Like any European travelling to Japan, I was given the opportunity to visit numerous specialist shops dedicated to the preparation, cooking and serving of delicious little «yakitori» skewers.
The best ones are invariably cooked over Binchotan charcoal.
Cooking Yakitori skewers in Japan.
What is Binchotan?
Bincho-tan, or white charcoal, has been used in Japan for more than four centuries.
It is an oak charcoal, more precisely Quercus phillyraeoides, or the Asian evergreen oak (holm oak). The finest is the ubamegashi from Kishu. The Tosa region (Kôchi Prefecture, Kyushu Island) is also gaining in reputation. The wood of this oak is very dense and extremely hard.
It is a very hard, highly porous charcoal rich in minerals, generally sold in large pieces of 15 to 25 centimetres, of very high quality.
It owes its name of white charcoal to the whitish colour of its surface (due to rapid cooling during production using a mixture of earth, sand & ash), to its metallic inner colour, and to its crystalline sound when pieces are struck against one another. This charcoal is also distinguished by its extremely long burn time compared to regular charcoal.
This charcoal produces neither smoke nor unpleasant odours and, quite the contrary, imparts subtle and delicious flavours and aromas to food. Its powerful infrared radiation allows dishes to release all their fragrances and flavours.
It is highly prized for grilled eels and fish on the barbecue, for duck and beef… It is a proven mark of quality, showcased in renowned high-end grilled food restaurants in Japan.
The virtues of Binchotan
Binchotan also has several other proven and sometimes surprising properties:
It absorbs bad odours (in shoes or socks, in the kitchen, in the refrigerator…);
It absorbs moisture from a room;
Placed in your living spaces, it is said to improve blood circulation;
Used as a filter, it purifies drinking water (removing its chlorine and/or unpleasant taste or malodorous substances) or washing water. For drinking water, 60 g will be needed to treat one litre of tap water. Before first use, they should be boiled for a quarter of an hour in a large volume of water to remove all residues. Then leave them to dry overnight in a dry, temperate place or in full sunlight, before placing them in your jug filled with water. After about ten hours, you can enjoy pure water rich in minerals. Replace them every ten weeks for consistently perfect results.
It is an excellent repellent against termites and other moisture-seeking insects.
Binchotan in cooking
Using Binchotan for cooking requires a little know-how. I recommend starting a barbecue with regular charcoal. Then, simply place the pieces of binchotan on the barbecue grill for about twenty minutes to warm them up, release the air contained within the pieces and thus avoid any spitting once active. Next, place them on the embers of the regular charcoal until they are well heated and glowing red, then remove the regular charcoal and begin cooking the food.
The combustion of binchotan is very slow, thus allowing use over several hours.
To extinguish it, it offers an advantage no other charcoal possesses. Simply soak it in a container of water for a few minutes, then leave it to dry overnight and, finally, leave it in full sunlight or on a radiator (in winter) for one to two days to remove all residual moisture. You can then use it again.
You can even cook food in direct contact with a piece of binchotan. The cooking is instantaneous, and the food is not burnt.
For 3 years, it has been virtually impossible to import binchotan charcoal, declared as such, for cooking, as no shipping company accepts it on its vessels, the product being classified in Japan as a hazardous material for transport.
Products imported from Japan are mostly small sticks presented as water filters.
Binchotan at Nishikidôri
With Nishikidôri, we have just reached an agreement with a shipping company to import this product, declared as cooking charcoal, for delivery at the end of next spring. Get your barbecues ready and practise making exceptional yakitori!
Find all our Binchotan charcoals at Nishikidôri. Discover all of Olivier's encounters and finds here. Looking for recipe ideas? Find our savoury and sweet recipes!
