Originally posted by MistrBill:

I realize this is a just a newbie problem, but gotta grumble anyway. I wish I'd have known what a bottleneck coal was going to be BEFORE I roasted all that boar meat for food. And before I knew that until I had the cores, the only way to get coal was to deliberately burn meat. And that if I DON'T deliberately burn it, I can't put the cooked stuff back in the fire.

I realize that I'll be all right when I find enough cores to build everything I need. It's just weird in the meantime, using burnt food to smelt my ore.