Utilization Study of Carbonized Coal Briquette as Beef Rendang Cooking Fuel

Finding the cheaper alternative fuels and shortening the rendang cooking time are the potential efforts to reduce the production cost of rendang. This study aims to use low-rank cheap coal to cook beef rendang and to develop a more efficient rendang cooking method. First, the raw coals were carbonized, then the charcoals obtained were crushed and mixed with the filler and binder. After that, the charcoal mixture was molded into briquettes. Furthermore, the carbonized coal briquettes resulted were characterized and used as fuel to cook beef rendang in a semi-closed moveable-grate stove. To get a more efficient cooking time, a modified cooking method was developed. From the research has been obtained that there was almost no significant odor and smoke emissions during the cooking process except at the initial ignition period, which takes between 10-15 minutes. The modified cooking method took time 3 hours to get the dry beef rendang, 1 hour shorter than that of the normal cooking ones. Briquettes consumption for 1 kg of beef rendang cooking, using the modified cooking method, was about 0.75 kg, equivalent to USD 0.18 if 1 kg of briquette is priced USD 0.24. Finally, it can be summarized that carbonized coal briquette is a solid smokeless fuel that is safe and cheap to cook beef rendang.