But after I lit the grill, I realized I was short on lighter fluid. Usually I use too much, and consequently the bottle ran empty and I had to hope I had enough to light the coals. Coals that are very moist from the humidity of my recently flooded garage...
Nope. Nothing doing. So I tried something. I use denatured alcohol to clean up epoxy when I'm working with my rockets, and I know that's basically Sterno, the can even says it's suitable fuel for marine stoves.
So I took a big Dixie cup and filled it with the stuff. Then I cautiously chucked this onto the half-lit coals.
I'm glad I was cautious, because it went up spectacularly. Set off a heat wave that might have moved the hairs on my head if I had any.
Then, after the coals had burned down, I worried about whether it was safe to cook directly over the coals if there was any residual methanol there. So I Googled it and it turns out it's on Sterno's FAQ. They don't recommend cooking directly over a methanol fire but not because it's dangerous. The explicitly say the fumes won't be a problem, that as long as you don't pour the denatured alcohol on the food you're cool. But it's a very, very hot fire, and you're more likely to set fire to dinner than cook it.
Which led me to two things: first, I wondered about a hybrid rocket motor with liquid oxygen or nitrous oxide and denatured alcohol. Seems like it would be a pretty kick-ass propellant combination.
Second, I wrapped this sizeable piece of salmon in several layers of foil with the reflective side out. I figured this would mitigate my extremely hot fire and keep the fish from drying out.
It worked like a charm. The salmon was perfect in ten minutes. Flaky and moist.
I made some chipotle mayonnaise and sliced some red onion paper thin, cracked some pepper and ground a bit of sea salt over it, and wow. Truly a dinner worth sitting down to.
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