[Sca-cooks] Charcoal

[johnna holloway]

I just was up in the UP near the first iron mines
in the state, (Negaunee -- Michigan Iron Industry
Museum)so that was very fresh in my memory.
Also if you go west from Marquette over to Iron
Mountain then you come to this town called Kingsford
that Henry Ford established to build parts for his
auto's and where they came up with... you guessed it
kingsford charcoal briquettes which were a way to use
the scrap materials from the other plant.

We very rarely consider fuel as an issue in medieval
cookery... but it probably was the prime factor in the
development of more efficient fireplaces and the switch
to ranges and enclosed stoves. Certainly Sir Hugh Plat
who wrote the Jewell House and Delights for Ladies was
concerned enough with the subject to publish his own
work on it.
Plat, Hugh. A new, cheape and delicate Fire of Cole-balles. 1603

Johnna Holloway

Stefan li Rous wrote:
>
> Johnna Holloway commented:
>
> > Large scale charcoal
> > production for smeltering helped to deplete the
> > hardwood forests of Michigan's UP faster than the
> > demand for lumber for housing back in the mid 19th
> > century.
>
> You don't have to go to the New World to find this. The smelters
> were a major reason for the deforestation of both Britain and parts
> of Europe, despite period regulations that said how close together
> smelters, and thus charcoal ovens, could be placed.
>
> It was also a major reason for the switch to "sea coal" near the end
> of our period and after that mining of the coal itself.
>
> --
> THLord  Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
> Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas         stefan at texas.net
> **** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****
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