Fuel!

[St. Louis Griller]

Just a few questions.....

I have a 22 inch Weber and use a chimney to light the charcoal. I've been using newspaper sheets to do this, but have found it to be quite messy. I've heard about these little white cubes that Weber manufactures that takes the place of newspapers. Has anyone used these? Do they work as well as newspaper? I don't have a problem lighting the coals with the paper, but I don't like all the ash hanging around.....

Secondly, I hear grilling steaks over wood chunks instead of charcoal is the way to go. I've never done this before, has anyone else? If so, what kind of wood (hickory, mesquite, etc.)? Also, do you light the wood the same as you would charcoal in the chimney?

Thanks in advance for any replies......

[StPeteBBQ]

Hi Griller,

I used to use the wadded up paper too... what a mess! I started using the Weber Firestarter cubes a few months ago and they are great! I have a Weber chimney and I put a couple of cubes in there and fill it with charcoal and in 15-20 mins they're ready to go.

Never did steaks over wood, so can't help you there. They are much better over lump charcoal than briquets, so it makes sense that they'd be good over wood.

[sharky]

While at the BBQ competition last weekend someone had a firestarter stick. They were similar to the little weber blocks only these had a match tip end to start them and they were a little sliver of wood about 4" long. They said they got them at Publix, however I haven't been able to find them. We tried it and it lit the whole fire much easier than the newspaper at the bottom of the chimney!

I won't light about half a chimney full of charcoal and then wehn they are done lay them into the kettle and put the chunks on top of it. It won't take long for the wood to light up then, and you are getting more wood flavor than charcoal.

I have heard of many places here in town using oak fired grills to make their steaks, so I would suggest that. If you are looking for a lighter flavor, try mesquite.

[SeanB]

When I cook steaks I throw an oak chunk in with the lump. It is outstanding! I am not sure that you need to use an all wood fire...just be a lot harder to get the fire going.

As for the lighting...I have been using the Green Heat stuff from Walmart, it works great. Before I got the Green goo I was using the parifin coated sawdust chunks and those worked well also. For a chimney starter the solid starters will probably work better.

[freightdog]

I use the Weber firestarters in my chimney and I usually use mesquite wood chunks with charcoal for an awsome tasting steak. I sometimes soak them in water for steaming and smoking too.