Is There Gluten in Charcoal?

[Fidissimus]

Is There Gluten in Charcoal?

As the days grow warmer and the evenings grow longer, our thoughts turn to the great taste of barbecue. With the right ingredients and materials, it’s easy to make BBQ favorites – from hamburgers to hot dogs to chicken and even salmon – that are both delicious and gluten-free. Let’s start with a little BBQ history to whet your appetite.

There is no definitive history about how the word “barbecue” originated – or why it’s sometimes used as a noun, verb or an adjective. Some say the Spanish get credit for the word, derived from their “barbacoa” which comes from an American-Indian word for a framework of green wood on which foods were placed for cooking over hot coals. Others think the French were responsible, offering the explanation that when the Caribbean pirates arrived on America’s southern shores, they cooked animals on a spit-like device that ran from “whiskers to tail” or “de barbe a queue.”

Did you know:
• The most popular holiday weekend for barbecuing is July 4th, followed by Labor Day and Memorial Day.
• Half of all Marshmallows eaten in the US have been toasted over a barbecue grill. (Most marshmallows are made with corn starch, but call the manufacturer to be sure)

Geologists have found bits of charcoal dating back 420 million years, but the charcoal briquette is a more recent invention. It was created in the early 1920’s by automobile king Henry Ford. Ford’s manufacturing operations generated a lot of scrap wood. To turn this scrap into a useful product, Ford had the wood partially burned to make lump charcoal, which was then ground up, combined with starch and formed into the uniform, pillow-shaped briquettes we know today. Thomas Edison designed the first charcoal briquette manufacturing plant for his friend Ford. The plant was located in Kingsford, Michigan and the Kingsford Charcoal Company was founded there.

We found that in addition to ground charcoal, the briquettes can contain wood scraps, tree bark, sawdust, coal dust, borax, limestone and sodium nitrate. While some brands are held together with a petroleum-based binder, natural plant starches (including wheat starch) are frequently used as a glue to hold the briquettes together. This raises concerns that gluten from the briquettes may be transferred to the food. Charcoal does not burn cleanly or completely, so it is possible that as the briquettes disintegrate in the fire, some unburned starch particles drift upward and stick to the food. (When asked, Kingsford would not say what plant starches, if any, they use as a binder)

A simple solution is to use lump charcoal, which is charcoal made from large pieces of wood (without binder). Lump charcoal burns cleaner and hotter than briquettes and many people say the results are more flavorful. Although lump charcoal costs more than briquettes, there is less waste because it can easily be extinguished with water when the cooking is done (briquettes fall apart when wet).

LUMP CHARCOAL
You don’t have to give up charcoal to avoid the risk of gluten from briquettes. There are plenty of hardwood lump charcoal’s on the market today. In general they’re cleaner burning with less chemicals (or you could switch to gas grilling).

Mali’s Gourmet Lump Charcoal – 10lb bag $7.99
BB Charcoal – 20lb bag $7.80
Texas Smoke – 10lb bag $5.00

Edited to quote the source, http://www.food4celiacs.com/news/sale.pdf though they've taken the page down that housed this information.
_________________
Cheers!
Jenn

GF BD: Feb. 2001
Free of wheat, barley, rye, oats, rice, dairy, eggs, almonds, pineapple and brewers yeast.
http://graindamaged.blogspot.com/

[jayhawkmom]

Thanks for posting this Jenn!! Dh mentioned the "lump coal" and I was going to look into that. I'm glad you posted about it... now I don't have to! =)

[Dan]

From what I checked out, Kingford is gluten free. There website says they use corn starch as a binder.

I didn't find anything about Royal Oak charcoal, but some stuff I read implied there is wheat in it. Ace Hardware charcoal is made by Royal Oak. I was setting up a display, my supervisor was joking with me about was I sure the charcoal was gluten-free. I remembered as a meeting someone said some charcoals may not be GF. I washed my hands and put on rubber gloves right away. I had to go home that day and was out for 3 days. I'm 99% sure there is gluten in those brands.