A Healing Wonder From The Ashes: Ways To Use Charcoal In Your Recipes: Charcoal Used In Food

The story of charcoal cannot be nailed down to any civilization, continent, or century. A myriad tales, however, point to several firsts of this carbonaceous material in man's voluminous history book. It probably began when the cold north wind swept across the deserts of Western Asia, and the season for using natural wood charcoal made an appearance. The history of charcoal comes in the wake of the origins of the fire - evidence of cooked food is found from 1.9 million years ago, although the fire was probably not used in a controlled fashion until 400,000 years ago. Substantiation becomes widespread around 50,000 to 100,000 years ago, suggesting regular use from this time.
The theory behind the book is that people in the past used to eat a lot more minerals in the form of ashes and charcoal in their food and that since we abandoned this practice about 100 years ago, we have become weaker and sicker. I describe many of the ways that people incorporated ashes and charcoal into their diet and lifestyle in the past, either intentionally or by happenstance, and include some recipes adapted to modern situations based on those historical practices. I also included some of the fun or whimsical facts about some of the uses to which ashes have been put in traditional societies, like, for example, adding an extra kick to plant-based recreational drugs such as betel nuts or chewing tobacco. If you've ever wanted to make pretzels or bagels but stopped where you got to the part where you have to put on safety goggles and rubber gloves for protection, you will be interested to learn that natural, ash-based lye is safe to handle. The book includes recipes for charcoal crackers and medicinal charcoal biscuits, how to make ashes, charcoal, and lye, how to make your own pH testing strips, various ways to make the various medicines used, nixtamalizing corn/maize, ramen noodles, and more.