SC - OT- How do you cook a pig? > LONG

[ChannonM@aol.com]

Stefan wrote:
> My comment was simply to mention that to get coals, at some point, you
> have to have flames. That assuming you only had coals is not a complete
> solution.
You need flames, but...
Not necessarily in the same place.

A very common occupation throughout period and right up to the 
beginning of the 20th century is Charcoaler.

This is a person who buys or gathers wood, and starts a very controlled 
burn of it, usually while it is also buried to convert it to charcoal. the 
charcoal is then sold as heating/cooking/industrial (the preferred fuel for 
silver/goldsmithing was charcoal) fuel. It was clean burning and unlike 
mined coal, imparted no sulphurous (connected with evil) odor to the 
house.

The wood was often stacked in a very particular order, to allow just the 
right amount of air to flow through as it burned, and then the stack was 
lit in the center, and covered with earth a foot or more deep, with the 
exception of a smoke smoke vent in the top. 
In two or three days the fire burns itself out, and the Charcoal is 
unearthed and brought to the manor, taken to market, and sold.  

IIRC, one of the Brother Cadfael stories has a body that was found in 
a Charcoal burning pile, when one of the brothers went to get charcoal 
from a local charcoaler.

The use of charcoal for fuel would have eliminated all sparking, 
popping and uncontrolled burning, and allowed a shorter chimney
stack, just as was posited earlier.


brandu