To ask how you start a bbq?

[GodDamnRoxanne]

DH and I have had a few BBQ’s and our technique has been to put the fire starters under the coal and put the coal spaciously above, then light it. It’s always on really dry, hot days with no wind.

DH seems to think we need to buy bellows to help us light it as it seems to be a bit of a mission getting it started. Are bellows the answer or is there something we are missing here?

Thanks

The one time DH asked me to light the BBQ as he was running late from work he came home to find me and his friend with a pile of charcoal and firelighters, with no progress whatsoever after half an hour

30seconds after he arrives he has it going perfectly.

I conclude that some people are actually Fire Gods are and we need to leave such matters to them. It appears our DDs have inherited the Fire God gene, as they are already making good progress in Fire Starting at the ages of 7&8.

Is it just me that uses my lungs to blow on it if needed?

I use one of the instant lighting bags and once that's going I top it up with regular charcoal. Either that or if you've got one of those weed burner wands, use that on regular charcoal or briquettes, works every time. In fact it's worth buying one of the weed burners just for the purpose of lighting BBQ's.

Can’t believe no one has said petrol yet🤣😂😂🤣 I’ve no idea we have a gas bbq

BBQ lighter fluid is your friend

Definitely, definitely a chimney. Cheap, really easy, very effective.

I’m really getting into BBQing at the moment - trying techniques for arranging charcoal for 10-12 hour slow cooks etc. Everyone in all the groups I go in uses a chimney.

We use a chimney fire starter.

It is the law in this house to call it a twisted fire starter.

Another vote for a starter chimney. We’ve got the Weber one.

Sometimes takes a little while to get started, but it’s mostly great.

Chimney starter
Kindling
Charcoal
No firefighters required.

I'm off to google a bbq chimney.
I cannot light my bbq for love nor money, I rely on the lighting bags but sometimes I cant get hold of them.

Can’t believe no one has said petrol yet🤣😂😂🤣
Seen the results of that - highly inadvisable. I'm guessing you were joking but it is very very dangerous.

If I haven’t got any of the lighting bags I start with wood kindling and then add charcoal. We don’t use firelighters at all as I don’t like the smell. We sometimes use a cotton wool ball under the kindling to get things started if it’s breezy

We use sustainable firelighters, they're just shredded wood dipped in wax, I don't like the smell of the chemically ones either. If you Google sustainable firelighters you'll find them.

Weber briquettes and lighter cubes. Build up a pyramid over the cubes with the cubes just visible. I use 3/4 - gets the bbq blazing hot within half an hour.

We use a balloon pump to get ours going, it's brilliant.

(if it's good charcoal, I can usually get it going with scrunched up newspaper and the balloon pump. We've just got some natural firelighters recently, which are OK too)

You can get a chimney for £6 in Tesco.

Kingsford Applewood briquettes and fire. We grill about 5 nights a week even in the winter. Never had a problem getting the grill going.

Cotton wool and vaseline

Omg four firefighters thank you, that made my night

I had trouble lighting mine a couple of weeks ago and once DP had a look and realised there was lots of ash underneath stopping the air flow, we cleared it out and it worked much better!

I usually buy the bags of charcoal which are pre treated with lighter fluid, which are super easy to get going. Straight charcoal is more tricky for me, and I ended up using loads of lighter fluid and cardboard etc to try and get it to light.