Abstract: Cookers, methods of cooking and igniting fuel, and packaged fuel. Novel features of the cookers include receptacles and covers having reflective inner surfaces in the shapes of paraboloids. Another novel feature is a novel cooking surface and support which may extend above the top of the receptacle and into the cover. A supporting and stabilizing pan is attached to the receptacle and biased from the receptacle by a biasing means. The biasing means, combustion grate, and cooking surface support are, in combination, resiliently deformable such that the biasing means and combustion grate can be assembled to the cooking surface for storage or transport. The cookers can be readily disassembled from the cooking mode and reassembled for storage with a reduction in volume of up to at least about 50%, all without use of tools.

Abstract: Novel, and improved fuel articles having a plurality of novel characteristics and having a typical mass density of 0.6 to 1.2 g/cc and a bulk density of 0.2 to 0.4 times the mass density. The greatest distance dg from a point in the fuel article to the nearest point on the nearest one of the upstanding walls is between 0.15 and 0.60 times the height of the fuel article. Charcoal fuel articles of the invention ignite faster than conventional pillow-shaped charcoal fuel articles and deliver substantially more usable cooking heat flux to the cooking surface of a standard charcoal cooker than do conventional pillow-shaped briquettes. The coal article may have a central body portion having a minor circumference, a plurality of fingers projecting from the central body portion, and a hole in the central body portion. The fingers may have finger ends wherein the ratio of the major circumference defined by the finger ends to the minor circumference is at least about 1.25:1.