280235 Tue Oct 11 18:28:26 -0700 2005 8 31 Home Cooking 0 1488117 My posting to the LA board made me curious about this. Is there a difference at all? Mr. Taster Link: http://www.chowhound.com/california/boards/losangeles/messages/187511.html Tue Oct 11 18:28:26 -0700 2005 0 Mr. Taster 1 1488125 Coal is a mineral, charcol is a processed wood product. Tue Oct 11 18:52:13 -0700 2005 1488117 0 Chino Wayne 2 1488130 Chino, You forgot to mention that the short- lived "Prontos corn chips" were another processed wood product. It's amazing what you can do with wood chips, corn syrup, fructose and salt. Fortunately, the FDA was not amused. Tue Oct 11 22:21:21 -0700 2005 1488125 0 Leper 2 1488140 To expand just a bit . . . charcoal - real, so-called "lump" or pure charcoal - is hardwood that has been heated to a high temperature in the absence of oxygen. The process drives off many chemical impurities that cause natural wood to burn with a visible flame and smoke, leaving behind almost pure carbon that burns cleanly without producing much smoke or flame. Charcoal briquets are a manufactured product that involves pressing charcoal and other materials into the characteristic pillow shape that most backyard grillers know so well. The production of charcoal dates to pre-history, but briquets are a relatively modern invention, created by none other than Henry Ford, who was looking for some way to use up the scrap wood (automobiles frames were once made largely of wood) from his auto manufacturing operations. The manager of Ford's charcoal briquet plant was named Kingsford - and the rest, as they say, is history. Wed Oct 12 08:17:44 -0700 2005 1488125 0 FlyFish 3 1488296 Thanks-- that level of detail is exactly what I was looking for. Now how does the burning of coal differ from the burning of charcoal? I assume it gets a lot hotter... can we start from there? Mr. Taster Wed Oct 12 22:33:44 -0700 2005 1488140 0 Mr. Taster 4 1488298 Coal is basically solidified crude oil -- decayed plant matter, compressed over long, geological time. For cooking purposes, burning coal differs from burning charcoal in that exposure to a coal fire will poison your food. Coal can be used to fire a stove or an oven, but only if the food is in a completely separate environment from the fire. "Indirect heat" as in barbecue terminology is not indirect enough when the fuel is coal. You may be thinking of coal-fired pizza ovens, which I believe are still used in the Northeast United States, and confusing them with wood-fired hearth ovens. A coal fire is much hotter than a wood fire and would be great for getting the thermal mass of a big masonry oven up to temperature, so long as the firebox is isolated from the cooking area. Even a wood fire can ruin food with a disastrous coating of creosote if the wood is not properly seasoned, or pre-burned down to coals before being exposed to the food (pre-burning is basically an inefficient small-batch method of making charcoal). Wed Oct 12 22:59:03 -0700 2005 1488296 0 john clark 5 1488322 Although those who have real technical knowledge in these areas would probably roll their eyes, I think it might be helpful to think of the relationship between wood and charcoal as the same as that between coal and coke. Coal, as John indicates, is fossilized plant matter, so in a sense is fossilized wood. As charcoal is "purified" wood, coke is "purified" coal. By removing the impurities (by heating in the absence of oxygen so the carbon can't burn up), wood becomes a product (charcoal) that you can cook over directly - coal becomes a product (coke) that has a sort-of similar application in the steel industry, being mixed and burned directly with iron ore to make steel. I'm not sure about the relative heat values (BTUs per unit mass) or burning temperatures of the four fuels, but I'll see if I can get some info. Thu Oct 13 08:00:49 -0700 2005 1488298 0 FlyFish 6 1488645 Coke and charcoal have considerably higher heat values than coal or wood, respectively. Coke has a somewhat higher heat value than charcoal (enough so that burning it in a barbeque grill is a bad idea, unless you want a hole in the bottom). Fri Oct 14 14:10:31 -0700 2005 1488322 0 John 5 1488609 Excellent-- thank you for this. This was exactly what I was looking for. It's surprising sometimes how difficult it is to find information like this (in simple terms, at least) on the internet. Mr. Taster Fri Oct 14 12:22:08 -0700 2005 1488298 0 Mr. Taster