How to light a grill with Thai charcoal?

[1BADDAT]

I bought a small grill at Home Mega the other day. It is about 18 inches in diameter. I bought 5 kg of charcoal when I purchased the grill. It is the tube style charcoal that is about 2 in diameter and around 4 inches in length with a hole in the center. I went and bought lighter fluid and those metal tins with wax / fluid that they use to heat up soup at a restaurant.

I put 6 pieces of charcoal piled on top of each other and put 2 tins underneath. No matter how much lighter fluid I used, I could not get the charcoal to light very well. It did eventually start burning, but not very hot or evenly. Any suggestions? The only thing I am thinking about doing differently is breaking up the charcoal into smaller pieces.

[Crossy]

In my experience Thai 'real' charcoal is far easier to get going than those ruddy briquettes we get in the UK.

• Put a couple of kitchen towels scrunched up and soaked in old cooking oil in the middle of the barbie.
• Break up a couple of charcoal blocks (or use the busted bits from the bag) and place on top of the towels (not too much).
• Light the towels.
• Close the lid and have a beer (you may wish to fan the flames a little).
• Within a few minutes your charcoal should be alight so you can pile on more fuel.
• Shuffle the fuel around to get an even burn bed.
• Cook

[cornishcarlos]

Microwave the charcoal first, 2 mins should do it

[krisb]

They use plastic or get a small wood fire going first. If you want to fan the charcoal a hair dryer works well.

[BookMan]

They use plastic or get a small wood fire going first.

How does the plastic work?

[samran]

I love the long charcoal tubes with the hole down the middle get then all the time.

I generally cheat however by putting them on the gas burner for a few mins then tranferjng them over before they ash too much.

Then stick a few fresh ones on top and they seem to take care of themselves.

I like them cause they provide a longer heat but you are right they probably don't go 'red' while burning away. Not a big deal for me.

[krisb]

They use plastic or get a small wood fire going first.

How does the plastic work?

Burns longer, like using fire starters for a webber bbq. Bit toxic though. I'd prefer starting with wood kindling and building from there. Charcoal needs a good 10 minutes of flame to get going, then the hair dryer to fan it.

[Pomthai]

As Crossy says, the old used cooking oil on tissue or paper first then the charcoal on top plus another splosh of oil over the lot. Light a dry bit of the tissue and stand back. You'll be good to go.

[wayned]

I use charcoal made by my FIL in a big hole beside my house. I soak dried corn cobs in diesel and use them for lighter. I just make sure that the diesel is fully burned off before barbequing. The wood in the picture is now charcoal in large burlap sacks made in the hole behind the wood using the hay to get it started and smouldering. The building behind is a shed for parking a tractor not my house, but it's as good as some in the local area

[KhunBENQ]

Stinking,. but working: a piece of an old inner tube from a scooter or bicycle lights up small wood sticks under the coal.

Thats how the Isan folks do it (my 65 year old neighbour granny does it daily on sunrise to steam her sticky rice, If winds are bad I get the stinky smoke ).

Wish I had a cleaner alternative!

I direct a normal fan just above the grill to blow away the smoke (from a few meters away).

You can also use it to blow the fire.

[ddeellbbooyy]

Some wood put some candles around the wood and the charcoal on top job done ...

Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[hkt83100]

Stinking,. but working: a piece of an old inner tube from a scooter or bicycle lights up small wood sticks under the coal.

That the real Thai style, I can hardly image that this is the healthy way :-(

[quicky]

Simple take the top metal part of the grill, the part that you use to place the food on take it off, put the charcoal in the middle of it and use the house stove to light it, once nicely lit dump it into the grill.

Then having a fan ready put it on medium point it at the grill after about 5 mins feed it more bricks and you will have one heck of a grill going. You should move the fan from side to side every few minutes so it pushes the fire to each brick.

Note: the bricks don't fire up like the Thai charcoal, the heat is internal and that is why you need a lot of charcoal bricks to get good heat from it.

Also when using the house stove make sure their is plenty of ventilation otherwise you might not wake up

[ezzra]

My trick is to get 2-3 of charcoal lilted on the gas stove and than pile the unlit

one on top and fan it a bit or add some fire starter fluid....

[pigeonjake]

In my experience Thai 'real' charcoal is far easier to get going than those ruddy briquettes we get in the UK.

• Put a couple of kitchen towels scrunched up and soaked in old cooking oil in the middle of the barbie.
• Break up a couple of charcoal blocks (or use the busted bits from the bag) and place on top of the towels (not too much).
• Light the towels.
• Close the lid and have a beer (you may wish to fan the flames a little).
• Within a few minutes your charcoal should be alight so you can pile on more fuel.
• Shuffle the fuel around to get an even burn bed.
• Cook

crossy,,,

ive been doing it all wrong all these years,,

ive been getting a bit of black rubber, from an old inertube, lighting that, a little bit of wood on that, then the charcoal,,

bloody hell im more thai then i think,,lol

jake

[malt25]

I'd hate to think how some of you blokes would get on if you were stuck out in the bush with no gas stove or old cooking oil or old inner tubes.

If you don't have wood to chop into kindling just get some news paper & twist real tight. Stack a few of these under the charcoal, Works the same as kindling.

But I do have to admit, when the kindling is wet & no news paper left, the gas stove is a God send.

[recycler]

They use plastic or get a small wood fire going first.

How does the plastic work?

They cut of a piece of an old flipflop and light it

[recycler]

Best way to light a Thai BBQ is to get a Thai wife

[rucus7]

They use plastic or get a small wood fire going first.

How does the plastic work?

Depending on the type of plastic, while is is going through its change of state (burning) dioxin is being produced in the fumes. Dioxin is a known carcinogen. Thats how plastic works.

[cooked]

Blimey. The Thais make a wood fire and put charcoal on after a bit. You guys would have frozen to death in the UK when stone coal was the sole source of heating.

Sent from my GT-S7500 using Tapatalk 2

[pigeonjake]

I'd hate to think how some of you blokes would get on if you were stuck out in the bush with no gas stove or old cooking oil or old inner tubes.

If you don't have wood to chop into kindling just get some news paper & twist real tight. Stack a few of these under the charcoal, Works the same as kindling.

But I do have to admit, when the kindling is wet & no news paper left, the gas stove is a God send.

bloody hell at first i thought you was going to give us a lesson on bush craft,, rubbing sticks and all that,,lol

then chucking bush tucker on the barbi,,lol

old inertube works great,,,

jake

ps ill admit it my wife lights it better then i do,,lol

[VocalNeal]

Blimey. The Thais make a wood fire and put charcoal on after a bit. You guys would have frozen to death in the UK when stone coal was the sole source of heating.

Sent from my GT-S7500 using Tapatalk 2

Build a teepee with sticks around some scrunched up newspaper/kitchen towel. Surround with charcoal light and have a beer.

I have seen: Roll paper towel around a bottle. Put bottle in grill vertically, stack wood around bottle, carefully remove bottle leaving paper tube, drop scrunched up paper ball inside tube and light.

When cooking is finished or fire is dying down put kindling on edges and use the residual heat to dry out the kindling.

[henksteeghsth]

Take some toilet paper and put cooking oil on light it and put the charcoals on

it burns like a candle

[riceyummm]

They use plastic or get a small wood fire going first.

How does the plastic work?

They cut of a piece of an old flipflop and light it

SOP at my house, also cuts down on the broken flip flop pile at the door. When the pile is gone just walk out to the street, you'll find a broken flip flop in no time.

[maccaroni man]

If the OP is talking about the bits and pieces of charred tree branches that are sold in plastic bags my staff uses drenched newspaper with cooking oil and a copious amount of fanning to get it started. I find it burns hot and fast

[DLP]

Try a few litres of petrol, but stand well back.

[phaykk]

Issan way used motor bike inner tube, works every time. Just let the smell burn off

[Greg Nixon]

My wife starts kindling on fire first and then once the kindling is going sufficiently she puts on the charcoal. Paper , kindling, match, wait for vigorous flame, put on charcoal. I could not find a gas grill yet. Charcoal is carcinogenic and is messy. most of the world is using propane or natural gas to BBQ - in Thailand they say grill. There are propane burners that you can place a grill over. There are electric grills. The taste that some people say that is imparted by charcoal contains the carcinogens.

[kaveh]

the best thing to light up charcoal is vodka for sure because anything else would left smell in it, specially oils

[sean420]

I see a lady at the train station use a water bottle ,she lit that put the coals on and waited till the black smoke burned off and put food on.the same thing as intertube and flip flop ..but water bottles are everywhere..cheers