Cooking with charcoal is relatively simple and is actually similar to cooking with the coals from a camp fire. You can also use many of the same tools and and cookware when using charcoal. Some of the benefits of using charcoal vs. a wood fire are: you can still use charcoal even when fires are banned, they will still light even when it is windy and it is easier to control the heat with charcoal.
LUMP- This type of charcoal is made by slowly burning wood pieces in the absence of oxygen until all the sap, moisture and chemicals are burned out. What is left is mostly carbon. It contains no fillers or additives which makes it a cleaner way to use charcoal. 
APPLE BOX OVENS-These are great because they are relatively cheap and can be made with readily available things. All you need to make your own is an apple box, aluminum foil, foil tape, oven bag(optional), spray adhesive(optional), some sort of rack(roasting, grill, cooling) and food thermometer(optional). To construct it you can either just use the top of the apple box or if you want to make it extra sturdy nest the bottom inside the top. If you want a window in your oven simply cut a hole(9"x4")in the box and cover it with the oven safe bag and secure it in place with spray adhesive. If you want to have a thermometer to know what temperature is being reached inside use the pointy end of it to puncture a hole in the box. Cut a couple of notches on the small sides of the box at the bottom to allow oxygen for the charcoals, then cover all of it with foil. Some people don't cut the bottom notches so it is totally up to you. If you leave any cardboard exposed it can pose a fire hazard. Make sure you have something to prop your rack on so it isn't sitting directly on top of the charcoal. You can use some flat rocks, bricks, soup/soda cans(make sure to add weight to these like sand or pebbles so they won't tip over) or even a cookie sheet. Place the charcoals under the rack put the box over top and let it set for a few minutes, then put whatever you are cooking on the rack. At our class we made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and they baked wonderfully and tasted great.
Now, there are 2 different types of charcoal (who knew?). The first is the one you have all probably heard of and used and that is charcoal briquettes. The other one is lump charcoal. Trust me there is serious debate out there about which one is better, so what are the differences and benefits of each kind?
Pros-All natural, little ash production, lights faster and burns hotter than briquettes, can be used for direct cooking
Cons-uneven pieces(some big, some small), more expensive than briquettes and burns faster
BRIQUETTE- These are made from sawdust and wood and are burned down similar to lump charcoal, however there are additives that are used to hold the materials together and to make them into uniform sized little bricks.
Pros-maintains a steady temperature for longer than lump, cheaper and burns longer than lump
Cons-makes a lot of ash, takes longer to light than lump and has a chemical smell.
Each one has its own benefits and drawbacks. The biggest benefit to lump is that you can direct cook on it. That means if you wanted to you could literally throw a steak directly onto the charcoal and let it cook. There won't be any fire flare up so you won't burn it and because it doesn't produce very much ash you won't be picking it off your food. It will give it a nice sear and seal in lots of good flavor too. However if you are not a huge fan of smoke, lump is not for you as it does produce smoke. Obviously you can't direct grill with briquettes but their biggest benefit is they are going to last longer and since they are also cheaper they are way more cost effective than lump. The draw back is they are made with chemicals so if you are into all organic all the time these are not for you.
CHIMNEY- As far as getting your charcoal going the best way to do it is use a chimney. There are a couple of different varieties out there. One is tall and skinny and the other is short and wide. Everyone has their own opinion as to which one is better, so you will need to decide which will work best for you. To get either type of charcoal going all you need to do is crumple up a couple of pieces of newspaper and light them on fire. They will get your charcoal going in no time. Leave them in the chimney until most of them begin to turn white then dump them out and get cooking.
COOKWARE- Just about any type of cookware can be used when cooking with charcoal. Just make sure if it isn't cast iron that you don't put it directly on the charcoal. ONLY cast iron cookware can be placed directly on charcoal. If you use an aluminum or steel or even enamel type cookware make sure to elevate it off the charcoal using either a cooking tripod or grill grate. If you don't it will warp, chip, burn, etc.
FIREPAN- if you don't have a fire pit, it's important to use a firepan to help protect against unintentional fires. There are ones out there you can buy, but in a pinch any fireproof implement can be used such as: baking sheet or steel or aluminum sheets. Make sure you prop these up 2-3 inches above the charcoals. You can do this by using bricks or some big flat rocks. It obviously needs to be stable to that it doesn't tip over and ruin what you were cooking.
WIND- it's important to have some sort of wind shield for your charcoal. Even though they are great to use in the wind verses a fire, they still need some protection because the wind will cause them to burn hotter and faster. Charcoal that would normally burn for 60 min will burn out in 30-45 in the wind. And of course as with anything that involves fire and heat it is important to keep a water source nearby and keep kids away from it so they don't get burned.
Now onto the delicious part, the cooking and some favorite recipes. Cooking with charcoal is relatively easy just like over a campfire. It does take a little know how but overall is very simple and straight forward.
DUTCH OVENS- There are 2 general methods for cooking in a dutch oven, the first is the counting method where you have a specific number of pieces of coal that you space evenly under and on top of the dutch oven depending on what you are cooking. The other is the Dinwiddie ring method. To see the charts for each of these methods click here and here . Each method has its merits and downfalls. For the counting method if you are trying to conserve or want to know exactly how many you need this is the way to go. Most recipes will tell you exactly how many to put on top and on bottom to create the perfect 
cooking environment. The downside is that as the charcoal sits it loses heat and you may run out of the appropriate amount of heat before your food is done and have to either start more charcoal burning or throw it over a fire. With the Dinwiddie method you essentially just create rings of charcoal on the bottom and top of the dutch oven to achieve certain levels of heat. Because you are creating rings the charcoal is closer together and will hold its heat longer ensuring your food will get done. The downside, you will use more charcoal this way and you might have to remove some if your food is cooking too quickly since no one enjoys eating burnt food. Overall, people have had a lot of success using either method and you will just have to experiment to see which one works best for you. For easy clean up use a dutch oven liner. There are different varieties, my personal favorite is the aluminum pan. I have cooked a ton of things in them and never had it leak or get holes, which then would defeat the purpose of even having a liner. What can you cook in a dutch oven? ANYTHING!!! And I really mean anything your little heart desires. I ran across this website some years ago and was blown away by it. This lady cooked in her dutch oven everyday for a year solid. It was amazing and inspiring. She cooked a lot of things and used her dutch oven in ways I hadn't yet considered (pizza in the lid). It's definitely worth checking out just for the recipes alone. There are no repeats just 365 days of something
different; that in and of itself blew me away. One of my favorite quick, easy and will feed a lot of people recipes is meatloaf. Just use your favorite recipe and throw it in the dutchoven. My favorite recipe is: take 1lb ground beef or turkey, 1/4c. Italian breadcrumbs, 1 egg, 1 Tbsp.Worcestershire sauce and 3 Tbsp. BBQ sauce, mix together and throw it in your dutch oven. It generally is done in about 30-40 min. If you want them to cook faster you could divide them into individual or mini meatloaves. Serve them with your favorite dutch oven potatoes recipe or you could also make some rice pilaf. Another favorite is a chicken cordon bleu with rice. It is super easy too. Another great website for recipes is this one.
For a few years in a row my entire family would go on a boating/camping trip around my mom's birthday so we would try to come up with desserts that would be special for her birthday (outside the norm
of peach cobbler etc.) The fan favorite ended up being my altered version of a sunrise cake. It's actually meant to be more of a breakfast type coffee cake, but my version changes it to be more of an actual dessert that isn't overly sweet. Another one we all enjoyed as a different take on s'mores was s'more cookie bars. You can see these recipes here. I have so many recipes that I have found or created that I have actually started a dutch oven recipe folder that stays with all my camping gear so I can always go back and revisit recipes I may have forgotten about.
FOIL- Foil pack dinner/desserts are another quick and easy method for cooking over charcoals. Again the possibilities are endless as far as recipes. See the post on campfire cooking for some of my favorites and tips on how to correctly fold the foil to avoid leakage and prevent ash getting in.. When using charcoal to do foil pack dinners you need to have a place to put all of it, we generally just throw it all in the fire pit. Get a whole bunch of charcoal going, obviously how much will depend on how many people you are cooking for. We usually put it in a ring around the inner outside edge of the fire pit and then place our foil packs on top of it. Make sure you turn them often so they don't get burned. This is when an edge (rocks/bricks) on your fire pit comes in handy so you can pull one out, open and check to see if it is done and ready to devour.
APPLE BOX OVENS-These are great because they are relatively cheap and can be made with readily available things. All you need to make your own is an apple box, aluminum foil, foil tape, oven bag(optional), spray adhesive(optional), some sort of rack(roasting, grill, cooling) and food thermometer(optional). To construct it you can either just use the top of the apple box or if you want to make it extra sturdy nest the bottom inside the top. If you want a window in your oven simply cut a hole(9"x4")in the box and cover it with the oven safe bag and secure it in place with spray adhesive. If you want to have a thermometer to know what temperature is being reached inside use the pointy end of it to puncture a hole in the box. Cut a couple of notches on the small sides of the box at the bottom to allow oxygen for the charcoals, then cover all of it with foil. Some people don't cut the bottom notches so it is totally up to you. If you leave any cardboard exposed it can pose a fire hazard. Make sure you have something to prop your rack on so it isn't sitting directly on top of the charcoal. You can use some flat rocks, bricks, soup/soda cans(make sure to add weight to these like sand or pebbles so they won't tip over) or even a cookie sheet. Place the charcoals under the rack put the box over top and let it set for a few minutes, then put whatever you are cooking on the rack. At our class we made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and they baked wonderfully and tasted great. Do you have any favorite recipes or tips you would like to share? Feel free to share in the comments.
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