The Complete Handbook of Charcoal Chimneys

Chapter 1: Understanding Charcoal Chimneys

A charcoal chimney is a simple, unpowered metal cylinder with a handle, a grate inside the bottom, and a set of vents. It is designed to do one thing: turn a pile of cold charcoal briquettes or lump charcoal into a bed of evenly lit, glowing coals, ready for cooking, in a predictable amount of time. It is not a grill, and it is not a smoker. It is an ignition tool. Understanding it means understanding how it converts heat from a small starter fire into a full, uniform burn without using chemical accelerants.

Consider the alternative. The most common traditional method is to stack charcoal in a pyramid on a grate and soak it with lighter fluid, then light it. The result is unpredictable. Often, you get a flare-up as the fluid burns off, but then the coals on the bottom ignite first and the ones on top dry out slowly. You end up with a mix of fully ashed-over coals, half-lit chunks, and some pieces that are still black, which produces a poor and uneven cooking fire. You may also get a petroleum taste transferred to the food if the fluid hasn't fully burned off. A chimney solves this problem by separating the ignition source from the charcoal with a controlled flow of air, and by forcing the burn to propagate in a specific direction.

The Basic Anatomy and How It Works

A standard chimney is a cylinder, roughly 8 to 10 inches