Mastering the Grill_ The Owner's Manual for Outdoor Cooking - Andrew Schloss [16]
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CHIMNEY STARTER. Resembling a big, perforated coffee can, a chimney starter makes charcoal grilling incredibly easy without the need to resort to lighter fluid. The starter allows the coals to ignite quickly (15 to 20 minutes) due to the upward draft of oxygen. See page 32 for directions on how to use a chimney starter.
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PARAFFIN LIGHTER CUBES. Resembling white ice cubes or big white dice with no dots, these fire starters can be used instead of paper to light a wood fire, pyramid of coals, or chimney starter full of coals. They leave no aftertaste.
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SAWDUST STARTER. Like paraffin cubes, compressed blocks of sawdust make convenient fire starters for wood and charcoal fires. They look somewhat like small blocks of particle board.
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ELECTRIC COAL STARTER. Plug this fire starter into an outlet (with an extension cord if necessary), and then plunge it into the center of a mound of coals. The electric heating coil will ignite the coals in about the same time it takes to use a chimney starter.
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HEAT DIFFUSER. These don’t ignite a fire, but they do spread out the heat and reduce hot and cold spots so that food cooks more evenly. Heat diffusers are used mostly in gas grills above the burner tubes, and they typically come in the form of lava stones, ceramic briquettes, or metal bars. Ceramic briquettes are available with small bits of wood infused into the ceramic to impart a wood smoke flavor to foods cooked on a gas grill.
Chapter 2
Mastering Your Technique
A. MASTERING FIRE
01. STARTING A WOOD FIRE
02. STARTING A CHARCOAL FIRE
03. HOW TO MAINTAIN A LIVE FIRE
B. THE SCIENCE OF HEAT TRANSFERENCE
01. CONDUCTION
02. CONVECTION
03. RADIANT HEAT
C. MASTERING GRILLING TECHNIQUES
01. DIRECT GRILLING
02. INDIRECT GRILLING
03. ROTISSERIE GRILLING
04. ADDING SMOKE
05. BARBECUING
06. COOKING IN THE COALS
07. WRAPPING
08. COOKING ON A PLANK
D. MASTERING TEMPERATURE
01. JUDGING MEAT DONENESS
02. JUDGING PRODUCE DONENESS
03. JUDGING DOUGHS’ DONENESS
04. RESTING
A. Mastering Fire
Fire is raw energy that results when oxygen unites rapidly with another substance. Usually, oxygen bonds with materials so slowly that combustion doesn’t occur. For instance, when oxygen unites with iron, you get rust (no flames there). But when the same union occurs with gasoline or another petroleum distillate, fire and intense heat are given off. Anything with the potential of bonding rapidly with oxygen in this way is called fuel.
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In order for combustion to take place, three things have to be present: fuel, an ignition source, and plenty of oxygen. In a gas grill, these elements are mostly automated and controlled by the fuel knobs or valves, an electric igniter, and a regulated mixture of fuel and oxygen. Lift the lid, open the valves, and push the igniter button (or insert a flame into the match hole), and a gas grill will light instantly.
In a charcoal grill, on the other hand, the essential elements are less regulated. The fuel is often some form of wood: paper, sawdust, twigs, branches, logs, or charred wood (charcoal). Depending on the form of the wood, the amount of energy required from the ignition source to reach the fuel’s ignition temperature varies. In order for a fuel to ignite, its molecules must be moving fast enough to pass into a gaseous phase, so the easier it is to turn a solid fuel source into a gas, the less energy it takes to start a fire.
Paper (wood pulp) takes very little energy to flame; a match will do the trick. Sawdust (ground wood) needs a little more energy; a match still works, but it must be held against the wood longer for combustion to take place. Solid wood is harder still to combust, although smaller pieces require less energy than thicker ones. All of this explains why a wood fire that will last long enough to cook food must happen in stages. The first stage is paper or dry leaves, which ignite easily and spend themselves quickly. They are best used as tinder to create enough energy to ignite second-stage kindling (small twigs,