Cooking with Wood Charcoal Fuel
By ARIES1973
@ARIES1973 (11426)
Legaspi, Philippines
September 5, 2012 12:10am CST
Since the start of continuous power failures in this town, we cannot cook using our electric stove anymore, especially at night. Our things are mostly run by electricity because they are convenient to bring considering that we are staying in this place on a temporary basis.
We decided to buy a stove that uses wood charcoal. My group mate started the fire and we were able to cook rice and some canned goods and fish. I just realized how hard it is to cook using that kind of stove. You have to continuously supply air using the fan to the charcoal inside the stove until it gives off enough fire for the food to cook. It took us longer hours also before we could cook the food, one reason why we already sleep late. Well, anyway, we have learned new things from the training. Not only with regards to our job but also on how to survive without electricity. I’m sure we will remember these things when we go back to our permanent place.
My dear friends, were you able to try cooking using charcoal?
Happy myLotting!
13 responses
@asdomencil (4265)
• Philippines
5 Sep 12
We have stove in our house that uses charcoal too. it was made by my father with mini fan on it, still it needs electricity. I used this during special ocassions for cooking which really saves me a lot of gas.
I guess more of you will remember the same lesson that we need to conserve our electricity for it is really hard for our life without electricity especially in cooking.
1 person likes this
@ARIES1973 (11426)
• Legaspi, Philippines
9 Sep 12
First time I ever heard of having a mini fan for a stove. I think that is cute. thank you for sharing.
@asdomencil (4265)
• Philippines
9 Sep 12
My father just installed a mini-fan which he got from old computer CPU and placed it somewhere to make it easier to use the charcoal stove. This mini-fan will also serve as regulator. When you want to increase the heat or fire, just turn it on and turn it off if you want to lower the fire. All of the materials where came from scrap except for the cement he used as walls of the stove.
@roberten (3128)
• United States
9 Sep 12
Yes, I can cook using charcoal or wood. I grew up where there were lots of heavy storms which left us without power for many days. We cooked on a wood stove or used charcoal. It is harder than cooking with electric but not so hard when you are used to doing it everyday. This survival skill is always handy to have.
1 person likes this
@ARIES1973 (11426)
• Legaspi, Philippines
9 Sep 12
Glad to know you also do this thing in your place roberten. I thought we are the only people in the world who use this thing, he he. Have a nice day!
@Shellyann36 (11384)
• United States
5 Sep 12
We cook with a charcoal grill often. We call it grilling out, cooking out or Bar Be Queing. My hubby loves to use his grill. It is all done outside though not inside.
1 person likes this
@ARIES1973 (11426)
• Legaspi, Philippines
5 Sep 12
Yes grilling out can be so much fun. But ours is a different thing. We call this stove because we can cook on it in a regular way, you know using pots and pan. Thanks for sharing shellyann!
@Bhebelen14 (5194)
• Philippines
5 Sep 12
I learned how to cook using charcoal in my province and we still using it until now. Cooking charcoal is less expensive than using electric or gas stove although it little bit longer to cook the food than using electric and gas stove. We only use charcoal here in the city for cooking when tenderizing beef and for grilling.
1 person likes this
@ARIES1973 (11426)
• Legaspi, Philippines
6 Sep 12
We can not use it at home because we need to go to office very early. But on this place, I only bought electric stove because it would be easier for me to bring when I go home. We are forced to use charcoal because of the continuous power failure in the place. Thank you for sharing Bhebelen!
@chuchaibugoy (79)
•
6 Sep 12
Many said, food by charcoal or by firewood is delicious compared to with the use of a gas or electricity. I don't know about it... because I'm not a choosy eater. As long that the food is properly cooked has the right taste and i found it nutritious
I'll go for it. It happened also to me that while cooking we run out of gas and we had also brown-outs. What I did I gathered three big stones, some dried twigs and started to built fire where I continued to cook our food. and we enjoyed eating our breakfast. Thanks to my girls scout experienced.. I made it...
1 person likes this
@ARIES1973 (11426)
• Legaspi, Philippines
9 Sep 12
You are a real girls scout chuchai! It's a good experience. thanks for sharing.
@code_van14 (43)
• United States
5 Sep 12
I've tried this thing for the long time. At first it's really too hard to cook food and even started the fire. You need to supply air and not to exhale too much smoke. But after this experience, it serves a lesson and I enjoy cooking using the old method.
1 person likes this
@ARIES1973 (11426)
• Legaspi, Philippines
9 Sep 12
Yes it is really hard to cook food using this kind of stove. But now as we are doing it for several days already, I think were getting used to it.
@jaiho2009 (39141)
• Philippines
5 Sep 12
Yah, back in our hometown I saw people using it and have it experienced it too.
But here where I am living, there is no way to use charcoal.
I cannot stand the smoke.
But to tell you, I have tried cooking using the electric iron 
@keshlois143 (713)
• Philippines
5 Sep 12
Yes, I used to cook that way, too. But lately, I could hardly cook using charcoal because of my work. I always miss that way of cooking because I find the food is tastier when cooked through the charcoal than through electric operated or gas stove. Today,I find myself still always rushing even when I am already using electric gadgets in almost everything. Well, sometimes it is a lot happier to live through the slow-paced ways of things.
@fantasticbabe (981)
• Philippines
5 Sep 12
yes, that very true, currently i coo using a liquefied petroleum stove and a charcoal with a built fan that moves when plug in electrical outlet. when my LPG stove run out, i usually cook in the charcoal stove. it also not hard because it is with electric fan. but when there is brown out i could still used it though my cooking get slow as no fan would serve as the air. i usually use the charcoal stove for barbecue and for boiling seeds and meat for a long time. so this way i get to save my LPG and never get it empty fast. i observe food cook slowly like in charcoal taste better, especially the toughest meat as they get boiled longer and result to cook meat that easily chewable.also the food taste great. good if your not in hurry to eat.
1 person likes this
@ARIES1973 (11426)
• Legaspi, Philippines
9 Sep 12
Hi fantasticbabe! Yes it's treu that cooking charcoal would take long time for the food to cook but this is the only thing we can do as of the moment. I hope the power will resume as soon as possible.
@god_is_good (683)
• Philippines
5 Sep 12
Using charcoal or wood as a form of fuel to produce fire is a common thing since I was young. We live in a place that is far from the city so we were used to using firewood. It takes time to cook with it but the joy doing it manually gives satisfaction, knowing that after the cooking is a naturally cooked food good for our health. I am glad that you enjoyed the experience you had using charcoal. May your experience be of good use to you in the future.
@Raine38 (12250)
• United States
5 Sep 12
I think the closest thing that I can get to using a charcoal stove is our charcoal grill lol! One time we put too much charcoal on our grill and the charcoals are burning nice and easy. So after the meats are cooked, we decided to cook rice over it by just sitting the pot of uncooked rice over the grill. We also sautéed some sauce and jut put a pan over the same grill.
1 person likes this
@ARIES1973 (11426)
• Legaspi, Philippines
9 Sep 12
Yes its almost like that of a charcoal grill. the only difference I think is that a charcoal stove is round.
@Shavkat (139307)
• Philippines
5 Sep 12
I had seen the mechanics the how to's of using the charcoal in a clay stove. My grandmother had this in the province. My cousins were so good in making fire in the charcoal, the blows of air through the pipe tube. I tried it, but it takes time to get the technique. Since I grew up in the city, no chance of having that in my hometown.
@ARIES1973 (11426)
• Legaspi, Philippines
9 Sep 12
Hi shavkat! That's true, there is a technique in using this kind of stove and until now I could not do it correctly. I can see other people who could cook in no time.
@safwan0012 (117)
•
5 Sep 12
i never use the stove you mentioned but i know the problem because villagers in our country still use such charcoal.i think you are a bit good because you have fan but villagers have not such kind of luxury instead they use their breath to fire the charcoal.now you can imagine how irritating this can be.
1 person likes this
@ARIES1973 (11426)
• Legaspi, Philippines
9 Sep 12
Hi safwan! I don't mean electric fan, it's just an ordinary fan made of piece of hard paper. Well, this experience is something we will always remember when we go back to our places.
