How Much Charcoal To Use in Kamado Ceramic Grill?
The deliciousness that comes with grilling meat on a charcoal grill is unparalleled. If you’re new to charcoal cooking, you might be wondering how much charcoal is needed to properly heat your kamado ceramic grill.
The short answer is, it depends! Factors such as the type of grill you’re using, how big it is, and the type of food you’re cooking can all affect the ideal amount of charcoal in your ceramic charcoal grill.
How Much Charcoal Do I Need?
In general, if you want to cook smaller foods like burgers, dogs, piglets, and other similar foods more easily, you won’t need much charcoal. About 15-20 coals should be enough to finish your cooking.
For searing steaks, you’ll need more charcoal. Ideally, you need 30-40 briquettes.
If you like to cook or smoke slowly, then you don’t need a lot of coal. If you plan to cook for a long time, expect that you will need more coal.
If your grill can’t get a charcoal grill to heat up, adding more coal may be the solution. But no matter what you cook or grill, you should start low and gradually increase the amount of charcoal.
A single layer of charcoal should cover the bottom of the cooking grate if you want an even cooking surface. For some grills, this can be as little as 40 briquettes, and for larger grills it can be as much as 100 briquettes.
If you prefer a two heat zone grill setup, you can center your coals on one side of the kamado charcoal grill to create a hot side.
If you want to cook different cuts of meat at different temperatures for more variety, having two zones is the way to go.
How Much Charcoal Does a Kamado Ceramic Grill Need?
Kamado grills run on charcoal – lump charcoal to be exact.
Since kamado grills are made of ceramic, which is very effective at retaining and dissipating heat, you don’t need a lot of charcoal to get it scorching hot.
Depending on the size of your lump charcoal, you might get away with using only 8-10 coals per cook.
Use Charcoal To Maintain Grill Temperature
You can control the charcoal temperature by controlling the damper on the charcoal grill. It’s also important to note how much charcoal is being added to the grill.
Adding the charcoal slowly will get you to a lower temperature. However, if you want high heat, you should add the charcoal more often. Adjusting the intake and exhaust dampers is also important.
How Much Charcoal Should I Use When Grilling?
Various types of charcoal require different techniques of use. Charcoal briquettes are easy to ignite and burn for a long time. With hardwood charcoal, also known as lump charcoal, you get more intense and fiery to burn your stuff faster.
Before lighting the grill, you must open the vents. In order for your grill to burn, it needs oxygen. With the vent adjustment, you can control the internal cooking temperature after placing the charcoal in the kamado ceramic grill.
When you use wider vents, you get a hotter flame and more oxygen. Using smaller vents will result in lower cooking temperatures. Make sure you don’t turn them off while cooking or they will turn off the heat.
It’s important to point out here that kamado grills specifically require lump charcoal
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does a bag of charcoal last?
It depends on how much food you grill at once and what type of grill you have, but a bag of charcoal should last 5-8 cooks.
Can You Reuse Charcoal?
You can only reuse the charcoal two or three times for the next use. Reusing charcoal is a common practice, so this is no problem.
Final Thoughts
To sum up the whole point of your question about how much charcoal I need, let’s write a few more words. If you want low heat, fill your charcoal chimney to 25% capacity.
You can fill it up to 50% when you need medium heat and 75% when you need medium heat. However, you can fill the chimney up to 100% for high heat. This will achieve the desired temperature and result.