As has been stressed, starting your AMNPS (laying down a good little bed of coals) is the key to happiness. The problem is common to starting any fire, trying to get that bed of coals by lighting “raw wood”.
It occurred to me that what I wanted to try was “charcoal-pellets” - not exactly available down at the 7-Eleven. So I made my own.
There’s other threads here about making charcoal, it’s basically cooking wood in the absence of oxygen. This is how I went about it:
Light ‘er up, the cooking process took a little over an hour for me.
Though the volume of resultant charcoal is almost as much as the wood, my 1 ½ lbs of pellets are now 2 ½ ozs of charcoal-pellets.
I banked about 1 heaping tablespoon of the charcoal-pellets against the lighter hole in my AMNPS, and filled the rest with wood pellets. Lit with the torch, blew on the coals, and I very quickly had a cherry-red glowing bed of coals. It took far less time than usual to get ‘er goin’ properly, stayed lit, and the smoke was great from the git-go. I’m quite pleased with the results.
It occurred to me that what I wanted to try was “charcoal-pellets” - not exactly available down at the 7-Eleven. So I made my own.
There’s other threads here about making charcoal, it’s basically cooking wood in the absence of oxygen. This is how I went about it:
- You need wood (I used 1 ½ lbs of hickory pellets),
- A heat source (I used my gas cooker, but you could use a chimenea or any fire),
- A “retort” (the cooking vessel, I used a clean 1 quart paint can from Home Depot, the “quart retort”).
Light ‘er up, the cooking process took a little over an hour for me.
- At first, lots of steam and smoke comes out of the hole in the lid,
- Then a “jet” of gas coming out of the hole in the lid will ignite,
- When this “jet” burns out, you’re done.
Though the volume of resultant charcoal is almost as much as the wood, my 1 ½ lbs of pellets are now 2 ½ ozs of charcoal-pellets.
I banked about 1 heaping tablespoon of the charcoal-pellets against the lighter hole in my AMNPS, and filled the rest with wood pellets. Lit with the torch, blew on the coals, and I very quickly had a cherry-red glowing bed of coals. It took far less time than usual to get ‘er goin’ properly, stayed lit, and the smoke was great from the git-go. I’m quite pleased with the results.
