Home made starter cubes


 
DanHoo

DanHoo

TVWBB Olympian
It's possibly breaking a law of southern cooking, but I had no where to store bacon fat from 2 lbs cooked on my E330 so I decided to soak it up with kingsford.

I usually put a couple of spoonfuls of fat wrapped in a paper towel under my chimney. We will see if these work as well.

And today I double dipped them in sausage fat. 20210711_130141.jpg20210711_130304.jpg
 
TL, DR they don't work very well on their own.

They didn't light with a stick lighter. Strike 1.

One paper towel wasn't enough. Strike 2.

My normal way worked to get them going. Spoonful of bacon fat in a paper towel times two.
 
Second attempt. Added a lot more bacon fat and one half paper towel sheet.

My goal is to not use a chimney.

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The start lit first time with a stick lighter.

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Covered the flame with some lump.

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Its going well.
 
I used to soak two briquettes in charcoal lighter fluid. I figured it was a compromise between massive amounts of lighter fluid and struggling with the chimney starter every time. Had a small glass jar specifically for the purpose. Drop in two briquettes, add lighter fluid, swish around, remove briquettes, put top on jar to save excess light fluid. Worked great. Eventually I found the secret to getting the chimney lit using newspaper and the lighter fluid jar was retired.
 
JayHeyl said:
Eventually I found the secret to getting the chimney lit using newspaper and the lighter fluid jar was retired.
Click to expand...
Sorry, I should have been more up front that my goal was to not use the chimney. This is a lead up to a very full firebox for an overnight cook.

I've found when I use the chimney, the initial fire is too hot and it is a challenge to get temps down low again.

Its also just an experiment since we seem to eat a fair amount of bacon.

Newspaper is getting hard to find so my chimney startup is two or three paper towels each with a spoonful of bacon fat.
 
DanHoo said:
Sorry, I should have been more up front that my goal was to not use the chimney.
Click to expand...
I got that. I only mentioned the chimney because the lighter fluid-soaked briquettes was how I used to start the chimney. Two or three soaked briqs in the bottom of the chimney, a load of plain briqs on top. Hit the soaked briqs with a lighter and away it goes. I saw a similarity between using lighter fluid on a couple briqs and soaking a few in bacon grease. I generally eschewed the use of lighter fluid but had horrible luck getting the chimney started short of using a propane burner under it. The soaked briqs did the trick and there was so light lighter fluid used it didn't impart any taste to the cooked food.

Could you not wrap the briquettes in paper towel before soaking them in the grease? Maybe leave a corner of the towel hanging loose like a fuse. The towel should light a lot easier with just a match and should burn plenty long enough to get the grease-soaked briquette going.
 
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