Steven Raichlen

Heat Control on a Charcoal or Wood-Burning Grill

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top 1000How to Grill
How to Grill

By Steven Raichlen

Published 2001

  • About
There are four ways to control the heat on a charcoal or wood-burning grill:
  • By varying the amount of time between igniting the charcoal and putting the food on the grill. When you light charcoal in a chimney starter, it takes 15 to 20 minutes for all of it to ignite (it will glow orange when it’s all lit). Once you’ve raked the coals over the bottom of the grill, it takes another 5 minutes for them to start ashing over. From that point on, the heat of the fire will gradually diminish. (As I’ve said, an hour after ignition, the fire will be 50 to 100 degrees cooler than at the start.) To work over a hot fire, you need to place the food on the grill the moment the coals begin to ash over (20 to 30 minutes after ignition). To work over a cooler fire, let the coals burn longer before putting on the food.
  • By raking the coals into a pile or spreading them in a thin layer. Coals piled in a double or triple layer burn hotter than coals in a single layer. This is the principle behind a three-zone fire, wherein some of the coals are piled in a double layer, the rest in a single layer, and one section of the grill is left coal free. To control the heat, you simply move the food back and forth from the hot zone to the medium zone to the cool zone. Use the hot zone for searing and crisping, the medium zone for cooking, and the coal-free zone for warming (or letting food cool off if it starts to burn).
  • By adjusting the vents on the top and bottom of the grill. Oxygen makes coals burn hotter; absence of oxygen extinguishes them. When grilling using the indirect method (or using a vented hibachi for direct grilling), open or close the vents to raise or lower the heat. When direct grilling, the bottom vents should be open.
  • By raising or lowering the grate. The closer the food is to the coals, the hotter and faster it will cook; the farther away, the cooler and slower. Some charcoal grills (notably hibachis, table grills, and the Barbecook grill) have grates you can raise and lower to control the heat.