The Flavour Revolution: Why Great BBQ Starts with Local Charcoal
- Martin Hesp
- 3 hours ago
- 8 min read
Last weekend we had folk around for a barbecue and a couple of them commented on the amazing flavour of the pork. It came from a good local butcher, but wasn’t anything fabulous like some rare breed which had been massaged in Japanese beer or marinaded in exotic spices. The difference was that the shoulder joint had been spinning for a few hours on a Kamado Joe rotisserie, over a bed of top quality locally sourced charcoal. The best charcoal I’ve ever come across, actually - which I believe is what helped that pork achieve its fantastic flavour.
It seems reasonable to assume that we humans are hard-wired to like the flavour of food cooked over wood or charcoal, because we were doing it for almost a million years before anyone invented an electric or gas oven. Archaeologists have found evidence of what they believe to be one of the first examples of hominids cooking with fire, and the site in Isreal dates back 800,000 years. That’s a long time for the species to have evolved a universal liking for that curious mixture of sweet and highly savoury which cooking over a live flame can impart.
Take something plain and simple - my pork shoulder, say, or corn on the cob, or chicken thighs - and cook one sample under an electric grill and another over charcoal… The difference in flavour will be profound.
I was boring my guests with all this last Sunday when I suddenly realised I was running low on the essential ingredient - there’s plenty of warm summer weather left to go - so I called my charcoal-burner pal who invited me to visit the forested glade where he makes the good stuff.
Into the Woods: Meeting Chris Silverwood of Fat Raven Charcoal
You might not expect to discover that one of the West Country’s most dedicated traditional woodsmen hails from the sprawl of South London, but in this quiet, lonely pocket of local woodland, Chris Silverwood quietly practises an ancient craft which our ancestors would recognise in an instant. His journey into the old ways didn’t begin through family lineage, but in a local library where he stumbled upon classic texts on green woodworking and coppicing.
Inspired by the methods of old Buckinghamshire chair bodgers, he built a pole-lathe in his back garden before heading to Sussex’s Weald and Downland Living Museum in his mid-20s. There, under the watchful eye of old hands who knew the woods inside out, he served an informal apprenticeship, mastering everything from spar-making (a wooden form of staple used by thatchers) to the unpredictable art of charcoal burning.
Today, Chris channels that hard-won knowledge into his own venture, Fat Raven Charcoal - a name inspired by a vivid dream and inspired by the ravens that croak from the woodland canopy above his kilns. Managing local mixed woodlands through sustainable winter coppicing, he fells, logs, and burns birch, oak, and sweet chestnut, turning raw West Country timber into gleaming, chemical-free carbon.
It is undoubtedly relentless, back-aching graft that requires an instinctive understanding of heat, airflow, and timber, but the result is a world away from the accelerant-soaked briquettes sold on supermarket forecourts. In Chris’s hands, an ancient forestry tradition lives on, providing local kitchens and barbecues with the pure, resonant fuel it was always meant to have.
“It’s all hard work,” Chris told me. “You’re handling wood countless times - cutting it down, logging it, stacking it, pulling it out of the woods, loading it into the kiln - doing your burn, unloading it, and bagging it up.
“We fell the wood and stack the brush over the stools so the deer can’t get at the new growth. It all regenerates. A lot of these stools have grown 10 or 12 feet since winter. In 20 or 25 years, someone will come back through and harvest the same coppice again.”
See other BBQ features on this website - such as this one about using a kamado oven
The Hidden Cost of Supermarket Charcoal
His sylvan world of hard labour is mirrored by the complete opposite - i.e. cheap imported briquettes or charcoal often imported from abroad and sold in supermarkets…
“A lot of imported supermarket charcoal is filled with oil-based accelerants to make it light, and you can taste that on the food,” he shrugged. “Support your local charcoal burner - it’s sustainable, it hasn’t travelled across the world, and there are no chemicals in it.”
Here’s something to take into the equation… Most lidded BBQs like my Kamado Joe are capable of totally extinguishing the fire, if you clamp down the lid and shut the draught controls. Do that with cheap charcoal, and you’ll find nothing but ash left the next morning, but perform the shutdown with large lumps of charcoal like the stuff Chris makes, and there’ll be plenty left for the next cooking session. Given that capability, I’d say using his stuff - with all the environmentally-friendly advantages that go with it, plus the flavour bonus - actually works out slightly cheaper.
“Cooking over fire is primeval,” says Chris. “We’ve cooked around fires for hundreds of thousands of years. It’s a communal thing - sitting around the embers, having a beer, chatting, and eating real food over a live flame. You get that with locally sourced charcoal - and you get a fantastic, living, managed, woodland like the one we’re standing in now.”
Masterclass: Cooking with Top Quality Charcoal
Whenever I write about anything to do with cooking over a live flame I contact my old pal Marcus Bawdon for his thoughts, and for a recipe. As many readers will know, Marcus is regarded as one of the nation’s top experts when it comes to the concept of cooking outdoors - he runs the now famous and much-celebrated UK BBQ School just outside Cullompton.
Here’s what Marcus had to say when I told him I was writing about local charcoal… “When most people barbecue, they see the fuel they use - such as charcoal - just as a fuel only. But things change when you start to think of it as an ingredient - a quality charcoal makes all the difference - it gives a lovely clean heat without being laced with chemicals or fillers.
“Here’s one of my favourite things to do if you have some good locally sourced charcoal…”
See another post on this website about Marcus Bawdon's BBQ tips
Marcus Bawdon’s Coffee, Rum and Maple Glazed Pork Chops
“A good pork chop is a wonderful thing, but not easy to get right, you need the correct sort of heat to ensure a good sear and crispy crackling,” says Marcus. “I love to cook pork chops over wood embers, and have a searing hot side with a few flames which I add new wood to, and a bed of embers on the other side.
“I used an Argentine style fire-pit grill. You’re looking to use a good high heat output wood such as the ash I used, also good are silver birch and beech. Build your fire using the Jenga method of stacking 3-4 inch diameter splits and light using a natural fire-lighter.
“Allow to burn down adding new wood of the same size as needed. Set up your fire-pit or grill for direct cooking about 6-8 inches above the embers. The heat at grill level should be hot enough that you can only hold your hand (carefully) at the grill level for 2 to 3 seconds.
Coarse Sea Salt and coarse ground black pepper
1 shot espresso
1 measure rum
2 tbsp maple syrup
Go for 1.5-2” thick pork chops one per person. Cut the rind to every couple of inches to stop the chops curling up as the crackling forms, and season with plenty of coarse sea salt and black pepper. Place the chops on the grill, hold a chop skin side down over the hottest part of the grill with some tongs until you get crispy crackling bubbling up. Do this for all your chops, then lay chops flat and sear both sides, moving from hotter to cooler parts of the grill to not burn them.
Make up a glaze with a shot of espresso, a measure of good rum, and a couple of tbsp maple syrup, mix together and glaze the chops using a pastry brush once they are seared. Build up a nice glaze by brushing the glaze on a few times, you’re aiming to take the chops off when they reach 63c internal temperature to ensure they remain juicy. This will probably be around 15 minutes total cooking time. Allow to rest for a few minutes and enjoy.
UK BBQ School runs classes year round in its all weather facility, corporate events and team enquiries are welcome, visit www.ukbbqschool.com
Heritage: A Quick Note on West Country Charcoal Burning
In a report he wrote more than 50 years ago my late father described how Exmoor’s charcoal-burning industry had seen the revival during the First World War.
“Little pockets of the old-time industry were re-established all over the country and there was one in the wood behind the rock in at Bridgetown and another at Tarr Steps,” wrote my father. “The landlord of the Rock Inn had six or seven men working with him. The traditional method of operation was to drive a tall, stout stake into the ground, surround it with wood in four-foot lengths, and bank up the whole with earth.
“The fire had to be maintained day and night until the end product of charcoal was reached. Then the crisp, black chunks were taken by horse and waggon for dispatch to the fighting front.”
Not that the troops were cooking on charcoal - it was, of course, used in the making of gunpowder.
“Thanks to the manpower available at Bridgetown, the charcoal burners’ vigil was doubtless performed in relays, but further back in time it was an occupation that often meant a hermit-like existence in the woods for a solitary charcoal-burner.
“We cannot say that without picturing an 18th-century scene in the Quantocks -William Walford, the Over Stowey charcoal-burner, out on the hills for days and nights on end, guarding his fire. And, in his loneliness, finding a tragedy stalking him in the form of that half-wild girl with whom he consorted in the charcoal-burner’s hut - and, having gotten her with child, he felt obliged to marry.
“And whom, in the despair and frustration of a miserable wedlock, he was soon to kill and leave in a Quantock ditch. Then, for Walford, these swinging end on the creaking gibbet on the hill.”
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is locally produced lumpwood charcoal better than supermarket briquettes?
Locally produced British charcoal contains no artificial binders, chemical fillers, or oil-based accelerants. It burns cleaner, lights faster, and imparts a natural, pure wood flavour rather than chemical taint to your food.
Can you reuse lumpwood charcoal in a barbecue?
Yes. In airtight barbecues such as a Kamado Joe or similar lidded grills, shutting the vents cuts off oxygen and extinguishes the embers. High-density British lumpwood charcoal remains intact and can be relit for your next cook, reducing waste and cost.
How does traditional coppicing help woodland conservation?
Coppicing involves harvesting trees near ground level on a rotational cycle (typically 15–25 years). This practice allows light to reach the forest floor, promotes biodiversity, stimulates rapid new shoot growth, and provides sustainable timber without destroying the woodland ecosystem.
What internal temperature should pork chops reach when grilling?
Marcus Bawdon recommends cooking thick-cut pork chops to an internal temperature of 63°C (145°F) before resting. This keeps the meat juicy and tender while ensuring it is safely cooked throughout.
