Fuel selection is a crucial element in cooking, especially grilling. One increasingly popular alternative fuel among people is coconut shell charcoal. Charcoal made from coconut shells has environmentally friendly properties and does not produce any distinct odor or taste in food. Instead, this type of charcoal provides a unique flavor and aroma to the food cooked on it. Therefore, coconut charcoal is often used for grilling foods such as meat, fish, chicken, or others. Here is a complete guide on selecting coconut charcoal for grilling and its usage techniques.
Advantages of Coconut Charcoal
Coconut charcoal used for grilling has several advantages over using wood charcoal. Firstly, coconut charcoal does not impart a harsh taste; instead, it adds a distinctive flavor to the food. The light and sweet flavor of coconut charcoal can enhance the taste of food, giving it a unique flavor not achieved when grilling with wood charcoal.
Another advantage of this type of charcoal is its ability to provide consistent and stable heat. This allows food to cook evenly from all sides. Coconut charcoal also has a longer burning time compared to regular wood charcoal. Thus, coconut charcoal enables cooking for a longer time without the need to replace the charcoal regularly.
Coconut charcoal is also popularly used because of its environmentally friendly nature. The production process of coconut charcoal, which utilizes coconut shell waste and does not involve the addition of chemicals, makes it more environmentally friendly. Unlike wood charcoal, which requires wild tree felling, coconut charcoal uses existing agricultural waste as its main raw material.
Steps for Using Coconut Charcoal
The advantages of coconut charcoal as a fuel for cooking, grilling, and heating food are becoming increasingly popular among people. This is because coconut charcoal has a neutral taste and aroma compared to traditional wood charcoal. Coconut charcoal usually comes in smaller sizes compared to other coconut charcoal types. Here are the steps in using coconut charcoal for grilling.
Choosing Coconut Charcoal Properly
Choosing high-quality coconut charcoal is important before the grilling process. By using high-quality coconut charcoal, it will create the best experience for the user. Therefore, understand the tips for selecting high-quality coconut charcoal below:
- Size: Coconut charcoal comes in various sizes with different uses. To get a better grilling experience, you can choose charcoal sizes according to your needs or according to the grilling tool. It should be noted that larger charcoal sizes usually take longer to ignite. However, large-sized charcoal can last longer compared to smaller sizes.
- Quality: It is important to choose charcoal of the highest quality to get a good cooking experience. You can choose charcoal produced with natural ingredients without the addition of harmful chemical additives. If the charcoal used is mixed with heavy metals or harmful chemicals, it will affect human health.
- Cleanliness: Another thing to consider when choosing coconut charcoal for grilling is cleanliness. You must ensure that the charcoal used is not contaminated by foreign objects or other chemicals.
Preparation for Grilling with Coconut Charcoal
Before grilling food on coconut charcoal, there are several things that need to be prepared, such as ignition and monitoring. This preparation is usually done to measure the appropriate heat and control it to ensure that the heat remains stable so that the food can cook evenly. Here are the steps for preparing for grilling with coconut charcoal.
- Ignition of Coconut Charcoal: The first step is ignition. This is done by placing the coconut charcoal loosely inside the furnace or stack in the oven. Then, you can light the charcoal with a lighter and make sure to provide enough air for the charcoal to ignite properly. This process is done before the coconut charcoal is used as a grilling fuel to obtain charcoal with stable and uniform heat.
- Monitoring: Monitor the coconut charcoal that is in the ignition process. Let the charcoal burn for some time to ensure that the coconut charcoal has burned well and there are no parts that are still unburned.
Grilling Technique
After the coconut charcoal is deemed ready for use, the next step is to start using the coconut charcoal for grilling food. However, pay attention to the following grilling techniques to get the best cooking results using coconut shell charcoal.
- Preheating Coconut Charcoal: Make sure that the coconut charcoal used is evenly hot before starting to place the food on it. This will ensure that the food is cooked evenly and reduce the risk of unburned charcoal residue. If the coconut charcoal used is not evenly heated, the food on it may not cook evenly.
- Temperature Control: Temperature control can be done by adjusting the distance between the charcoal and the grilled food. Additionally, temperature control is also done by adjusting the amount of charcoal used. If you want the grilling process to be quick, you can place the charcoal closer to the food. However, when you want the grilling process to be slower, you can place the charcoal further away from the food.
- Edge Burning: The grilling process using charcoal requires monitoring the food by regularly flipping it to ensure even cooking on all sides of the food. Never burn the edges of the food by moving it occasionally. This will make the food cook unevenly because of the process of moving the food.
Find High-Quality Coconut Charcoal
That’s the explanation about the advantages and steps for using coconut charcoal for grilling. The important point to note in the food grilling process is to choose high-quality coconut charcoal. Using low-quality coconut charcoal can cause health and environmental problems. Low-quality coconut charcoal may be mixed with harmful chemicals or heavy metals that can affect human health. This is because coconut charcoal is used in grilling activities.
For those of you who want to get high-quality coconut charcoal and available in several sizes that can be used for grilling food, burning shisha, or others. You can get the coconut charcoal at Little Briquette. Little Briquette is a factory and supplier of high-quality coconut charcoal with Sumatran coconut raw materials from its own plantation. Thus, the quality provided from raw materials to the production process cannot be doubted. Contact Little Briquette now to get the best experience using coconut charcoal.