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Over the years I have mentioned several times about using lump charcoal and saving the char from my oven. I keep finding uses for this fuel all the time. Char or lump charcoal (not charcoal briquettes) is wood that has been reduced to pure carbon. All the resins, creosotes and other nasties have been burned off. That leaves a clean and hot burning fuel source that can be used in the oven for several purposes.
I transfer the char from the oven to the entry for grilling caveman steaks, or using the Tuscan grill. I also transfer coals to other grills and/or save it to an air tight metal container where it will snuff out for laterr use. For most of that I use a home fabricated coal shovel. It separates the char from the ash. The shovel is easy to make and it is well worth the time and material to build.
That brings me to another use. Adding more heat to a clean oven without sooting it up again. Timing a cook in an oven on the decline can be fun when you get it right. But, I don't always get it right. Sometimes the next morning, I will find my oven a few degrees under what I need. I recently had a cook for baking a lot of cakes. I was at 330 F that morning. My wife was adamant that her recipe was for 350 for a pound cakes. My oven was cleared and clean from a previous firing. I new that I would overshoot the temp and soot up the oven with a short firing with wood. So, I pulled out trick from my bag that I had used before. I call it a lump charcoal heater. It is a compact charcoal chimney made by a well known company. It is shorter that most charcoal chimney starters but wider and holds the same amount of fuel. It fits easily through my oven opening without having to tip it over. It has been burned out well previously before introducing it into the oven. I removed the handle, which is plastic and place it on a dollar store 12" pizza pan to catch the very little ash that the lump charcoal produces. i just stat it outside the oven with a natural starter. I don't use paper or starter fluid
. I let it get to burning hot with no smoke, and then set it in the oven for about an hour with the insulated door cracked open just a little. An hour later, I pulled it out of the oven, replaced the door and waited 20 minutes to let it equalize. I was right where I needed to be 
.
I transfer the char from the oven to the entry for grilling caveman steaks, or using the Tuscan grill. I also transfer coals to other grills and/or save it to an air tight metal container where it will snuff out for laterr use. For most of that I use a home fabricated coal shovel. It separates the char from the ash. The shovel is easy to make and it is well worth the time and material to build.
That brings me to another use. Adding more heat to a clean oven without sooting it up again. Timing a cook in an oven on the decline can be fun when you get it right. But, I don't always get it right. Sometimes the next morning, I will find my oven a few degrees under what I need. I recently had a cook for baking a lot of cakes. I was at 330 F that morning. My wife was adamant that her recipe was for 350 for a pound cakes. My oven was cleared and clean from a previous firing. I new that I would overshoot the temp and soot up the oven with a short firing with wood. So, I pulled out trick from my bag that I had used before. I call it a lump charcoal heater. It is a compact charcoal chimney made by a well known company. It is shorter that most charcoal chimney starters but wider and holds the same amount of fuel. It fits easily through my oven opening without having to tip it over. It has been burned out well previously before introducing it into the oven. I removed the handle, which is plastic and place it on a dollar store 12" pizza pan to catch the very little ash that the lump charcoal produces. i just stat it outside the oven with a natural starter. I don't use paper or starter fluid
. I let it get to burning hot with no smoke, and then set it in the oven for about an hour with the insulated door cracked open just a little. An hour later, I pulled it out of the oven, replaced the door and waited 20 minutes to let it equalize. I was right where I needed to be .
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