Ah, summer. With the heat and humidity on the rise, that can only mean one thing: Bar-B-Q. And if you use a Weber kettle as your primary outdoor cooking source, you’ll need a device that can prepare white-hot charcoal for your primal backyard rituals.

First, let me start out by making something abundantly clear: not all charcoal chimneys are created equal. On the cheaper end, perhaps you’ve tried an old coffee can that a friend rigged, or the $6 chimney you found at your local mega-super-deluxe-mart. Throw those away. Now. Because nothing quite compares to the Weber Charcoal Chimney Starter.

For best results…
First, loosely stuff the bottom of the chimney with newspaper. It’s important to note that you shouldn’t pack in the newspaper too tightly — you’ll end up having to re-stoke the chimney with more newspaper later. Trust me: in this application, less is actually more.

Next, pour your charcoal in the chimney. For best results, stay away from the match light stuff — you won’t need it and your food will taste a lot better without all that lighter fluid and carcinogenic chemicals trying to work their way into your grilled items.

After about 5 - 10 minutes, you should see flames bursting out of the top of the chimney. This is good. Very, very good.

Once your coals have turned white, you’re ready to rock. I can’t emphasize this enough: B E C A R E F U L. You saw white-hot coals and flames in the chimney, remember? To ensure your safety, wear a flame-resistant oven mitt and carefully shake the coals on the lower grate of the Weber kettle. You can always re-arrange the coals to your liking later.