Binchotan is the king of charcoal. Unlike regular hardwood charcoal Binchotan will burn for 3 – 5 hours, it can be extinguished and re-ignited 2 – 3 times and burns with an even constant heat which quickly seals in the natural flavours of your produce. Learn more about Binchotan here.
Fire up your binchotan until it’s glowing hot
Lighting your binchotan
1. Place charcoal in a charcoal chimney (pot with holes in the bottom) or directly over naked flame (Example: on a portable gas burner) to ignite for approx 25 minutes. It should be consistently glowing. Do not use a synthetic fire starter or you will end up with unhealthy and distasteful chemical fumes.
Use a chimney starter over a naked flame
2. Make sure all the charcoal is lit properly before placing it in the konro.
3. Use tongs to evenly place charcoal in your barbeque. If you are only using half your barbeque, stack binchotan evenly on one side only.
Use metal tongs to evenly fill your barbeque
4. Once stacked, leave the charcoal to burn for about 15 mins to build the heat. Reshuffle the logs to get a more even heat.
Ready for barbequing
Chef’s Tips
- Ensure you stack at least 2-3 layers deep of binchotan logs. This will give you good vertical heat and a more reliable grilling experience.
- Be patient. Often people start grilling before the charcoal has reached it’s peak heat potential.
- You’ll know when it’s ready to grill when a piece of chicken skin blisters and crackles after one minute.
20 Comments
Where can I get your version of the Chimney Starter. I like the large size. Other Chimney Starters have a concave bottom to accomodate newspaper to light. Those don’t work because the flame is too far from the binchotan.
Also, where did you get that grate. My konro came with those cheap flimsy wire grates.
Thanks
Barbeques Galore for both.
Do I need to fan the binchotan as i’m grilling to remove the ashes?
No need to remove the ashes. Wait until you’ve finished barbequing. After you’ve extinguished the charcoal separately, wait until the konro is cold and you can sweep the ashes out with a dustpan.
how do i put out the charcoal to reuse it? just h2o?
Put it in an old metal pot with the lid on to starve it of oxygen. Alternatively put it in a metal bucket of water, but it must be completely dry to reuse.
I just bought Konro today. Can you please explain how to light all the binchotan over a naked flame? My Konro will hold about 3 kilos>
Hi Annie,
Have a read of this info page https://www.chefsarmoury.com/pages/how-to-light-binchotan
Give us a call at the store tomorrow if you have any questions.
Cheers
How do you break large pieces of binchotan?
Just hit it with the back of a knife (thick part of the knife, not the edge), it is quite easy to portion
Can you use a electric stove? To heat the charcoal?
No, you must use gas or fire. Basically you need an open flame to light the charcoal.
I like the look of the grill on the Konro in the pictures. Is this home made or something I can buy?
Hi Craig,
You can buy from our website or in our Sydney or Melbourne store.
https://www.chefsarmoury.com/collections/japanese-bbq-grills
Can you use binchotan for low and slow smoking?
It’s not traditionally used for smoking.
Yes, as the heat source, since it burns for hours. I use it on a Weber kettle to slow cook brisket, ribs, etc. Obv you will need to add wood to produce the smoke.
How or where did you get the propane adapter to the binchotan pan fire starter ??
It’s a generic gas ring from a hardware store. Not sure where I got it from it was a while back.
Great questions and tips,Thanks