A bit of history on Kingsford charcoal

[Richard Chrz]

Many of you probably know this already, but I am Reading a book by Aaron Franklin of Franklin Barbecue on steaks.He touched a bit on the history of kingsford charcoal. The company was first called Ford charcoal, as Henry ford purchased timberland he needed wood for the model T production. He had brokered the land from a then real estate broker by the name of Edward Kingsford. Henry Ford used the sawdust and scraps, and some science from the Oregon university to make briquettes and started “Ford Charcoal, however the recession had few people cooking outdoors, ford charcoal was sold in 1951. The group that bought it, rebranded it Kingsford Charcoal after the person who sold the land to Ford. Still did not take off until the weber grill was invented. Interesting , or maybe not....

[Mr. Bones]

Certainly interestin that Aaron included in his book; kudos to him!

Lil more comprehensive history can be found Here

[Richard Chrz]

Thank you for the link, I enjoying learning a bit of history as I take on new interests.

[Mr. Bones]

Certainly, yer welcome Brother! I always enjoy learnin history, as well!

Richard Chrz

[fkrall]

Then I'd say you're definitely in the minority: https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/knowi...ng-who-we-are/

[JPGators17]

I always thought it was cool that Kingsford and Ford, two household names, were cousins by marriage too. Love some history, especially BBQ history.

[Obi-Dan]

It is interesting. I always found the friendship between Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone interesting. Eventually Firestone's granddaughter married Ford's grandson.

[Huskee]

Meathead talks about this a bit in his excellent Science of Charcoal article, scroll about 1/3 of the way down to the subheading Charcoal Briquets.

[JeffJ]

It's amazing what collecting sawdust scrap coupled with the invention of the backyard kettle created.