Anybody here ever cooked with charcoal made from coconuts? I saw a posting by somebody that is engaged to a Filipina, she might have used it before. I was wondering if anybody might have an idea of where I could get some or how to make it. I remember it gives a different flavor to meat, but can't remember what the difference was. :-) It's been about 8 years since I have had anything cooked over it.

Red

This is how you make any kind of charcoal. You will need something to char the raw fuel which is airtight How big it is depends on the size of the raw fuel and how much you want to make. I have made charcoal kilns out of bricks, concrete blocks, a very large covered scalding kettle, a 55gal drum and a 300gal fule oil tank.
Thak is the hardware. Here is the procedure. Put you raw fuel in the kiln fire up the fule and then cover the kiln in mud, clay to male it airtight. When you use a metal thing build the fire on the outside and use the metel thing like an oven. You need to leave a small vent to get rid of the moisture the the raw fuel will give off during the charing procedure. BUT if all you want is coconut smoke flavor make a fire of some mild flavored wood (oak, pecan) when it has burned to coals use that as your fire and put pieces of coconut shell in the fire like you would wood chips. BUT (another BUT always a BUT)the flavor of coconut shell/husk is very slight and I don't think you will be able ti pick it out from the general smokeness of your grill, so what to do? Use a coconut based marinade, one that uses canned coconut milk and freah grated coconut (not the bagged bakeing kind because it is sugared.)

Thanks, I think I will just use the marinade rather than go to the work of making the charcoal. I live in a mobile home park and they are like SS in the way they get on people for anything "creative" outside their homes.

Red

Just noticed your screen name, brings back fond and not so fond memories of Naples and Palermo. Wife still makes a trip to the class 6 store (military package store) about twice a month for a bottle of "Dago Red" to go with the pasta.

[ 05-17-2003, 06:20: Message edited by: Still Crawfish ]

Dago Red---

Coconut charcoal is use by the thousands of tons in the gold mining industry. It's used in cyanide filtration of the pregnant solution and sells for about $40 a ton.

It doesn't burn well.......I tried.

Coconut charcoal is what Scent-Lok uses in their suits.Exactly why,I don't know.Regards