Flat coal sheets, not for beds but for a grill.

June 17, 2018 12:26 PM

I need a flat piece of Coal I saw this video a couple years ago and always thought it was a cool idea. I have some time coming up and would like to take on making one of my own. I think I have most of it figured out but I cannot find a source for a large enough flat enough piece of coal. I understand that I will likely have to do some smoothing and finishing. Google keeps showing me bed-sheets and decorative tiles. Any help on a source or even suggestions for search terms would be appreciated.
posted by dstopps to Home & Garden (7 answers total)

You're unlikely to find a flat piece of anthracite ('hard coal') of any size for sale. I spotted a few large pieces here (towards the bottom) - you'd have to get one sliced, perhaps by someone who cuts stone for masonry or memorials. But I'm not convinced that the sheet in the video was actually coal. To me it looks like something you'd get by mixing powdered charcoal with some sort of binder and compressing it.
posted by pipeski at 12:55 PM on June 17, 2018 [2 favorites]

I agree that was probably not a piece of coal cut into a block. It looked like compressed charcoal to me (like artist charcoal sticks but bigger) Have you tried contacting that company?

You might also try calling your local rock and stone supplier, they sell to landscapers and often have large and unusual pieces.
posted by ananci at 1:01 PM on June 17, 2018

Something like this? (7.9" x 5.5" x 1.2")
posted by Static Vagabond at 1:20 PM on June 17, 2018

I have no idea how good any of them are, but YouTube has a bunch of videos on diy charcoal briquettes. Probably you could follow one of those but mold it in a cookie sheet instead of the little bricks/pucks.
posted by Poogle at 2:11 PM on June 17, 2018 [1 favorite]

WRT the video, that's charcoal. You wouldn't eat anything cooked over coal, the taste would be horrendous. We used to heat hot dogs etc in aluminum foil on a coal fire (amateur blacksmithing). You had to be real sure your aluminum foil was sealed up tight.
posted by rudd135 at 2:36 PM on June 17, 2018 [3 favorites]

The piece in the video did not fracture the way compressed charcoal would have, but who's to say they didn't choose something more photogenic for the shoot?

However, I don't see any insuperable reason a solid 12"X12"X2" board could not be turned into a single piece of charcoal (I used to buy a brand of mesquite charcoal that regularly featured 4-5" long sections of branches that were 2" or more in diameter, yet perfectly intact aside from being charcoal -- and the ends had glassy fracture patterns, at that), but you might need a metal frame to keep the board from warping as it cooked.
posted by jamjam at 2:36 PM on June 17, 2018 [1 favorite]

Well here is a culinary opinion about grilling with coal .
posted by hortense at 7:09 PM on June 17, 2018