Charcoal Briquettes: The History Of A Favorite Bbq Fuel
You can't consider yourself a true BBQ fanatic until you know a little bit of history about some of your favorite BBQ products
. One product that true BBQ connoisseurs use is the charcoal briquette. And even though it is used often, few people know when and how the charcoal briquette was invented.
Next time you are entertaining your guests and serving them some tasty BBQ right off the grill, you can impress them even more with your knowledge of the charcoal briquette. The charcoal briquette is one of the most popular items in the BBQ world. It produces a smoky, mesquite flavor that people love.
The first patent on charcoal briquettes was held by Ellsworth Zwoyer in 1897. There are few details on how he came up with the product, but he developed them in abundance after WWI. While Zwoyer had the first patent on the product, he was not the distributor that really made the product popular.
Henry Ford was responsible for popularizing charcoal briquettes. For a period of time he owned the only company that people could get the product from. With help from his friend, inventor Thomas Edison, he developed a charcoal briquette mostly composed of wood debris and sawdust. He got these materials from his automobile factories.
Soon, Henry Ford's brother-in-law stepped into the picture. His name was E.G. Kingsford. The name is probably familiar to you as his company is still one of the top BBQ accessory companies in the industry today. Kingsford bought some of Ford's briquettes and started mass marketing and commercializing his own charcoal briquette products.
The brother-in-laws eventually came to the decision that Ford would give up his briquette business and focus on the auto industry. Kingsford continued with producing his briquettes and changed his company name from Kingsford Company to Kingsford Charcoal.