Article from NY Times about making Homemade Charcoal

[norma427]

I thought this was an interesting story about a young man having entrepreneur pursuits about making homemade charcoal.  His idea seems like it would work for wood wrapped in aluminum foil with small pinholes added to produce charcoal.  I think this could be an idea to try in a BBQ grill.  It also might be a good way to scent pizza with that woody charcoal flavor, without burning wood.  If you read down in this article it tells how the homemade charcoal is made.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/magazine/27food-t-000.html?ref=style

Norma

[Randy]

Norma if you do a google search you will find a lot of interesting home charcoal makers.  Really interesting stuff.  I think Bill may have made charcoal a good while back.

Randy

[Jackie Tran]

What a cute story.  That kid is gonna be famous someday.   

[norma427]

What a cute story.  That kid is gonna be famous someday.   

Jackie Tran,

I thought the story was good, also.  That young man probably is going places someday.  I wonder if we could try this idea out in the BBQ grill or your MBE.     Maybe it could even work in a home oven, but I am not sure of that..LOL  I don't know what temperature the wood has to get up to for it to become charcoal. 

Norma

[norma427]

Norma if you do a google search you will find a lot of interesting home charcoal makers.  Really interesting stuff.  I think Bill may have made charcoal a good while back.

Randy

Randy,

Thanks for the idea to do a google search.    I never knew how charcoal was made, never even thought about it.  I wonder if Bill did make charcoal a good while back. 

Thanks for your help,

Norma

[Jackie Tran]

Norma if you want to try burning charcoal in the grill you can buy a 10# bag at Walmart for around $6.50.  Look for Royal Oak lump charcoal.   Making your own charcoal is more trouble than it's worth.

If you wrap some wood with aluminum foil and put it in the grill you'll get smoked pizza which is generally not liked by many.  That light smoky flavor from coal is good but smoking pizza using wood tends to give too heavy a smoke flavor. 

[norma427]

Jackie Tran,

Thanks for your advise about buying the charcoal at Walmart.  You know I like to experiment.    I might try some of the cherry chips I have and wrap them in aluminum foil with small holes and see what happens. At least they are supposed to be for the BBQ grill. I could try it on the other side of the firebricks.

Norma