01 Heat · The lead entry

Two zones, or nothing

Bank the fire to one side and you gain a tool a flat bed never gives you: a way out. A single even bed of coals has one setting and no way off it — the outside chars before the centre has moved.

Direct zone, hand count2 s

Ground beef, centre71 °C

Turns1

A cook laying a two-zone charcoal bed with tongs — All the lit fuel banked to one half; the bare half is where the cooking finishes.
Photo: Karolina Grabowska www.kaboompics.com / Pexels

The scale is drawn rather than set, because a fire is never as precise as a number makes it look.

Reading now

Four entries worth starting with. The complete roster — twenty-three — lives on the register and on the section pages.

No.

Entry

What it settles

Section

01 Pressing costs everything Every press is rendered fat in the coals instead of in the meat. 02 The Patty 02 Smoke is an ingredient Clean thin smoke seasons; thick white smoke deposits soot and tastes of it. 04 Smoke 03 Reading the coals Ash colour, the hand test, and why a thermometer at grate height tells you less than you think. 01 Heat 04 Resting What is actually happening, and why the argument persists. 06 Long Cuts

Hands forming a patty loosely on a board — Formed, not compacted: the gaps left inside are where the fat sits once it melts.
Photo: Youssef Samuil / Pexels

A group eating outdoors around a grill at dusk — 07 At the Fire

Cooking for a crowd

The fire is a finite resource that is dying from the moment you light it, so the cook is sequenced against it.

Photo: Pavel Danilyuk / Pexels

08 Reference

Temperatures, unaltered

What

Centre

Note

Ground beef71 °CCooked through; the figure a burger works to

Whole cuts of beef, lamb, pork63 °CThen rest three minutes before carving

Poultry, whole or ground74 °CNo rest required

Reheating cooked food74 °CThroughout, not only at the surface

The whole reference ↗

Handling

Keep raw meat cold until it goes on the fire. Keep the board, plate and tongs that touched it away from anything that comes off cooked. Measure the centre with a thermometer rather than by eye, in the thickest part.

This is the conventional guidance and nothing on this site departs from it.