In general, the more charcoal you use, the hotter your fire. If it’s cold, windy, or rainy, or if you need more heat to cook your meat, you’ll want to toss additional briquettes on the pile.

Build a small mound of fresh coals on your grill’s charcoal grate, with some loosely crumpled balls of old newspaper among the coals at the base of the pile. If the charcoal grate has an open ...