[Sca-cooks] Charcoal

[Mary Denise Smith]

Hi List,

I have to jump in here and call upon my years of experience in
18th/19thC historic interpretation, which included hearth cooking as
well as making sure that other cooks on site had adequate wood for their hearths.

"Scrap" wood from harvesting trees is almost a non-issue. It is used in
the hearth and/or stove. The really small stuff (pencil sized, say) and
the leaves and needles had their uses, but not in the fire place.

My recollection from the one time I had anything to do with a charcoal
burn was that the burn goes much better when the wood is of relatively
uniform size. This was a pretty large size, as I recall (sifting back 17
years), say at least 3" in diameter. Also, I seem to recall that
uniformity of wood type was important.

For definitive information, I refer you to Conner Prairie's web site http://www.connerprairie.org

Conner Prairie does a charcoal burn every Fall or so, and thus they have
current, practical, first hand experience with making charcoal in the
pre-industrial manner. If I were to want to do a charcoal burn, they
would be the folks I'd ask.

Hope this helps,

MD/Marged