Bill Martin <bmartin@island-styles.com>
BBQ List
                                                                  
John, 

Here's the scoop on Kingsford, from this email list back in 98:

Thank you for asking about KINGSFORD charcoal briquets.

Nobody knows when or where charcoal was invented, but traces of it have
been discovered in archeological digs of Neanderthal sites, and cavemen
used it to draw pictures of mastodons and other early animals.  The
modern charcoal briquet was invented by automaker Henry Ford.  Ford
operated a sawmill in the forests around Iron Mountain, Michigan, in the
years prior to 1920 to make wooden parts for his Model T.  As the piles
of wood scraps began to grow, so did Ford's eagerness to find an
efficient way of using them.  He learned of a process developed and
patented by an Orin F. Stafford.  The process involved chipping wood
into small pieces, converting it into charcoal, grinding the charcoal
into powder, adding a binder and compressing the mix into the
now-familiar, pillow-shaped briquet.  By 1921, a charcoal-making plant
was in full operation.

E. G. Kingsford, a lumberman who owned one of Ford's earliest automobile
sales agencies and was distantly related, briefly served as manager of
the briquet operation.  A company town was built nearby and named
Kingsford.  In 1951, an investment group bought the plant, and renamed
the business the Kingsford Chemical Company, and took over operations.
Its successor, The Kingsford Products Company, was acquired by The
Clorox Company of Oakland, California, in 1973.

Today, KINGSFORD charcoal is manufactured from wood charcoal, anthracite
coal, mineral charcoal, starch, sodium nitrate, limestone, sawdust, and
borax.  The wood and other high-carbon materials are heated in special
ovens with little or no air.  This process removes water, nitrogen and
other elements, leaving almost pure carbon.  The briquets do not contain
petroleum or any petroleum by-products.  KINGSFORD charcoal briquets
with mesquite contain the same high-quality ingredients as KINGSFORD,
but with the addition of real mesquite wood throughout.

Manufacturing briquets begins with preparing the wood charcoal using one
of the following methods:

Retort processing -- Waste wood is processed through a large
furnace with multiple hearths (called a retort) in a
controlled-oxygen atmosphere.  The wood is progressively
charred as it drops from one hearth to the next.

Kiln processing -- The waste wood is cut into slabs and stacked in
batches in a kiln that chars the wood in a
controlled-oxygen atmosphere.

Once the wood charcoal is prepared, it is crushed and combined with the
other ingredients, formed into pillow-shaped briquets and dried.  The
advantage of using charcoal over wood is that charcoal burns hotter with
less smoke.

I hope this information is helpful to you.  Again, thank you for your
interest in The Kingsford Products Company.

Jessica D. Jago
Product Specialist

KEEP READING...IT GETS BETTER:

>From Kit Anderson:

> Today, KINGSFORD charcoal is manufactured from wood charcoal, anthracite
> coal, mineral charcoal, starch, sodium nitrate, limestone, sawdust, and
> borax.  The wood and other high-carbon materials are heated in special
> ovens with little or no air.  This process removes water, nitrogen and
> other elements, leaving almost pure carbon.  The briquets do not contain
> petroleum or any petroleum by-products.

Let's see.. 

1. Wood charcoal. That's what you thought you were buying. Then these
nice folks throw in all this other stuff for free!!
2. Anthracite. Gives you black lung disease should you decided to take
up snorting the stuff.
3. Mineral charcoal. They don't know what it is either but this was a
good way to get rid of it.
4. Starch. Makes sure there are no wrinkles in the charcoal pillows.
5. Sodium nitrate. Found in the back of Bear's truck outside of rib
joints that boil their meat first. Must be there for that nice slow burn
you need for things like Federal buildings.
6. Limestone. Should you decide to sprinkle it on your lawn instead of
cook with it.
7. Sawdust. Just like wood...only smaller.
8. Borax. For washing your mule team.

No petroleum products? How come it smells like a Texaco station? Must be
the secret spices.

-- 
Kit

=========================================
No matter what the Kingsford commercials tell you on TV.....DON'T use this
stuff.  Weigh a bag of Kingsford ashes, and then weigh a bag of wood or lump
ashes from a comparable cooking time.  That extra 10 or 30 pounds of
stuff...you paid for,.... and now you're throwing it away.
And if you put it in your flower bed and sprinkle it with water, it turns
into something resembling cement, (hmmmm, limestone when its burnt is called
Portland Cement, isn't it???), and besides, even after you pick it up and
throw it in the garbage, nothing grows where it landed.  You want to be
roasting stuff you EAT over that stuff???
Korea has a high incidence of stomach cancer:  they eat lots of
open-fire-grilled food in Korea.  In many places in Korea, anthracite coal
is used for grilling food cuz its relatively cheap and easily acquired.
Think there might be a connection??
As for the other ingredients....like the "non-petroleum" product they use to
make it "quick lighting"; even if its only paraffin, (hmmmm kerosene
based??)  I don't want to eat it, or its by-products.

Bill

xxxxxxxxxxxxx====================xxxxxxxxxxxx======

Briquettes are made by compressing charcoal dust, anthracite coal dust,
limestone, and other fillers to make a pretty looking even sized
burnable
thing.

Lump charcoal is made from real wood, 100% wood, burned down to almost
pure
carbon.  It burn hotter, lights easier, and gives off no nasty odors.
Whatever is not burned completely can be save and added to the next
fire.
Ed
esp@snet.net

