Fire Friends - Andrew Clarke – www.houseofcharcoal.co.uk

Live Fire Cook & Author

Andrew Clarke

So, you’ve decided to be a live-fire cook?

Picture this, you’ve taken your first step into the world of live-fire cooking. You’ve been seduced by the exciting selection of grills and smokers, frames and firepits, each offering a different way to cook over open fire. So many choices.

You’ve already been warned against buying a gas grill. You might as well toast a burger on a fork over the gas hob in your kitchen and call it barbecue. That’s not live-fire cooking.

Pellet smokers are another waste of money. They’re for the imposters, so you're right to avoid them too. No, you’re looking for something that lets you cook with charcoal and wood; something that unleashes that primal being within, to harness the flame as our ancestors once did!

After much time spent looking in every garden centre in the County, you find the perfect bit of kit online; a custom-made Argentinean grill, like the one you saw that bearded, tattooed chef use in East London.

But it’s a little out of your price range.

It does have a lifetime guarantee, so you're thinking of this as an investment - and of course it’ll make you the envy of the neighbourhood, so you really have to have it!

Perhaps you can forgo a holiday this year and embrace summer at home in the garden, perfecting your skills and winning over friends as you indulge in your new obsession.

“Better run this past the wife”.

Reluctantly, your wife succumbs to the idea, but only because she’s a good person and wants you to be happy. As a compromise, she asks that you cook for her and your ‘mutual’ friends this Saturday.

“What should I cook? What should we eat?”

You go to seek inspiration in that new butcher’s shop in town that everyone’s been talking about, and marvel at the dry-aged meats displayed in the window.

Rare and native breeds – Longhorn, Shorthorn, White Park, Dexter, Belted Galloway - you're a kid in a candy shop, but this sugar is protein. You buy a couple of thick beef chops that cost a small fortune, but if you have the best equipment, you want the best ingredients.

With so much to organise and think about, it’s easy to overlook the importance of choosing the right fuel. “Oh yeah, charcoal. I guess I can just pick up a bag of charcoal up at the nearest petrol station, can’t I?

And in this single moment, the decision you make will change your life.

It’s Saturday and you spend the morning setting up your new grill, then load it up with the cheap ‘petrol garage’ charcoal, ready for lighting when the guests arrive. The rest of the morning is spent preparing vegetables, salads and sauces, so all you have to do is grill the meat later.

It’s 5pm and the doorbell rings. Your guests arrive. You light the fire.

You place those incredible beef chops - dry-aged for 60 days, from a small regenerative farm, way out in the sticks - onto the grill, flipping and turning them to a perfect medium-rare. Then you let them rest. You slice the warm steaks with the razor-sharp Japanese knife your wife bought you for your birthday, then season them liberally like the guy with the salt you saw on Instagram.

Proudly, you take the chops over to your table of guests to show off your cooking skills, and to prove to your wife that spending all that money on the most expensive equipment really was a good investment. You're welcomed with a buzz of excitement and delight as you place the steaks in the centre of the table. So far, so good.

Maybe you weren’t expecting a standing ovation, a parade or knighthood, but you did expect some praise from your guests. A few agreeable noises would have been the least they could have offered, but the mood changed after the first bites to awkward smiles and a silent dinner table.

One guest asks about the tomatoes “ooh, what’s the vinaigrette on the salad?” in a futile attempt to divert the attention from the meat. But you know what’s wrong. You know why this is happening; it was the shitty charcoal. And It’s ruined everything.

You’ve let everyone down - the farmer, the animals, the butcher, the ironmonger who made your dream kit. Everyone. In the blink of an eye, your wife leaves you, your friends delete you from social media, the police get involved, and now you're all alone thinking about that poor decision, over and over again.

For fuck sake...BUY PROPER CHARCOAL!!

Our British Charcoal. Your essential ingredient.

Bring out true flavours, wow your guests, reduce the carbon footprint.

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Mixed Hardwood Charcoal

Yorkshire Charcoal Company

An exclusive from god’s own county and our founders beloved Yorkshire, this medium density mixed hardwood charcoal delivers consistent heat, with subtle smoky flavours and a long burn.

£31.00 8KG

Beech Charcoal

Whittle & Flame

A dense charcoal that is suited perfectly for low and slow and also for cooking directly on the coals. Sustained heat, low smoke and very little ash residue. Definitely worth the experience!

£22.00 4KG

Wild Cherry Charcoal

Stag Charcoal

There are charcoals and there are charcoals… and we love all British grown and produced charcoals. Then there is wild cherry. It does not get better than this!

£37.00 6KG

Alder Charcoal

Stag Charcoal

A super rare, wonderful charcoal and we are so lucky to offer this – when it’s gone its gone! It’s the stuff of folklore and said to be the home of the forest fairies!

£28.00 6KG

Flamers Fire Starters

Certainly Wood

These flamers are made from natural wood wool with natural, renewable, untreated wood shavings.

From £4.00

Oak Charcoal

Slate Hill Charcoal

Despite the perception that Oak charcoal delivers a strong smoke flavour, that’s not the case because of the high carbon levels so you’re buying this for its great burn properties. This is a hugely versatile charcoal and a great all rounder!

£28.00 4KG