How Hot Is Your Fire

Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2009 1:44 pm

Use visual clues (above) or the hand test (below) to tell how hot your charcoal fire is.

1. When the coals are all bright red and still flaming, they're very hot-—too hot for most grilling.
2. The fire will be a little cooler when the coals are red but covered with a light ash,
3. When the fire is medium hot, the coals will be thickly covered with a yellowish ash.

For best results, keep the griliing grate about 4 inches above the coals.

Use "the hand test" to tell
To test the heat of your fire, hold your outstretched palm an inch or two above the grill grate. The length of time you can stand the heat tells you how hot the grill is. You can use this test on gas grills as well as charcoal grills.

Time hand can be held over grill

Less than 1 second - very hot - over 600°

1 to 2 seconds - 400° to 500°

3 to 4 seconds - medium - 350° to 375°

5 to 7 seconds - medium low - 325° to 350°