Direct or Indirect Charcoal Grilling

There are two ways to cook on your grill - directly over the charcoal or indirectly, away from the direct heat. When cooking indirectly, the food is placed off to one side away from the hot charcoal.

Direct heat cooking - the most popular form of cooking on a grill. To achieve a good direct heat for cooking, you should always start your charcoal in a pile and then spread the coals out over the grate when ready (the coals look white & ashen when ready for cooking). Food is then placed directly over the hot coals (on the cooking grate). This type of heat works well with hamburgers, hot dogs/sausages and steaks. Be careful though - make sure you keep an eye on your grill while cooking or you'll end up with very crispy food!!

Indirect heat cooking - a bit more of a challenge, but easy to do once you get the hang of it. Stack your charcoal up on one side of the grate, and once the coals are ready for cooking, simply place your food away from the coals. You can move your food closer or further away from the heat as desired to speed up/slow down cooking times.

Another method of cooking is really a mix of both of the above. Simply stack your charcoal as you would for an indirect cooking method - off to one side. When ready, spread the coals out over the grate, but instead of spreading them evenly, grade it from one side to the other, so you have variable heat across the whole grill.