Start Your Fire!

Once you select the barbecue pit you want it’s time to break it in before you start to cook.  I have seen a lot of people immediately start cooking on there pits once they get them home.  In my opinion it is good to fire that pit up with some good wood and smoke it out for a few hours. 

I always do this when I get a new pit to make sure that nothing will peel off from the inside.  It is also a good idea to do this process to see how well your pit seals in the heat and smoke.  Every pit cooks different, so this will also show you how fast your pit heats up.

Sparking Up The Pit!

Starting the fire in your barbecue pit is easy.  There is not much equipment you need.  Make sure you have a chimney starter, long handled barbeque lighter, newspaper, lump hardwood charcoal (mesquite, oak, pecan, etc.), wood chunks, and fatwood (optional).  Please NEVER use charcoal starter fluid.  Starter fluid is very dangerous and contains chemicals that give your food a bad taste.  I personally never use charcoal briquettes and I never use charcoal starter fluid.  If you ever go to a barbecue cookoff you will see most of the cooks never use starter fluid or charcoal.  At least not the barbecuers I encounter.  Some charcoals contain compressed wood fibers or sawdust.  Some charcoals also contain petroleum based additives that are not good for your health. 

When I start my fires I always put my chimney starter inside my barbecue pit with the grill taken out.  I put crumbled up newspaper under the chimney starter.  I then put fresh chunks of mesquite in the chimney starter and then put the hardwood lump charcoal on top of the mesquite chunks. 

Now it’s time to start your fire!  Get your barbecue lighter and start the newspaper on fire.  The hardwood charcoal and wood chunks should catch fire within a few minutes.  If there is not enough air flow through your chimney starter, you may need to add more newspaper and relight. 

Once your wood catches fire let the flame reach to the top, but keep an eye on it.  When the flame reaches this point I usually wait until the highest piece of wood catches fire.  Then I carefully empty the hot wood into the pit to my desired location.  The handle of the chimney starter usually is hot at this point.   I use a hot dish holder to grab the hot handle and never have any problems.   

Option # 2

If you do not want to use a chimney starter you can use “fatwood” to start your fire.  Fatwood is a root that comes from pine trees that have a high concentration of resin.  Fatwood is all natural and contains no chemicals.  It is recommended that the fatwood burn totally out before you begin to cook your food.  Fatwood will light whether it is dry or wet.  Just put your fatwood under your wood in your barbecue pit and then light the fatwood.  The fatwood will ignite immediately.  Click on any of the fatwood pictures below to purchase.