But this pleasing simplicity is nicely balanced by a certain complexity—at least when you're cooking with live fire, which is what our experience is all about. Since each live fire is slightly different from every other one, there's always the potential for ruining your dinner if you don't pay attention and follow certain simple guidelines. So here are some tips for making the right choices along the road to grilled nirvana.
Fuel for the Fire: Those familiar pillow-shaped charcoal briquettes are a perfectly adequate fuel, with the dual advantages of being available practically everywhere and providing a steady, even heat. Their disadvantage, though, is that they are made from rather low-quality powdered charcoal combined with binders. So an even better choice, if you can find it, is hardwood charcoal. Made by the traditional process, this kind of charcoal is almost pure carbon, so it lights more easily and burns hotter and cleaner. We also like using small hardwood logs as supplementary fuel. If you shove one of these into the edge of a glowing charcoal fire, you'll have a portion of the fire that keeps going much longer than charcoal, plus you'll also get some nice wood-smoke flavor.
Give Yourself Options: When you construct your fire, always leave about one quarter of the grill free of charcoal. That way, if your food begins to burn on the outside before it's done on the inside, or if there are flare-ups, you can move it to edge of the fire, in the first instance, or to the area with no fire, in the second.
Fire It Up: The quickest, easiest, and most reliable way to start a charcoal fire is a chimney starter, which works every time. Despite its bad reputation, lighter fluid is also a perfectly fine choice, so long as you let it all burn off before putting food over the coals. Hell, you can just put some newspaper under the charcoal if that's all you have. Whichever starting method you choose, the process will be easier if you remember that you don't have to ignite all the charcoal. Just get a couple of pieces glowing, and they will in turn light all the rest.
How Hot Is It? Not all food should be cooked over the same fire: If you put a delicate fish fillet over a very hot fire, for example, it's going to be incinerated on the outside before it's done on the inside. So always check your fire temperature before you start to cook. To do so, wait until the flames are gone and the charcoal is all covered with gray ash, then put your hand about five inches above the grill grid, palm side down. If you can hold it there for five to six seconds, you have a low fire; three to four seconds is within the medium range; and one to two seconds means you have a hot fire.
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