So you're planning on doing some grilling, huh? Well remember, it's all about the heat, and building your charcoal fire is more than just dumping in the charcoal and dousing them with lighter fluid. This may be how many people do it, but do it that way and you'll probably end up with burned burgers or raw chicken.

Even heat is the key to great grilling. The only time you should have any variation in heat is when you plan for it. If you evenly distribute the coals you can minimize any variation and get good, even grilling. This is very important when you are cooking a large amount of food on the grill. If you just dump your coals in randomly you will have hot and cool spots.

As a general rule of thumb, plan on using about 30 charcoal briquettes to cook 1 pound of meat. You want to make sure that you have enough briquettes to cover the grill's pan in a single layer and extending out about 2" beyond the area of the food on the grill. The first step is to place the briquettes in the grill's pan to determine the quantity and then stack them up in a rough pyramid shape to light. Soak the briquettes with approximately 1/2 cup of lighter fluid, and let set for a few minutes before lighting.

After the coals have begun to burn and ash starts to form (usually around 15-20 minutes), you will then need to arrange them with long handled tongs into a single layer keeping the coals tight together. This will provide you with an even, direct heating surface all ready to go for whatever meat you're in the mood for.

The indirect heating method is an alternative to cooking your food directly over the heating area. The simplest way to do this is to put all the coals on one side of the grill and no coals on the other side. On a gas grill this is equivalent to turning the burner on one side on and leaving the other off, but with a charcoal grill you can do even more than that. If you are using a kettle style grill, you can use a method know as "The Ring of Fire". All that is required for this method is to push the coals to the outside of the coal grate leaving the middle empty after the coals are hot. This gives you an even heat around the entire grill and a good indirect cooking space.

To add a little something extra to your food, you might want to consider using slow burning hardwood chips in your coal fire to infuse your meat with a smoky flavor. All you'll need to do is add a few pieces of the hardwood chips to your coals. To make things a little simpler, you could even pick up some charcoal briquettes that are manufactured with hardwood chips built right in.