Using egg carton dipped in melted crisco a good charcoal starter

[Ymtboss]

Hello everyone, I just received my Kamado over the weekend and first cook was a success, specially with the wife that was not a fan of the price tag  . With the grill I purchased a bag of Big block charcoal but I did not get any starters. I have been using egg carton dipped in crisco with my Webber for a while now and always works like a charm. Just wondering if anyone else has used this method and if this is something that would be recommended.

[Charles Wagon]

That's a good way to repurpose egg cartons rather than send them to the landfill! I generally use alcohol-soaked (denatured alcohol fuel... nothing from my liquor cabinet!) cotton balls. 

[Ymtboss]

9 minutes ago, Chris Topher said:

That's a good way to repurpose egg cartons rather than send them to the landfill! I generally use alcohol-soaked (denatured alcohol fuel... nothing from my liquor cabinet!) cotton balls. 

We definitely go through a lot of eggs in a household 7!  My only concern is with gradual residue if any. The amount of crisco is very minimal and I’m only adding 2 at a time

[Golf Griller]

I can't remember where I saw it, but I've seen fire starters made out of shredded paper in paraffin wax.

[Scott Roberts]

5 hours ago, Chris Topher said:

denatured alcohol fuel... nothing from my liquor cabinet!) cotton balls.

Edited May 19, 2021 by Scott Roberts

[Scott Roberts]

5 hours ago, Ymtboss said:

My only concern is with gradual residue if any. The amount of crisco is very minimal and I’m only adding 2 at a time

You could use them by placing below charcoal basket in the ash catcher. Congrats on new Kamado Joe.

 

Scott

[MikeRobinson]

Dunno – I always just use a chimney starter.  Sometimes with a squirt from a propane torch to "get things going" if the newspaper doesn't seem to be getting the job done fast enough.

[CentralTexBBQ]

My egg cartons are all plastic based. And I am settled on cotton balls soaked in 91% alcohol- that's my sweet spot. A chimney starter is a non starter for me. I gave both of mine away when I bought my first Big Joe. Great for hot and fast. A bad idea for low and slow, imo. And 60% of my cooks are low and slow. Useed to be a much higher percentage pre-Cov-ID shutdowns.

[jtemple]

I use a chimney and a cooking oil soaked paper towel for my kettle grill + briquettes.

 

When I got my Kamado I also bought a Looftlighter and haven't used anything else since. Lights reasonably fast, no fuel to worry about whatsoever.