Cooking with Woodfuels (Firewood and Charcoal)

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One of the characteristics of humankind is the ability to control fire and utilise it to prepare food. The oldest cooking fuel is firewood in the form of logs and branches from trees. Charcoal is the fuel derived from wood by pyrolysis in the process of carbonisation: the wood looses the volatile contents and the lighter yet energy-dense char remains. Due to the ease of transport and use, charcoal has become a prevalent cooking fuel in many urban areas of this planet, while firewood is more prevalent in rural areas.

As firewood and charcoal have very different burning properties they need different devices (stoves) for cooking. This section deals with both fuel-types seperately.

• Cooking with Firewood
• Cooking with Charcoal
• Cooking Practices for Woodfuel Users 
• Testing of Woodfuel Stoves

Other types of biomass feature in the next chapter Cooking with other Biomass Fuels.