Easy Way to Make Charcoal Briquettes

Charcoal briquettes are charcoal dusts compactly massed by a binder of either cassava flour, corn or sweet potato starch. Briquettes burn out much longer and give off intense, steady heat. Charcoal briquettes are ideal for barbecues, bibingkas or any native delicacy that calls for charcoal. A handful of briquettes would cost less than a big lump of charcoal since they last longer, give off intense heat and turn out more stick of barbecue or pieces of bibingka.

Procedure:

1. Charcoal from which the dust must be produced must be well-charred to make briquettes smoke-free.
2. Use smokeless binder like cassava meal, camote and corn starch.
3. Cook the starch into syrupy consistency, neither too thin nor too thick.
4. Mix in a pail or in any available container the charcoal dust and the binder.
5. Knead the mixture as you would the dough for your bread or your doughnut.
6. Mold the mixture into desired shapes. Use the native sungkaan, or any improvised moulder.
7. Dry the briquettes under the sun. Better still oven cook them in an improvised tapahan- type dryer, using coconut shells or wood barks