Homemade Charcoal Recipe

[derogatory]

Ok so today I ran out of charcoals and all I had were these crappy naturals that wouldn't stay lit for more than a minute and would only then stay lit if you kept sucking and sucking. They sucked bad. So I'm thinking what is to prevent me from making this perfectly good waste of coal into something useful... the answer: nothing. Here is the brand of coals that sucked really badly: http://www.hookahcompany.com/muzzle_natura...s_2105_prd1.htm

Before I continue let me just caution you all against this brand. I already mentioned they won't stay lit but they also taste foul, catch on fire, stink up your house, and crackle all over the place. BUT, follow my recipe and you won't have any of these problems. Also, the box I got was made up of 5-6 logs, like literally logs instead of the branch sized ones I'm used to.

What I did was I first broke them up into much smaller pieces. Then tossed them all in the blender with ALOT of water. We're not going for paste consistency yet, aim for soup consistency. Then I tossed in about a half cup of baking soda and mixed it up a bit more. Then I poured it all into a pyrex baking pan and baked it for 2-3 hours at 350, to take the water out. I actually baked it a little hot so when I exposed mine to air it started to glow a little. If this happens spray it with water, in fact I reccomend spraying it with water anyways since it will be powdery, hot and flammable. You wouldn't want to start a flash fire or explosion. Also if you blunder through the process the way I did, you might want a breathing mask since now I have the black lung (not really but it made me sneeze a bit.)

Now we have a crumbly dusty cake of charcoal. Scrape as much out as you can and put it into a mixing bowl. Keep spraying it with a mist of water while you transport it to keep the dust down. Now add some kind of starch, about 2 tablepoons or so, maybe roughly a quarter cup. I used glutinous rice flour (mochiko) but I imagine corn starch would probably work too. Don't worry this stuff will burn off when you heat your coals on the stove and it still won't make any smell. You need the starch or else your charcoal will just crumble and be worthless. Now mix all of this up really good and start slowly adding water till you get a batter or brownie-mix-like consistency. Now you roll little balls of it up and place them on a foiled cookie sheet or whatever you feel like using. Don't worry if they are a little too wet, mine were pretty wet and turned out ok anyways but I imagine it would have been easier if I had added less water. Now just bake these until they are dry. At this point I reccommend no higher than 250. Mine took about an hour or so until they were ready to toss on the burner and go.

They burn for a really long time, they burn hot (so maybe make yours smaller than mine), and they have no detectable odor (baking soda cleaned them out) either when smoking or lighting. My new favorite coals. My first is still going and I had time to shower and write this post in-between the last time I took a puff.

If I left anything out or you have any questions you can reply here but I probably won't get it so feel free to PM me.

Now for pics:


Fresh baked cookies anyone?


Here it is burning, though you can't really see. Just trust me it's glowing red.


And here's a nice cloud from my charcoal.

EDIT: Also, to make your own charcoal you can take any wood and heat it without allowing oxygen to get to it. Alot of people take 50-gallon drums and fill it with wood and then heat it over a fire with very small holes to keep the drum from exploding. I imagine a coffee can and a fire would work well too, but just be sure that there is enough holes so the thing doesn't burst but not enough holes so that the charcoal gets enough oxygen to start burning.

DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME... lol. Edited July 19, 2008 by derogatory

[kvtaco17]

Sweet, gonna try it in the morning

[bbf]

Neato, Derogatory, I'm impressed!

Has anyone tried this with another brand of natural wood coals?

[SuburbanSmoker]

thats freaking legit. def have to try this

[hday]

Very cool. Maybe I'll give this a try with some crappy Roland coals I've got lying around.

Also, wicked facial hair, man.

[scotto55]

i thought this was pretty cool so i gave it a try...mine are currently in the last step, they are formed and baking in the oven, but mine seem to have a white coating (not ash). did i use too much baking soda or starch? let me know if this happens to anyone else




update: i am currently smoking using one of these coals and they are awesome and i did find out that the white coating was excess baking soda...i could tell from the smell it made when lighting but when smoking there is absolutely no charcoal taste Edited July 22, 2008 by scotto55

[liquidglass]

Now you just need to mass order them from a whole seller, turn your little trick and sell them on here, I'd buy some, break a "cookie" into two pieces put it on my phunnel bowl and go to town.

[pigpen]

gotta love a man who can bake!

[derogatory]

i thought this was pretty cool so i gave it a try...mine are currently in the last step, they are formed and baking in the oven, but mine seem to have a white coating (not ash). did i use too much baking soda or starch? let me know if this happens to anyone else




update: i am currently smoking using one of these coals and they are awesome and i did find out that the white coating was excess baking soda...i could tell from the smell it made when lighting but when smoking there is absolutely no charcoal taste

Yeah I would cut down on the baking soda, but too much of it shouldn't make a flavor since it doesn't burn. Sorry my recipe wasn't entirely specific.

EDIT: I should mention that I used an entire box of natural charcoal. So 1 kilo or 2.2 pounds. But don't worry about using too little of the baking soda and starch, the less you can get away with the better. Edited July 24, 2008 by derogatory

[scotto55]

i didnt use that much charcoal...i guess that was my problem...but they still work amazingly and they are hot