# Hard Anthracite Coal in a Smoker???



## chef jimmyj (Jul 28, 2011)

At 49, I am old enough to remember that my Grand Mother cooked and heated the house, in NE PA, with Anthracite Coal well into the 70's. Coal is still the prefered fuel for many Pizza Shops...Has anyone ever Smoked using Coal?...JJ


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## sqwib (Jul 28, 2011)

Chef JimmyJ said:


> At 49, I am old enough to remember that my Grand Mother cooked and heated the house, in NE PA, with Anthracite Coal well into the 70's. Coal is still the prefered fuel for many Pizza Shops...Has anyone ever Smoked using Coal?...JJ




Shamokin?

Anthracite burns real hot and lasts long I  have never used it for cooking but we use it at the cabin for heating.


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## SmokinAl (Jul 28, 2011)

We used it for heating a boiler when I was a kid. You have asked a good question. I wonder if it would work?


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## Bearcarver (Jul 28, 2011)

My Great-Grandpop had a coal cookstove in the kitchen, in the house where he raised my Dad. It was also the only source of heat in the house. I remember the smell of the burning coal & wood that he ran through it. I also remember him always going over to it, picking up one of the hot plates, and spitting his tobacco into the hot coals----SSSSSSssssss!!!

I never used coal to smoke anything though.

Memories--Memories.

I played a lot of Pinocle at that house, and that Great-Grandpop passed while I was in 'Nam. He died while bailing hay, at the age of 87.

Bear


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## venture (Jul 28, 2011)

Charcoal briquettes are mostly coal dust.

Good luck and good smoking.


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## chef jimmyj (Jul 30, 2011)

SQWIB said:


> Shamokin?
> 
> Anthracite burns real hot and lasts long I  have never used it for cooking but we use it at the cabin for heating.


My Moms family is from EYNON, about 10 miles east of Scranton. Home of the largest Glacial Pothole and The Famous...Sugerman's Eynon Drug.


Venture said:


> Charcoal briquettes are mostly coal dust.
> 
> Good luck and good smoking.


Charcoal Briquettes were invented by Henry Ford...He needed a use for all the scrap wood left from car manufacturing. Anthracite is 98% pure Carbon and extremely dense it burns hot and long with a unique sweet, imo, smell.


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## venture (Jul 30, 2011)

Ford also had coal dust.  From what I have read, briquettes are mostly coal dust with very little wood.

I am not saying briquettes are bad.  I grill with them.  I even use them to bring up my smoker to temp before switching to lump.

All I am saying is that I have read that briquettes are mostly coal dust.  That doesn't make them bad.  That doesn't even so closely relate them to coal chunks.

Good luck and good smoking.


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## chef jimmyj (Jul 30, 2011)

Once again we are BOTH right!  You're alright, I don't care what anybody says!

This is the source I used...Mostly wood charcoal with wood dust for flavor and a little coal to make it burn hotter...JJ

http://www.madehow.com/Volume-4/Charcoal-Briquette.html


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## venture (Jul 31, 2011)

Another reference:

http://videos.howstuffworks.com/discovery/28129-how-its-made-charcoal-video.htm

Good luck and good smoking.


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## roller (Jul 31, 2011)

Never used coal for anything. We can`t get it down here...Does it give off any oder?  My grampa spit right on top of the stove...lol


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## Bearcarver (Jul 31, 2011)

Chef JimmyJ said:


> At 49, I am old enough to remember that my Grand Mother cooked and heated the house, in NE PA, with Anthracite Coal well into the 70's. Coal is still the prefered fuel for many Pizza Shops...Has anyone ever Smoked using Coal?...JJ


Jimmy,

For the kids on here who never saw one:








Bear


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## venture (Jul 31, 2011)

Bear, my aunt's stove out on the farm looked a little like that.  It even had a hot water reservoir at one end.  No trees back there and coal was expensive.  They fired it with corn cobs.  There was a cobhouse across the lane from the house.  Hole in the roof with a wood cover.  When the corn was shucked, the elevator was placed over the hole in the roof and the cobhouse was filled so full you had to open the door carefully!  LOL

Good luck and good smoking.


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