[Stoves] MUST CHARCOAL BE A CAUSE FOR CONCERN?

[Anand Karve]

 # Please pardon my ignorance of "rural India Cooking Practises", but would
you have a general indication of fuel usage for cooking:
1: % Stickwod
2: % Charcoal
3: % Other
Dear Kevin,
with a traditional mud stove, the amount of stickwood used as cooking fuel
by a typical family of 5 persons is about 8 kg per day. Bath water heating
is luxury, enjoyed only by a few families. After the cooking is over,
charcoal is always left in the stove as a byproduct. It is saved for various
purposes. It is required in certain food preparations, in which roasting
over a charcoal fire is essential, but it is also required by the village
blacksmith if you want him to make for you an implement like a sickle, a
machete or the blade of an axe. The raw material generally used by a village
blacksmith for making these items is an old leaf spring of a car or a
truck. The spring is heated and hammered into the desirable shape, but the
client has to provide the blacksmith with the charcoal to heat the leaf
spring. Improved stoves with a grate burn the wood completely, leaving no
charcoal behind, which is one of the grouses of the villagers against the
improved stoves. One of the selling points of the TLUD is that it produces
coal. I do not know the percentage of stickwood and charcoal, but all the
charcoal generated in the course of cooking is saved and used for the one or
the other purpose. The use of biomass fuel for other purposes is minimal.
During winters, one may occasionally light an outdoor fire to roast cobs of
corn or sorghum, but one generally uses dung cakes for this purpose.
Yours
A.D.Karve
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