Barbecue Glossary: Charcoal and BBQ Terms Explained

A

Ash catcher: A removable pan under the bottom vent that collects ash. Emptying it after every cook stops ash absorbing damp and rusting the bowl from the inside, and stops it choking the vent on the next cook.

Banking: Piling the lit coals to one side of the grill rather than spreading them evenly, to create a two-zone fire with a hot direct side and a cooler indirect side.
Bark: The dark, firm crust that forms on the surface of smoked meat, from the rub, rendered fat and smoke reacting over a long cook. Wrapping in paper preserves it; wrapping in foil softens it.
Binchotan: Japanese white charcoal, fired at very high temperature until it rings like stone. It produces almost no smoke or flame, just steady radiant heat, and is the fuel yakitori is cooked over.
Briquette: Charcoal fines and sawdust pressed into a uniform pillow shape with a binder. The uniformity gives a predictable, steady burn, which is why the snake and Minion methods are built around briquettes.

Carryover: The continued rise in a food's internal temperature after it leaves the heat, as heat travels inward from the hot surface. A thick steak climbs 3 to 5°C while resting, so you pull it below target.
Caul fat: The lacy membrane of fat from around a pig's stomach, used to wrap sheftalia and other minced-meat parcels. It melts during cooking and bastes the meat from the outside.
Charcoal chimney: A metal cylinder that lights charcoal by stacking it over a paper or wood-wool starter, so each coal lights the one above. Ready in twelve to fifteen minutes with no lighter fluid, and it doubles as a unit of measurement for how much fuel to use.

Deflector: A ceramic or metal plate that sits between the fire and the food to block direct radiant heat, turning a grill into an oven for indirect cooking. Called a convEGGtor or heat deflector on a kamado.

Foukou: The Greek Cypriot barbecue: a long charcoal trough with a motorised spit turning several skewers at once. Built for slow-cooking large pieces of meat, souvla, over direct charcoal.

Indirect heat: Cooking food away from the coals rather than directly over them, with the lid on so convected heat circulates. The method for anything that needs to cook through before the outside burns.

Lump charcoal: Charcoal made by carbonising wood with nothing added. It lights faster, burns hotter and leaves less ash than briquettes, but comes in irregular sizes that burn less predictably.

Maillard reaction: The browning reaction between amino acids and sugars under heat that creates hundreds of savoury flavour compounds. It is why a seared crust tastes better, and it needs a dry, hot surface.
Minion method: A fuel arrangement for bullet smokers and drums: a full load of unlit charcoal with a small number of lit coals added on top, so the fire burns slowly downward and outward for ten hours or more.
Mojo: A Cuban marinade and sauce of sour orange juice, crushed garlic, oregano and cumin, used both before and after cooking lechon asado.

Pimento wood: The wood of the allspice tree, burnt under jerk to give it its defining smoke. Allspice berries in a foil pouch on the coals are a genuine substitute.
Plancha: A solid steel plate heated from below, for cooking anything too small or delicate for a grate: prawns, eggs, chopped vegetables, smash burgers. No flare-ups, because fat cannot drip into the fire.

Reverse sear: Cooking a thick cut gently on the indirect side first, then searing it hard over the coals at the end. It gives an evenly cooked interior with no grey band and a better crust.
Rigani: Cypriot and Greek dried oregano, sold on the stalk and far more pungent than supermarket oregano. Crushed between the palms over souvla and grilled meat.

Snake method: A fuel arrangement for kettles: unlit briquettes laid in a C around the bowl edge, lit at one end so the fire creeps along at about an inch an hour, holding low heat for ten to twelve hours.
Souvla: Cypriot barbecue of large fist-sized chunks of pork or lamb cooked slowly on a foukou spit. Not to be confused with souvlaki, which is small cubes cooked fast.
Spatchcock: Removing the backbone from a bird and flattening it, so it cooks faster and more evenly and exposes far more skin to the fire.
Stall: The point in a long cook, usually 68 to 77°C internal, where the temperature stops climbing for hours as surface evaporation cools the meat as fast as the fire heats it. Wrapping pushes through it.

Tare: The sweet soy-based glaze brushed onto yakitori in the final minutes of cooking. Applied early it burns, because of the sugar.
Thin blue smoke: The nearly invisible smoke from wood that is properly combusting with enough oxygen. It smells sweet and is what you want. Thick white smoke means smouldering, which tastes bitter.
Two-zone fire: A fire with the coals banked to one side, giving a hot searing zone over the coals and a gentle roasting zone opposite. The single most useful technique in charcoal cooking.

Vent, top and bottom: The two dampers that are a charcoal grill's only temperature control. The bottom vent feeds air to the coals and is the throttle; the top vent steers where the heat travels and should stay mostly open.

Water pan: A tray of water placed between the fire and the food in a smoker. Water cannot exceed 100°C, so it damps the cooker against temperature spikes and adds humidity that helps smoke stick.