The Joys of Grilling with a Chimney

Food is such a magical thing! There are certain ways to prepare food which seem to bring all of the flavors to life. Nothing seems to elevate food better than when you use a grill and real charcoal briquettes to cook with. You get all of the great smoky flavor from the briquettes and the delicious caramelized crust on the meat. It is truly a symphony of flavor when it is done right.

The biggest problem facing most grillers is getting the coals to be just right so that you can get the most out of your grilling experience. Eagerness and improper techniques stand in between those who could possibly have a great meal and those who have a meal which tastes like lighter fluid. There is, however, a very simple tool which can help you to have the best coals which produce the best grilling possible.

The chimney is a very simple device which has the ability to transform regular charcoal into the glowing hot embers that you want to cook from. The design is very simple, yet very elegant. It is quite simple a metal cylinder with some holes punched in it. It holds all of the coals that you need for a standard grill and has a compartment in the bottom so that you can stuff a few sheets of wadded newspaper as your starter.

I bought my wife a Weber chimney for an early birthday present and like a kid in a candy store, I could not wait. We went ahead and grilled up some pork chops from a pork loin. Lighting the chimney was extremely simple and the deep orange flames produced were like nothing I have ever seen before. When the top coals had a fine layer of grey on them, we poured the bright red coals into the grill and we were ready to go.

These coals were hotter than anything I have ever cooked over before. They produced a great hot grill which produced perfect grill marks I have only ever seen while cooking in a restaurant. The flavor from the charcoal was dynamite without any trace of lighter fluid flavor because none was used. We have seen the light of grilling and there is simply no way that we can ever go back.