How to Cook on a Charcoal Grill

We’ve tested gas grills at Consumer Reports for decades, and we find huge differences in heating patterns, pre-heat times, and the level of control they provide when cooking. We haven't tested charcoal grills as regularly, and each time we do, it confirms our long-held belief that the results are largely dependent on the skill of the user, who has to be ready to adjust dampers, monitor cooking temperatures, and handle coals to get outstanding results.

Despite all the oversight, charcoal grill enthusiasts think it's well worth the effort. “Smoke is a byproduct of combustion, and the smoke from burning gas and charcoal are different," says Craig "Meathead" Goldwyn, a celebrated grilling expert and judge on the professional barbecue circuit, on his website, Amazingribs.com. "Charcoal makes more smoke than gas, with a broader range of tasty flavor molecules, because it's burning complex organic molecules.” In other words, the smoke from charcoal makes food taste better.

Here's a step-by-step guide to how to cook on a charcoal grill. Try it and see if you can taste the difference.

The Charcoal
Choose the right coals. Novice grillers should start with charcoal briquettes. In our tests, they heat more evenly than irregularly shaped lump charcoal. Seasoned grillers can give lump hardwood charcoal a try. It burns slightly hotter, which makes it a good choice for searing.

How much to use. One charcoal chimney’s worth, give or take. Charcoal starter chimneys hold about 3 pounds of coal, a good amount for most grills 16 to 26 inches across. If you want to be precise, check to see if your grill has a maximum fill line—otherwise, consult the manual.

How to light the charcoal. Fill the chimney to the top and rest it on a level, heatproof surface, like an asphalt driveway—or directly on the grates of your grill. Place a single, natural fire starter under the chimney—crumpled newspaper will suffice—and light the starter with a long match or electronic igniter. Allow the starter to ignite the coals and let the flames travel to the top of the chimney, burning until all the coals are lit and slightly ashed over, a process that takes about 20 minutes.

Controlling the Heat
How to arrange the coals. For foods that cook quickly without much risk of burning, like hot dogs, burger patties, and cut-up veggies, dump the coals in the center of the grill and distribute them evenly across the grill’s lower grate.

For foods that require a hot sear, like a steak, or that take a long time to cook through, like a bone-in chicken breast, you’ll want to build a two-zone fire. Arrange all the lit coals on one half of the grill’s lower grate. That creates a searing surface over the side with coals, and an indirect cooking area on the side without. With either method, add coals continuously every 30 to 60 minutes to roughly maintain the quantity that you started with.

When to close the lid. There’s no hard and fast rule about when to use the lid, so you’ll need to take clues from what you’re cooking. Generally, most foods that cook quickly, over a single-zone fire, can be cooked without the lid in place. You’ll want the lid for foods that take longer to cook because it helps trap hot air, producing indirect convection heat, which cooks foods through without scorching the surface from direct contact with flames.

Adjusting the dampers. Most charcoal grills have two sets of dampers, one near the bottom and the other on top of the lid. Both can be opened or closed, as needed, to control the flow of air through the grill and, in turn, the heat inside. Opening the dampers makes the coals burn hotter, and closing them does the opposite.

Grilling and Smoking
Monitoring the temperature. When grilling, there are two temperatures worth tracking: The internal temperature of your grill and the internal temperature of your food. For food, we recommend an instant read digital thermometer, like the Polder Stable Read THM-379, $18.

For monitoring the temperature of your grill, you can use any leave-in digital meat thermometer. Just make sure to choose one like the Oregon Scientific Wireless BBQ/Oven AQ131 Meat Thermometer, $40, which has a braided steel sleeve over its wires, designed to prevent crimping or melting where it touches the hot surfaces of the grill. Position the probe on the grates, without the tip touching metal, so that it measures the temperature at the cooking surface.
Adding smoke. Pros of the barbecue circuit use smoke the way chefs use salt—to develop deeper flavor profiles of whatever they're cooking without overwhelming the senses. Whole muscle cuts of meat, like pork ribs or lamb shoulder, tend to take smoke best. To get that smokey flavor, use one to two handfuls of wood chips for every chimney of charcoal.

We won't weigh in on what wood varieties to try—it's purely a matter of preference learned best through trial and error—but whatever you choose, soak the chips for 20 minutes in water to help them burn slowly and minimize flare-ups. Don't add the chips until you add your food. Meat is best able to absorb smoke flavor in the first few minutes of cooking, so you don't want chips to burn away before they've worked their magic.

Getting Rid of the Coals
When you're done with the grill, close the lid and shut both sets of dampers. That will tamp down or extinguish the coals. Anything unburned can be transferred to a metal can and saved for future use.

To get rid of any residual ash or embers, place them in a waterproof metal can, saturate with water, and allow them to sit overnight or longer before throwing them away. Char-Broil recommends wrapping the cooled ash in aluminum foil and throwing the packet in a noncombustible garbage bin.

7 Tips for a Better Picnic

Marnie Hanel, Andrea Slonecker and Jen Stevenson are the authors of “The Picnic: Recipes and Inspiration From Basket to Blanket,” and members of the Portland Picnic Society in Oregon, which meets about once a month to dine together outdoors. Here are a few of their tips for a less hectic, more delicious outing:

PACK YOUR OWN seasoning kit of herbs, lemons, salt, pepper and olive oil. This way you can taste and adjust food on the site, and refresh any dishes that need to be perked up.

DON’T BRING DISHES that could be damaged by a bumpy car ride or walk. You can always finish up — fill deviled eggs, dress delicate salad greens, cut fruit and sandwiches — at the picnic site.

IF THERE IS NO TIME to cook, you can put together a fine picnic with sandwiches, fancy groceries or prepared foods, and still make it an occasion by using colorful unbreakable plates and silverware.

REMIND EVERYONE to bring water. It’s a heavy but necessary item, and no one person should be responsible for bringing all of it.

DROP A PIN in a map app on your phone and text your location to guests.

DON’T FORGET trash bags, a wine opener, a washable blanket, a sharp knife, a cutting board and serving utensils.

TAPE A THERMOMETER inside your cooler, and return dishes there between servings to keep them fresh and cool, and prevent spoilage.

How to make courgette and sorrel soup

We’ve been loving or loathing sorrel in England for hundreds of years. Before citrus was readily available it was a handy way to add an acidic flavour to foods.

That acidity – thanks to the oxalic acid in sorrel – isn’t to everyone’s taste. But used judiciously, it’s a boon in the kitchen.

It’s also simple to grow and since it’s a perennial, it conveniently pops up year after year. Here at home, we like sorrel in soups or cream sauces or paired with fatty fish like salmon.

But you’ll find sorrel in Nigerian cooking where it’s used in teas, stews and salads. It’s also popular in Russia and the Ukraine.

Food writer Olia Hercules has several sorrel recipes in her book Mamushka (Mitchell Beazley) including a sorrel broth and moreish Moldovan breads with cheese and sorrel.

Sorrel pops up in Eastern European cooking, Indian, Vietnamese and Greek.

The bright green, arrow shaped leaves can be eaten raw in salads or cooked but be warned that heat turns it a rather unappetising brown colour.

For this soup, I add the sorrel in at the last minute and can depend on hefty amounts of courgette to keep the soup lovely and green. And you don’t need a huge amount of sorrel either to get that punchy, sour, fresh taste. Best yet, this soup is perfect hot or cold – a definite benefit in the hot summer weather.

Courgette and sorrel soup

Serves 4

1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 Tbsp olive oil
3 medium courgettes, approximately 600-700g total weight
​500ml chicken or vegetable stock
50g sorrel
Salt an pepper
Heavy cream
Micro sorrel leaves or minced chives to garnish

Heat the olive oil in a medium sized pan. Add the onion, stir and cover with a lid. Sweat the onions until they’re soft but not brown. Add the garlic and cook for a further minute or two. While they’re cooking, top and tail the courgettes and slice into discs. Add the courgette slices and stir to coat with the oil and onions. Add the stock, cover and cook over medium high heat until the courgettes are just cooked through.

While the soup is cooking, remove the leaves from the sorrel, discarding the stem. When the courgettes are ready, remove the soup from the heat and stir in the sorrel leaves. Using a blender or stick blender, puree the soup. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.

Serve in soup bowls and garnish with a healthy drizzle of cream and garnish with the micro sorrel leaves or minced chives. The soup can be served warm or cold.

How to cook Swedish-style baked leeks and beef rydberg on an open fire

Before the arrival of the electric cooker, fire, wood and iron were the holy trinity of the Swedish kitchen. I grew up in Järpen, a small village in the north of Sweden. My parents would take us to the mountains, and we’d cook over a fire pit. As a young chef, though, I became passionate about Italian olive oil, French braised chicken and molecular gastronomy – serving dishes, in my first restaurant, such as “asparagus clouds”. I could hardly have got any further away from the rustic slow cooking of the Jämtland forests.

And then I spent the summer of 2011 with my family in a cabin on the island of Ingarö in the Stockholm archipelago. My wife Katarina had just had our first child, our son Vinston. I wandered around on the island and pondered, like a gloomy character from a Bergman film staring at the trees, and remembered the open-fire cooking of my childhood. I chopped down some of the birches I had stared at and made a fire pit. For the whole summer, it was our family kitchen – it never went out. Most of the time we grilled in the usual way, on a grate, but one day I didn’t have enough patience and just whacked a cast-iron pan straight into the flames. The fire sizzled and sparked around the pan; the force of the heat knocked me back; and the flavours of the food … what depth! The image of an analogue fine-dining restaurant developed in my mind, a place where everything was cooked over fire, like in the old days.

Back home in Stockholm, I devoured 18th-century cookbooks, researching how Swedish food was prepared before the advent of electricity. Despite what the trends might have you believe, Nordic cuisine can be summarised by a few techniques and tricks that are easy to get the hang of. Anyone can make their own pickles, anyone can handle a cast-iron pan: it works in everyday life – both inside and outdoors – because that is where it belongs. Here are a few recipes that, I hope, will show you how.

Ember-baked leeks
If you can get really young, slim, fresh leeks, this recipe will be even better. Soaking the leeks in cold water will help them to cook without burning, but don’t worry if the outer layer burns, as it will be peeled off.

Serves 4
2 leeks or 4 large spring onions 
85g butter, at room temperature

For the seasoning
1 tsp pink peppercorns
3 tbsp sea salt

1. Light the fire, using enough wood to create a bed of embers.

2. To make the seasoning, roast the peppercorns in a dry pan for about 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Set aside to cool, then combine the salt and peppercorns in a mortar and grind together. Store in an airtight container.

3. Keep the roots on the leeks. Clean them in cold running water, then transfer to a bowl, cover with cold water and leave for 20 minutes.

4. Dry the leeks with paper towels. Put the leeks in the embers and cook for about 6-8 minutes, turning once or twice, until tender all the way through.

5. Remove from the fire and peel off the burnt layers. Serve with butter and the rosé pepper salt.

Beef rydberg (main picture)

A luxurious variation of pytt-i-panna, a classic Swedish dish made from leftover meat, pan-fried with onions and potatoes. This, made from tender beef and served with a mustard cream sauce, is believed to have originated at the (now closed) Hotel Rydberg in Stockholm in the 19th century.

Serves 4
4 tbsp sour cream 
2 tsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard 
900g waxy potatoes 
900g beef fillet (tenderloin or sirloin)
2 onions, chopped
200g butter
5 tbsp vegetable oil
Salt and black pepper
1 bunch of parsley, chopped
4 egg yolks

1. Combine the sour cream and both mustards in a bowl. Cover and chill until ready to serve.

2. Cut the potatoes into 2.5cm cubes. Rinse in cold water two or three times, then leave to dry on paper towels.

3. Cut the beef into 2.5cm cubes and allow to come to room temperature. Put the onions and 6 tbsp of the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Fry for 30 minutes, or until caramelised.

4. Heat 4 tbsp of oil in a large cast iron pan. Add the potato cubes and fry to lightly colour all over. Add 4 tbsp of butter, then keep cooking until the potatoes are golden and soft in the middle. Remove from the pan and season with salt.

5. Add 1 tbsp of oil to the pan and return to a high heat. Sear the meat one side for about 2 minutes. Add the remaining butter and cook until medium–rare. Remove from the pan and leave to rest for 3 minutes.

6. Put the meat and potatoes back in the pan, add the onions and heat through. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with parsley and serve with raw egg yolks and the mustard cream.

How to Cook Perfect Sweet Potatoes

Learn the basics for how to bake, roast and pressure cook sweet potatoes, plus some fun sweet potato recipes!

There are so many reasons to love sweet potatoes! Not only are the plain ol’ delicious, they’re a versatile ingredient with lots of health benefits. They’re a good source of vitamins B6, C,and D and give you a good amount of plant-based iron. Sweet potatoes are also good sources of magnesium and potassium, and they can help control blood sugar spikes. Is there anything this tasty, orange veggie can’t do?

CHOOSING YOUR SWEET POTATO COOKING METHOD

Like with any food, different cooking methods for sweet potatoes yield different results.

A whole, baked sweet potato gives you a crispy outside and a tender inside. That’s perfect for loading up with your favorite toppings, baked potato-style. You can also chop baked sweet potato into salads to give them some sweetness and crispiness.

Roasting is my favorite way to make sweet potatoes. A little bit of oil and salt plus high heat in the oven brings out their natural sweetness. Roasted sweet potato has a robust flavor with plenty of umami. Serve hot as a side dish or cold on top of your favorite salads.

Pressure cooking is the fastest way to cook a sweet potato. The result is tender chunks of sweet potato, perfect for topping salads, stirring into soups or mashing.

Below, I’ve got instructions for these three simple cooking methods. Below that, you’ll find some sweet potato recipe inspiration!

Cook like the Broncos: How to make turkey meatballs

Want to eat like the Broncos? Follow this recipe, and you'll be eating the same food they eat in the UCHealth Training Center cafeteria.

When the players are at UCHealth Training Center, the Broncos’ chefs make sure they’re eating right. Whether they’re in the midst of the regular season or in offseason training, there’s no replacement for a good diet that prepares the team for success. Here’s your chance to eat like the Broncos and cook a meal that the team may be served on any given day.

Turkey Meatballs — four servings

Ingredients

2 lbs ground turkey
2 eggs, large, beaten
1.25 cup panko breadcrumbs
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 yellow onion, medium diced finely
1/3 cup fresh Italian parsley, chopped
1.5 tsp dried basil
1.5 tsp dried oregano
1.5 tsp granulated garlic
1 tsp kosher salt
½ tsp black pepper
½ tsp red chili flakes
¾ cup grated Romano or Parmesan
¾ cup Ricotta, smooth
Dash of Worcestershire
Rigatoni or spaghetti pasta
Good quality tomato sauce
Grated Parmesan and parsley for garnish

Method

1. Heat Sauté pan on medium-high heat with a little olive oil and add yellow onions

2. Cook onions until they softened, and start to caramelize for 7-9 minutes, stirring occasionally

3. Add minced garlic and cook for another 3-4 minutes

4. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper and remove from heat and transfer to plate

5. Combine all other ingredients with onions and garlic in mixing bowl and fully incorporate until everything is mixed. Don’t over mix.

6. Scoop 2” or desired sized meatballs and roll with wet hands to seal.

7. Bake meatballs at 375 Farenheit on a lined baking pan until internal temp is 165F, start with 15 minutes.

8. Add cooked meatballs to your tomato sauce and serve with your choice of pasta

9. Garnish with parsley and grated Parmesan.

How the Full English Breakfast became a national institution

A hangover cure, fuel for hard labour, and an indulgence on the weekend – the full English breakfast is so ingrained in British culture it’s hard to imagine life without it.

But there was, of course, a time before it was the nation’s go-to comfort food.

A plate piled with sausage, egg, bacon, beans, black pudding, hash browns, fried tomatoes and mushrooms is associated with builders in greasy spoon cafes and up-market brunch spots. However, that image is only a very recent one, food historian Professor Rebecca Earle of Warwick University told The Independent.

In the 17th century, the items which make up the traditional fry-up were only eaten by the upper and upper-middle classes, such as bankers. In wealthy Victorian houses, enormous buffet-style breakfasts would also include kedgeree, pork or lamb chops, friend mushrooms, and bread.

As meat was expensive, the rest of the population would eat bread and butter for breakfast, with cheap jam containing little fruit.

“Working men could not afford to eat in a restaurant in general in the Victorian era, and in the early 20th century bacon and eggs might be eaten as a special weekend dish, and even then not necessarily by everyone in the family," said Professor Earle.

The dish appeared in Isabella Beeton's Book of Household Management in 1861, but it was not until around 100 years later that the ingredients were cheap enough to make the meal available to the masses.

“The greasy spoon is itself a post-war development. A fry-up requires cheap food, which arrived in the 1950s. Tinned beans, for instance, were a costly import before WWII.”

But nowadays, Professor Earle argues, tourists are more likely to eat the full English than Brits, as research shows only 5 per cent of the population eats a fry up for breakfast.

In the future, Professor Earle predicts a far healthier trend: “Because of our current fascination with porridge perhaps we will renew our appreciation for the filling, sustainable and tasty grain puddings and pottages that have fuelled working people all over the world for millennia."