BBQ How to Guides

If you are a beginner at using a BBQ, you might find the process a little bit intimidating. But it doesn’t have to be if you know where to start. Our BBQ experts have put together a quick guide on how to get your BBQ going. Here you will learn how to use a charcoal BBQ for the first time and the tools you will need to make it a success. 

Tools Required

To get started there are a number of tools that will be required to make your barbecuing experience run smoothly:

Preparing the Charcoal BBQ

The first step of the barbecuing process is filling your grill with charcoal. Simply lift the cooking grates off the BBQ and add your chosen lumpwood charcoal to your grill’s base. Spread out an even layer of charcoal a few inches thick. Keep your charcoal bag handy in case you need to add another layer later. 

Lighting the  BBQ 

Lighting a BBQ can appear a difficult and time-consuming process. To light your charcoal quickly and easily, use our wood wool firelighters. To start, put on your protective gloves and add wood wool to your charcoal and light using a long match or one of our refillable lighters. Then open the BBQs vents fully and close the lid. Allow your BBQ to heat up to 300 degrees.

Once your BBQ has reached the desired temperature, lift up the lid and wearing your gloves use the fire poker to stir the charcoal. This will mix the burning coals amongst the ones that haven’t yet ignited. This is the perfect time to add more coals if the original layer was too thin. 

Cooking Time 

Once your BBQ has reached the desired temperature again and the charcoal is covered in grey ash, open up your grill and lay your meat or chosen food on the grill and close the lid. Let the food cook for a few minutes, then lift the lid to flip over the food using your tongs or spatula. Monitor the food until it is fully cooked, you can check meat is cooked all the way through by cutting a piece in half using your stainless steel scissors. Once your food is fully cooked, using the tongs move all your food into the roasting pan and leave to rest for 5-10 minutes. 

About Us 

At The Green Olive Firewood Company, we now offer West Sussex Charcoal made at our site, Ridge Farm, West Sussex. We use the same local woods that we use for our firewood. We heat it and starve it of oxygen in our friendly emission charcoal retorts.

Our professional and restaurant-quality charcoal is crafted from sustainable dense hardwoods such as the casuarinas tree which is one of the fastest-growing dense hardwoods that can grow in a harsh environment with similar properties to Beech & Oak. Making it perfectly renewable and sustainable for the industry. This tree has been identified for active climate protection in Europe and a project has begun in Egypt see here for more information. Any charcoal we import is from managed woodlands or waste wood from farms such as fruit farms etc. sustainability assured.

We pride ourselves on ensuring quality and responsibility across our supply chain to deliver to you the best possible lumpwood and briquette charcoal here in the UK. See our natural range. To stay up to date with everything we do, follow us on Instagram and Twitter!