If you’ve ever cooked a meal over an open wood fire and then had to clean the pans, you’ve notice that the smoke from the fire leaves a buildup of black soot.  It is caused by burning wood or fossil fuels when the airflow to your fire isn’t adequate for 100% combustion.  Restricted airflow essentially starves the fire which leads to incomplete combustion. When the oils in the wood aren’t completely burned, they off-gas as volatiles and travel up through the smoke. The smoke cools as it rises, and ultimately condenses with moisture from the wood and other chemicals onto the interior of your chimney and flue and even the bottom of your frying pan.  This residue is called creosote.  If it continues to accumulate inside your chimney whether metal or masonry, it can diminish the air flow increasing the production of creosote.    Creosote buildup can cause a dangerous chimney fire or restrict the air flow forcing these harmful gases to contaminate your house.  On the bottom of the fry pan creosote can be removed by a good scrubbing.  In your chimney, creosote accumulation can be reduced by burning creosote sweeping logs.  These logs can reduce some of the creosote buildup but it can only completely be eliminated by a thorough chimney sweeping.

To avoid creosote buildup on your pans, charcoal is a cleaner burning fuel.  It is a fuel that you can make yourself.   If you want to learn how to make your own charcoal come to the class on October 19th at the Stake Center at 2024 S 1475 W.  Time 6:30-7:30 PM