To most people, “charcoal” implies pressed charcoal briquettes, of which Kingsford is the best-known brand. These briquettes, while cheap, convenient, and widely available, are often manufactured from saw dust, glue, and various igniters.

If you are going to use briquettes, you might want to avoid the self-starting brands. In fact, purists will tell you to avoid charcoal lighter altogether (they say it imparts a chemical flavor to the smoke, thence to your food). These folks want you to build a little wood fire underneath the pile of charcoal or use some other more “natural” starter device (paraffin starter blocks, electric starters, propane starters, gas torches, or chimney starters that use newspaper--pretty much anything that lights the charcoal without the use of lighter fluid).

If you let them, these same people will also try to talk you out of briquettes altogether in favor of “real” slab charcoal, or what is also called “natural lump charcoal.” This product is made by heating wood in the absence of oxygen. The wood only chars, rather than burns, and while heating, various volatiles present in the wood (water, tars, methane, hydrogen, etc.) boil off or vaporize, leaving behind pure carbon charcoal with hardly any chemical impurities or contaminants.

Natural lump charcoal is said to be more efficient, healthier and easier to control than briquettes. And unlike briquettes, you will usually know what kind of wood your natural lump charcoal started out as, which is said to make a difference.

Once you’re down to arguing over the merits of briquettes vs. natural lump charcoal as fuel to cook your pork chops, you’ve run out of important things to worry about. Yeah, sure, natural lump charcoal is great but the price will take your breath away and, frankly, in average day-to-day grill work, you can’t tell the difference in the final product. Let the fire burn down for about 20 to 30 minutes before you start cooking anything, by which time all trace of the lighter fluid will burn away.

(If you want to get into natural lump charcoal and are wondering what brand or brands to look for, go to the NakedWhiz website, where literally dozens of brands are reviewed and rated.)

Picking the Wood

The wood chips you can add to your fire to create your BBQ smoke are likewise varied and sundry. Those smoldering bits of wood are what give classic barbecue its flavor and color. Strive for something subtle, not overpowering. You want a nice smoky flavor in the background of the meat, not something that tastes like you’re chewing on a log.

Virtually any hardwood can be used. The most common are hickory, oak, cherry, apple, pecan and mesquite, all used by themselves or in combination. The wood from any fruit or nut tree would work too. If you have any direct experience with the wood from orange, lemon, or walnut trees, pass it on.

Whatever wood you use, remember that you want the wood to smolder (and create smoke), not burn (which creates ashes), and you accomplish this by thoroughly soaking the wood chips in water before you put them on the fire.

Beyond Wood

And just to round off this discussion, you can create smoke with substances other than wood and get excellent results. For delicate meats such as salmon, turkey tenders, duck, or even boneless chicken parts, you can use a combination of kosher salt, sugar, and loose black tea for your smoke source.

Make that little aluminum foil container as described earlier, but rather than fill it with wet wood chips, fill it with a mixture of salt, sugar, and tea in roughly equal parts, plop it on the charcoal fire, and put on the cooking grate.

Season your meat to taste (a little salt and pepper, maybe a spritz of fresh lemon on fish), lay the meat out on some aluminum foil and place it over on the far side of the grill, as far from the charcoal fire as you can. Put on the lid and let the meat smoke until it’s cooked through. The sugar-salt-and-tea combo makes smoked salmon and poultry dishes that are out of this world.

See also:

• Charcoal or Gas?
• Styles of BBQ
• Rubs
• Sauces
• Smokin'