newspaper before crumbling it up. Doing so transforms the paper into a sort of makeshift "oil lamp," as Brown says in a video posted on his Instagram. The oil soaks into the newspaper, which makes it behave like a candle wick. With the slower burn encouraged by this hack, your charcoal will actually have enough time to catch on fire.

Newspaper works well as kindling simply because it's cheap and many people have some on hand already, but other paper products can definitely take its place, if needed. Brown paper grocery bags, packing paper, paper towels, cardboard egg cartons, junk mail, pieces of a cardboard box, or strips of a charcoal bag will all do the trick. Really, all you need is a paper product that will absorb oil. Just keep an eye out for any stray tape or plastic pieces on the paper that can create potentially hazardous fumes when burned. 

After you fill the chimney with charcoal, put your oil-drizzled newspaper or other choice of paper product in the bottom compartment. After you place the whole setup on top of the grates of your grill or another fireproof surface, you'll want to use a torch lighter or extra-long matches to light the paper in a few places to ignite the charcoal. You'll know it's ready when the coals begin to glow, and they are covered in a layer of ash — this takes about 15 minutes. Carefully tip the hot coals out into the grill using heatproof gloves, and spread them out with tongs or a spatula to get cooking!

To grill like a pro, Alton Brown suggests creating hotter and cooler areas on your grill. It sounds complicated, but this is actually super simple to do. Once you have lit your coals using his helpful hack, just pile them up on one side of the grill before putting the grate back on. With the hot coals on only half the surface, you'll be able to sear meats and veggies off on one side or cook them more gently over indirect heat on the other. 

You can use this setup to cook some of Brown's favorites like smoked bone marrow, chili and cocoa powder-rubbed whole chickens, dried cherry and cornbread stuff pork chops, or sumac-spiced squid. For dessert, he's a fan of grilling honey and bourbon glazed fruits like peaches, mangoes, bananas, papayas, and pineapples. 

No matter what you cook, you absolutely cannot skip cleaning the grill after, according to Brown. The best time to do this is after you just cooked, so heatproof gloves are a good idea to avoid burns. Brown recommends scrubbing the grates with a pumice stone followed by a grill brush, or you can also clean your grill grates with an onion. 

Before you fire up the grill for your next cookout, make sure to give the grates a pass with a lightly oiled kitchen towel. Cleaning your grill well is not just about getting rid of anything that might convey sooty flavors, it also helps with consistent heat transfer so that your food cooks evenly.