Science proves why we should only use charcoal for the bun cha fan

A popular Vietnamese dish, but it is attractive to such foreign heads, why only use charcoal when baking, the answer will be below.

In typical Vietnamese dishes, bun cha is one of the few dishes that one can eat all year round, the hot season as well as the cold season. The combination of special flavors of barbecue with sauce and vermicelli made it an unforgettable unique feature. It is no coincidence that US President Obama chose to eat bun cha when visiting Vietnam.

If you are a gourmet, you will probably have a list of favorite bun cha shops that you often go to, but have you ever seen bun or grilled meat dishes ? It will be extremely rare because the vast majority are grilled with charcoal. Not entirely for economic reasons such as cost or cost, more importantly, the taste of the dish.

Indeed, charcoal helps chopped pork or grilled meat dishes with attractive flavors that are difficult to resist, for some people it is like a magic thing. But if you think that the magic taste is due to the coal pellets, then you're wrong, they don't really come from the charcoal itself. Let science prove it to you.

The great thing about charcoal is that it is very hot when burned , much hotter than a gas grill that can be made. Why so? Because charcoal contains a lot of pure carbon, and that means a lot of energy. Where does the briquettes maker get from that pure carbon , of course, from carbonizing wood bars.

This is how it works: factories start with sawdust and some wood chips left from factories making lumber. They heat this mixture in extremely high temperatures but in very low oxygen conditions, so wood chips and sawdust will not catch fire. This process will remove water and other impurities mixed in wood, leaving only carbon.

The product of this process will be combined with adhesives and other additives, then they are put into molds to squeeze the mixture into characteristic cylindrical blocks. During the baking process, the briquettes will burn cleaner and even less likely to cause odor due to the absence of volatile impurities in the coal. That not only helps you keep your clothes clean, but also almost no smell of coal.

But in fact, it is because of the volatile impurities in food , not coal, that make up the magic flavor of charcoal grill. When the pieces of meat are baked under high temperature, it drips out droplets of liquid that fall straight into the red hot coals and creates characteristic sizzling sounds and flares a small fire. These droplets are full of fat, oil and sugar and protein will evaporate when touching the coal tablets and seep back into the meat pieces, where they escape.

That's why baking through charcoal gives you such great flavors. Those charcoal cakes are just middlemen, not the people who create those flavors. The smaller the oil and fat from the meat, the more flavor you will get for your food.

But be aware of those mixes. Although they are just droplets of liquid like water droplets, their destinations are then coal pellets. The charcoal will flare up when exposed to the droplets of the mixture but will cool quickly when the mixture evaporates, causing smoke to seep into the meat. That smoke can make your meat taste a little bitter. If you are a fastidious person, this may make you uncomfortable to enjoy.

If you want to fully enjoy your favorite food, sprinkle a few pieces of wood chips on top of the charcoal. They will not be as intense as coal, but their top will retain all the attractive flavors that have been lost in the carbonization process to produce coal. In the vapor form, hundreds of scents of these substances will interact with each piece of meat to bring out the characteristic flavors of the classic barbecue.

By now you've probably figured out why your favorite bun cha restaurants use coal instead of gas. So, if at some point you want to confidently show off your home-made noodles, go buy a charcoal bag to make your meal more tasty.