The Portable Charcoal Grill Guide

If you are interested in a small charcoal grill but don’t want or are unable to buy one, you can always build your own. One of the greatest benefits of charcoal grills is their simplicity, and this simplicity makes it easy to make one yourself.  There are numerous ways you can build your own charcoal grill. Here is a basic description of a standard way to make your own grill.
What you need:
- A metal bowl, or something that is a similar shape to a bowl (it can be square or rectangular as well). It must be a thick, decent quality metal, because it is in this that the charcoal will burn.
- something heat resistant that you can put your “metal bowl” on.
- a grill

And that is it! Now all you need to do is set your grill up, get the charcoal burning, and you are ready to start grilling!

Keep in mind that if you are camping, you don’t “need” any of these. You can dig a hole in the ground where you will build your charcoal fire. Be sure to dig the hole fairly deep and in a place where the ground and surrounding area are not too dry,and where there is no risk of a forest fire. Then fill the hole with charcoal, and cook the meat using a stick or skewer.  Of course, whether you build a small charcoal grill or a large one is up to you.

If you want to build your own charcoal grill in your backyard, you can dig a small hole in the ground.  Make sure to pack the mud down (the “bowl” which is where you’ll place the charcoal).  You can line this hole with scrap sheet metal if you have it.  It works best if it is pliable, but you can actually do it with hard, thick sheet metal as well.  You just have to make your grill in the shape of a square.

Around the outside edge of your brand new grill, it is a good idea to line it with rocks.  They will help prevent fire for the coals that jump out of the hole you dug.

Last of all, you will need a grill to put on top.  You then have a great charcoal grill, made with your own hands!  Always makes for a good conversation when you have people over for dinner.

Cooking with charcoal is much different than cooking with propane. The end result is also different, and much better if done properly. Here are some tips to help you get the best results out of your portable charcoal grill.

One of the most important things when cooking with charcoal is lighting and prepping your coals. There are certain things you can buy to make this easier, but if you don’t have anything, do the following: take some dry old newspaper, scrunch it up, and twist in into cylindrical shaped pieces of paper. Place a few of these at the bottom of the grill. Then place a few pieces of charcoal on top, and light the newspaper in a couple different spots. You should get a pretty decent flame, and as long as it is going for a while, it will light the charcoal. To really get the charcoal going, be sure to blow on the bottom of the flame, which will help light the charcoal.

Once you get the first few pieces of charcoal well lit, you can put the rest of the charcoal onto your portable grill. You will need to cover the base of the barbeque, but the charcoal shouldn´t be stacked. Let the it burn until there is no flame, but the charcoal is red hot, and make sure it is well spread out in the barbeque - there should be about an inch between the actual grill and the coals. If the clearance between the grill and the charcoal is too little, your meat will cook too fast, and will end up dry and chewy - definitely not the way to eat a good steak or some smoked ribs!

Now cut a piece of fat off of the meat, and run it along the lines of the grill. This is done so that when you put the meat down, it will sear very quickly, and give it a nice flavor.

At this point, you are ready to put your meat on the grill, as well as potatoes, chicken, or whatever you are cooking. You can move the coals around if you need to concentrate more heat in certain areas, or if you want to stop cooking something, just remove the coals from underneath that part of the grill. Its important however, not to flip the meat more than twice. While its cook, just relax, take a seat in one of your camping chairs, and enjoy that unbeatable smell of grilled meat.