For long-lasting charcoal, dense hardwood lump charcoal (like Quebracho or Rambutan) and specialized low-and-slow briquettes perform best. Premium options like Jealous Devil CHUNX and Kamado Joe Big Block are top choices for all-day cooks, burning for hours with minimal ash.
The Good Charcoal Company Premium Hardwood Lump Charcoal
The small pieces lit quickly in the chimney and stayed lit, even with very little air flow in the low-and-slow test. The Good Charcoal Company charcoal had one of the longest burn times—two hours total—and produced minimal ash.
The "best" charcoal depends on your grilling style, but the overall top picks are Kingsford Original Briquettes for everyday convenience and Jealous Devil Hardwood Lump for premium, chemical-free smoking and searing.
Kingsford charcoal is a mix of real wood char and other natural or mineral ingredients pressed into briquettes. While it contains real charcoal derived from wood, it also includes added materials like coal, limestone, and starch to ensure it burns evenly and ashtrays properly.
If your charcoal is cooling too fast in the middle of grilling, close the lid and close the vents as narrowly as possible. This will reduce the airflow and slow the burn time. The grill won't get any hotter, but it will slow down the cooling. If your charcoal is cooling, the only thing to do is add in some more.
Sprinkling salt on charcoal before grilling is a simple yet highly effective trick used by many professional chefs. The salt helps reduce sudden flare-ups, distributes heat more evenly across the charcoal surface, and minimizes smoke caused by dripping oil and fat. This also makes cleaning the grill easier afterward.
Rubbing a raw potato on a hot grill deposits a layer of starch onto the metal, creating a natural, non-stick barrier. This prevents delicate foods like fish, chicken, or vegetables from sticking to the grates and helps clean away leftover food residue.
Gas grills are generally considered healthier than charcoal grills because they burn cleaner and offer better temperature control, which minimizes the production of potentially carcinogenic compounds.
Kingsford charcoal briquettes are primarily made from a blend of charred, natural hardwoods such as oak, maple, hickory, and walnut. The company sources scrap and waste wood from lumber mills and furniture production, which is then ground, carbonized, mixed with other natural binders, and pressed into pillow-shaped briquettes.
Key Takeaways. Environmental impact of briquettes vs charcoal — Briquettes can minimise waste by reusing wood byproducts but they may contain harmful additives. Lump charcoal is the more natural choice but its production requires larger pieces of hardwood.
The truest Resturant Grade barbecue charcoal fuel on the market, reflecting your expectations of food quality, sourced with the same standard and care. Burning clean with less smoke and more oak, Oxford charcoal is sustainable and home-grown.
You are more likely to find more cooking space in Napoleon models. This means you can cook for large parties or a big family with ease. While both brands have burners with comparable heat output, it's common to find one or more extra burners in Napoleon grills. This means more heating and versatility when cooking.
Jealous Devil is an ideal charcoal choice for Big Green Eggs and Kamado Joe style cookers. Home Depot's price at one dollar per pound is a great bargain. This is a clean and long burning lump charcoal. It holds the heat extremely well.
Briquettes are usually cheaper, light quickly and burn longer than lump wood. According to chefs and cooks, binchotan, originally from Japan, is considered the best charcoal in the world. It has an exceptionally long burning time, maintains the cooking temperature throughout, and can even be reused.
Weber and Kingsford briquettes both provide excellent results, but they cater to different styles. Kingsford lights faster, gets intensely hot, and is highly accessible. Weber briquettes are larger, all-natural, and burn longer and cleaner, making them ideal for low-and-slow smoking and long cooks.
A standard batch of lit Kingsford Original charcoal briquettes will burn at high grilling temperatures for 1 to 2 hours. However, for low-and-slow smoking setups (like the Minion or "snake" methods), a full basket or ring of Kingsford can burn for 8 to 15+ hours.
Lump charcoal, made from pure carbonized wood, burns hotter and produces less ash than other fuel types, making it ideal for high-heat grilling and searing.
Charcoal is essentially "pre-distilled" wood. By baking wood in an oxygen-depleted environment, moisture, sap, and volatile gases are burned off, leaving behind a concentrated, lightweight skeleton of pure carbon.
Charcoal grilling isn't inherently bad, but it can increase cancer risk due to HCAs (heterocyclic amines) and PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) that form when fat drips onto hot coals and smoke rises. These compounds are linked to DNA damage, but you can enjoy charcoal grilling safely by grilling in moderation and adopting a few smart cooking habits.
Kingsford charcoal does not go bad in the traditional sense, as elemental carbon has an indefinite shelf life. However, its performance heavily depends on storage. Moisture can ruin briquettes, and self-igniting formulas will lose their ability to self-start over time.
The healthiest charcoal for grilling is 100% natural hardwood lump charcoal. Made purely from carbonized wood with no chemical additives, fillers, or petroleum binders, it burns cleaner, produces less toxic ash, and emits no chemical fumes compared to standard briquettes.
The Department of Health says in a statement that restaurants and cafes aren't allowed to serve food with activated charcoal in it because it's “prohibited by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a food additive or food coloring agent.”
What is the healthiest way to grill food over charcoal?
The burning of charcoal results in exposure to hazardous substances, including CO and PM, from the emission of smoke. Similar to cigarette smoke, the use of charcoal is associated with lower body weight and BMI.
The smoke from burning charcoal infuses your food with aroma and flavor, especially if you're using wood chips or chunks. Gas grills, while they can get just as hot, don't add that smoky flavor unless you use a smoker box or wood chips. Even then, it's not quite the same as charcoal.