Fire Up Your Grill With This Clever Egg Carton Hack

At some point in early (or possibly very late) adulthood, the magic wears off and the WHOOSH of lighter fluid igniting in your grill no longer holds the charm it once did. There could be a correlation with medical insurance premiums. In any event, TikTok creator @LORAfied has a hack that will get things sizzling for you in no time: start your charcoal in an otherwise empty egg carton. Apparently, the carton burns long and hot enough to light the charcoal without the help of lighter fluid. The downside is that you'll have to find another way to get that mineral-spirit-y flavor, supplement your daily ration of carcinogens, and acquire a new source for something called "photochemical smog," which is apparently caused by lighter fluid. You'll still get the benzene from the charcoal, though! And you'll need to dispose of that lighter fluid.

In her video, @LORAfied explains as an accomplice fills the carton with eggs, cuts triangular holes in its ends and tears a strip away from the top to let oxygen circulate. "It totally works" testifies her husband. He adds that it would be great for tailgating. The egg carton charcoal trick is certainly clever, and that's what counts on TikTok. But is it the best way?

To decide, you need to know what you're using all this heat for. For her part, @LORAfied seems to be grilling about a half-dozen eggs. This raises important questions like "which comes first, the charcoal or the eggs?" and "is she putting her carton before her oeufs?" What really matters is that it doesn't take a lot of fire-power to hard-broil six eggs; the dozen charcoal briquettes she uses in her carton would surely do the trick. But if you're determined to grill a bushel of artichokes for your lacrosse tailgating party, you're going to need a lot of charcoal. Maybe you're making a lot of Hollandaise sauce for all those 'chokes and so you're positively blowing through the eggs. Otherwise, you might find it difficult to produce enough cartons to hold the 50-75 briquettes Char-Broil recommends for a large grill.

There are, of course, other ways to light your charcoal. Electric starters are clean and easy, but might be difficult to power in some locations. The charcoal chimney is the usual go-to. If you're not familiar with the device, Dr. Oz helpfully describes them (via OregonLive and other outlets) as looking like "an oversized metal beer mug with a grate near the bottom." If that makes sense to you, well, ooookay, but otherwise you can check them out at Home Depot. But if egg carton disposal is a burning issue for you, you can always just add more briquettes after the carton has burned away.