Fundamentals
The Two-Zone Fire: The One Setup Every Charcoal Cook Should Master
How to build a direct and indirect zone on a kettle or kamado, why it makes barbecue repeatable, and the vent settings that hold 250°F and 350°F.
Read the guideStart here
All six guides →Technique
The Brisket Stall: What It Is and Whether to Wrap
Why brisket and pork shoulder plateau around 150–170°F, what wrapping does to the physics and the bark, and how to decide between foil, butcher paper, and nothing.
Read the guideTechnique
Reverse Searing: Steak With an Even Edge and a Hard Crust
The indirect-then-direct method for thick steaks, with the temperatures, the rest timing, and why a cold steak straight from the fridge is fine.
Read the guideSeasoning & equipment
Seasoning
Rub Science: Salt, Sugar, and Why Your Bark Turns Bitter
A working model for building barbecue rubs — ratios, when sugar burns, and how to season by weight instead of by feel.
Read the guideBuying
Charcoal, Pellet, or Gas: Choosing a Grill Without the Marketing
An honest comparison of the three main fuel types on heat control, smoke flavour, running cost, and the kind of cooking each one is actually good at.
Read the guideEquipment
End-of-Season Maintenance That Prevents Spring Problems
A two-hour annual routine for kettles, gas grills, and pellet cookers — what to clean, what to replace, and how to store fuel so it lights in April.
Read the guideWhy this site exists
Bark & Ember is a small independent journal about cooking over fire. It exists because most barbecue advice online is either a recipe card with no explanation or a product review with an affiliate link attached.
Every guide here explains the mechanism: why a fire behaves the way it does, why meat stalls at 160°F, why sugar turns bitter above 325°F. Once you know the mechanism, you can adapt to your own grill, your own weather, and your own cuts of meat — which no recipe can do for you.
We publish no sponsored rankings and we do not claim to be competition champions. We do publish internal-temperature targets we actually use and correct ourselves in public when we get something wrong.
The quick numbers
- Low & slow250–275°F
- Medium350–400°F
- Sear500–700°F
- Pork buttpull at 200–205°F
- Brisketprobe-tender, 200–208°F
- Chicken thigh175–185°F
- Steak, medium rare130–135°F