can coal be used?

[rtnaw]

Hello again,

Have been busy for quite some time now. The weather here in Buffalo just turned pretty cold and damp. I am wondering if a fire can be made using coal in place of wood? Please let me know if this is possible, I don't want to day any damage.

Thanks,
Rob

[cvdukes]

It'll burn...but, we've done environmental sampling around old coal piles. The variety and levels of heavy metals that comes out of coal are simply mind-blogging. Such really nasty stuff as arsenic, selenium, cadmium, vanadium, and chromium, depending on where the coal comes from. Some of these are outright poisons or cause fetal development problems. You would not want those in your cooking fire because some of the metals will be deposited in your food and it takes just low levels to become a health problem (for same reason that pressure treated wood should not be burned.... the metals come out and end up it the diet).

[dmun]

Originally Posted by cvdukes

It'll burn...but, we've done environmental sampling around old coal piles. The variety and levels of heavy metals that comes out of coal are simply mind-blogging. Such really nasty stuff as arsenic, selenium, cadmium, vanadium, and chromium, depending on where the coal comes from.

We get the coal question every few months, because of the romance of a few places in Brooklyn and environs that make pizza in coal fired bread ovens. This is the first sensible answer that I've seen. Thanks.

[oventhusiast]

Oh Wow!
Glad I saw these posts. A new pizza place just opened up here on US rt. 1 N.
It's a coal fired pizza and chicken wing restaurant. I went it there one morning before they opened for business and asked to go behind the counter to see the ovens up close. They were from a company in CA but I forget the name. The ovens were built for coal because the cooks there told me that there was an air supply grate under the coals in the floor. (Inside the dome on the left side of the oven.) My wife and I were about to try it out soon. It's a really nice 'tuscan looking' place. But after reading about burning coal,........'Fugeddaboudit'!
Thanx', I'll stick to our wood fired oven!
Happy thanksgiving to all who celebrate and well wishes to those who do not!
Rick

[Ken524]

Interesting!

I eat at this place about every month when I'm in downtown Philly:
Pietro's Coal Oven Pizzeria
Pietro's Pizza: Coal Oven Pizzeria

I wonder if the coal fired commercial ovens somehow keep the exhaust separate from the heat and pizza??

[CanuckJim]

Guys,

Coal fired ovens, particularly those in NYC and Philly, were and are white ovens. The fire is not built in the baking chamber, but rather below it, and the exhaust gasses are vented separately. You shouldn't use coal in a fire in the oven setup, but hard coal (anthracite) has been used for a very long time in white ovens. Anthracite coal has many fewer emissions (none of them good) than does bituminous (soft coal). Soft coal was responsible for the famous London fogs of yesteryear.

Jim

[Neil2]

My granny cooked with coal, and lived into her 90's.


I cook with it now and then. We have a low-sulfer coal available locally.

(I'm feeling OK so far)