Lighting a Wood Fire
Date 2008/6/24 1:10:00 | Topic: Cooking with Wood
| When cooking with wood, one of the biggest obstacles you'll face is actually getting the fire going. Most novices will immediately turn to good ol' American lighter fluid. That's great if you're using charcoal and you actually know how to use the fluid, but most people don't and wood is much less forgiving than charcoal. Not to mention the fact that lighter fluid can make you quite ill if you begin cooking before the fluid has completely burned off.
One of the best ways to get a wood fire going quickly without any hazardous chemicals is to use paraffin. That's the base in everyday candles for you laymen. You can pick it up at any craft or hobby store.
Start by placing strips of paper or cardboard in the ash pan of the grill. Brown paper and non-corrugated cardboard work best because they burn cleaner without a lot of floating scraps and embers. Use a sharp knife to shave off chunks of paraffin and place them near the outside perimeter of your paper.
Next take some small pieces of wood like dried twigs or smaller branches from your wood source and place them on top of the paper, stacking it very loosely.
Light the paper near the paraffin in several places. In a few minutes your wood will be lit and you can place larger pieces on top of the fire. Remember to stack the wood so as to allow good airflow or you'll have just wasted a lot of time.
When the paper is burned off and the wood is blackened and producing a steady flame you'll be good to go!
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