Charcoal snake method

The charcoal snake method, sometimes called the fuse method, is a way of arranging unlit charcoal briquettes or lump charcoal in a long curved line around the inside edge of a kettle grill, rather than piling it in the center. A handful of lit coals is placed at one end of the line, and the fire then creeps slowly along the unlit charcoal, briquette by briquette, instead of the whole pile igniting and burning down at once.

This slow, self-feeding burn is what makes the snake method popular for long low and slow cooks like ribs or a pork butt on a basic kettle grill that has no separate firebox or automatic feed system. Because only a small section of the snake is burning at any given time, the overall temperature stays low and fairly steady for several hours without needing to add fresh charcoal partway through the cook.

Placing a few wood chunks along the top of the snake adds smoke flavor as the fire reaches each one in turn, spreading the smoke out over the whole cook rather than dumping it all at once. A common mistake is building the snake too tightly packed or too thick, which lets the fire jump ahead of schedule and burns through the fuel much faster than intended.