5.1 Charcoal and Lighting

There are two cardinal rules regarding what to use in a Green Egg:

1. NEVER use lighter fluid. It will soak into the ceramic and ruin your investment.
2. Only use lump charcoal, not briquets, essentially for the same reason, but also to improve the flavor of just about everything.

The instructions for you Egg will recommend that you only use “genuine Big Green Egg Charcoal”. Ignore that advice. Yes, BGE charcoal is high quality, but a) it is expensive, and b) it may be hard to find. I have been using supermarket-branded lump charcoal for years and have found it to be quite satisfactory.

With respect to lighting, most sources recommend using a chimney, in which you mix some charcoal and some paper. The paper is ignited, and when the charcoal is burning, the chimney is removed and more charcoal is added as needed. I’ll be honest - I’ve never tried this. Rather, I load the charcoal into the egg, insert 2-3 paraffin-saturated composite sticks into it, and then ignite them. With this method, I reliably get a nice bed of hot coals in 10-15 minutes.