How to cook on a wood stove meant for heating

[Marianne]

MyKids, that was a major steal! Too bad about the other one, though.

SD, is your stove cast iron? Those get a lot hotter than the steel one that we 'had' to install (insurance crapola). It's pretty dang cold here in the winter, so I have this one blazing most of the day, too, but it sounds like yours is hotter.

I can sure burn food on mine if I'm not checking, stirring...It's just like cooking on your regular stove in the kitchen, but you don't get to turn a dial to lower or raise the heat! If I cook closer to the center of the woodburner, it's hotter. I hope the trivet gives me a little help, too.

The first year I tried it, I googled 'camp fire cooking' and got all kinds of helpful tips and some recipes, too.

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

I use dutch ovens to cook inside standard wood stoves.

 

[The Old Ram-Australia]

G'day, just a couple of thoughts on the subject,to check the heat a little ,how about a "ceramic floor tile "between the stove top and the cooking pot?..Or if you have one (cant think what you call them)its "cast Iron" and is about an 1in off the stove top on 3/4 legs,so the direct heat is not in contact with the bottom of the pot.................Hope the above is of value to someone..................T.O.R.................

 

[sufficientforme]

Very timely and useful THANKS for posting!

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

G'day, just a couple of thoughts on the subject,to check the heat a little ,how about a "ceramic floor tile "between the stove top and the cooking pot?..Or if you have one (cant think what you call them)its "cast Iron" and is about an 1in off the stove top on 3/4 legs,so the direct heat is not in contact with the bottom of the pot.................Hope the above is of value to someone..................T.O.R.................

Its called a trivet , and yes, they do prevent most burning.

 

[Marianne]

G'day, just a couple of thoughts on the subject,to check the heat a little ,how about a "ceramic floor tile "between the stove top and the cooking pot?..Or if you have one (cant think what you call them)its "cast Iron" and is about an 1in off the stove top on 3/4 legs,so the direct heat is not in contact with the bottom of the pot.................Hope the above is of value to someone..................T.O.R.................

Those pots are a type of dutch oven, aren't they? Where is my brain today!!! There was a discussion about them recently. Like a little cauldron.. SD, are all of them called dutch ovens?

I too, have heard that unglazed ceramic tiles can be used, but I've never tried it. Do you use one, TOR?

I sure wish we could have installed one of the cast iron stoves I had scrounged up instead of having to buy this steel one. I think the cast iron ones are more efficient heat wise. But hey, I'm just glad we have it. I love cooking on it, too. Any watt saved is $$ in your pocket. I love double duty stuff.

Edited to say that apparently my reading comprehension is in the same place where my brains are today. ) Of course, TOR was talking about the trivets, not the dutch ovens!

 

[freemotion]

Some of the newer ultra-efficient wood stoves are not as suitable for cooking, as I sadly found out with our new stove. The top has some kind of baffle that recirculates the smoke or something like that (ok, I'm challenged in that way...I read it in the booklet but didn't get it ) and the raised center of the stove doesn't get hot enough to really cook on like my older stove did. But we burned twice as much wood with the old stove and still froze our tushies off so I'm pretty happy with it.

It does have some hotter areas on the edges and I do use it to make sea salt, but the little pot barely simmers. I didn't think of preheating the water for soup or stew, I'll have to try that this winter.

I used a horse shoe to get the pan off the heat a bit and it worked great (on the old stove.) You can pick up one horse shoe at TSC or many good feed stores. Or your local farrier.