Designs of ‘improved’ stoves are introduced recently to benefit the solid fuel consumption of cooking activities in developing countries, but the uncertainties concerning the combustion processes and particulate emissions remain to be poorly characterised. To help understand this, combustion in three examples of ‘improved’ African cookstoves was investigated in the laboratory. A typical European heating stove was included for comparison purpose. Detailed aerosol emissions were studied in real-time with an Aerosol Mass Spectrometer and Single Particle Soot Photometer, to explore interactions between black carbon (BC) and organic carbon aerosols, which were parameterised according to modified combustion efficiency (MCE), a common metric used within the atmospheric emission community. Greater than 50% of the total organic matter (OM) was found in BC-containing particles when MCE was > 0.95 for dry oak and coal fuels, whereas at lower MCE, over 80% of the total OM for most of the fuels existed in particles without detectable BC. When the OM mass fraction of total particulate matter (PM1) > 0.9, the mass ratio of OM to refractory BC in BC-containing particles was about 2-3, but only ~0.8 when OM mass fraction < 0.9. These findings are not currently included in models and such information should be considered in the future emission scenarios.