anybody else cooking on a woodstove?

this year I finally put in a chimney and hooked up my old wood cookstove. I've been using it to heat the place and I've been doing most of my cooking on it too. Cooking on the top is easy, just a matter of moving the put around to find the level of heat you want. What i haven't tried yet is baking in the oven. I put a thermometer in there and I'm trying to get the hang of maintaining the fire at an even temp.

Anyone else out there have any experience with this?

Re: anybody else cooking on a woodstove?

An old mountain song has the words, "I smell your bread a burning,so turn your damper down, if you don't have a damper, then turn your bread around.".......... I can't make any clearer then that.

Re: anybody else cooking on a woodstove?

i remember my grand mother cooking on her's. also heating bath water.

Re: anybody else cooking on a woodstove?

Yup. The best heat in the world. I used to run a trap line ,our stove had a water reservor on one side and a warming oven on the top. Nothing like coming in from outside and putting your butt up against the fender on the stove . Every sunday we would fill the laundry tub with hot water and set it in front of the open oven and lay a towel on the oven door. Then flip a coin to see who goes first. Nothing like getting out of the tub and grabbing a nice warm towel. Come to think of it , my son was born 8 months after one of those winters. You control your oven by the sliding draft on the side of the fire box and the damper in the chimney. On the back top of the stove their should also be a sliding draft to let heat out of the oven. If not then crack the oven door. Also you can use fast burning wood to bring oven up to temp. Then use a bigger slower burning wood to regulate the rate of burn. Have fun.

Re: anybody else cooking on a woodstove?

Just a little ice and snow falling here this morning. My boys and their friends go out with a tube tied behind their 4 wheeler. When they came back in we had a big pan of Hot Chocolate on the stove for them. Nothing but smiles.

Re: anybody else cooking on a woodstove?

woodrat said:

this year I finally put in a chimney and hooked up my old wood cookstove. I've been using it to heat the place and I've been doing most of my cooking on it too. Cooking on the top is easy, just a matter of moving the put around to find the level of heat you want. What i haven't tried yet is baking in the oven. I put a thermometer in there and I'm trying to get the hang of maintaining the fire at an even temp.

Anyone else out there have any experience with this?

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My Mom still cooks on her wood stove, (a very nice n' purdy reproduction stove), on the East end of RR island, (she uses the stove top and the oven, [but not fer real temperature sensative stuff]). We burn Fir if the temp and poppin' isn't too much of a problem, (Fir burns fairly hot n' the pitch makes the wood pop in the fire). We burn Alder if we want a more even burn. We use Cedar ta start the fire.

I have an ol' Montgomery Ward antique stove with a real rare, (so I've been told) oven that is higher then my Mom's stove, (it is on the right side of the stove as the fire box is on the left side as most stoves are cornfigured), the top of the oven is 12'' higher then the rest of the stove top. I haven't hooked it up yet, (it is in nearly perfect shape), n' very heavy ta get into me cabin. I bought it from one of my former clients when I was in the investment bidness, n' he claimed his Mom cooked bread in the oven, n' the antique dealer who wanted ta buy it from me real bad claimed it would cook bread real well too.

JR

Re: anybody else cooking on a woodstove?

mine is a Toledo, and has just a warming shelf up above, and no water tank on the side. but it does have ports in the back of the firebox where you could hook up a water heating coil if you desired. I got mine from the Nickel ads years ago, but wanted to make sure I got my old mobile home refinanced before I poked a hole in the roof and stuck a non-compliant antique woodstove in as my main heat source.

I use fir in the morning to get my tea or coffee heated up fast, and mostly alder, spruce and whatever else will burn the rest of the time. That fir gets things going nice and fast in the cold mornings. The little firebox is the perfect size for mill ends and small alder thinnings which I have a lot of.

Re: anybody else cooking on a woodstove?

woodrat said:

mine is a Toledo, and has just a warming shelf up above, and no water tank on the side. but it does have ports in the back of the firebox where you could hook up a water heating coil if you desired. I got mine from the Nickel ads years ago, but wanted to make sure I got my old mobile home refinanced before I poked a hole in the roof and stuck a non-compliant antique woodstove in as my main heat source.

I use fir in the morning to get my tea or coffee heated up fast, and mostly alder, spruce and whatever else will burn the rest of the time. That fir gets things going nice and fast in the cold mornings. The little firebox is the perfect size for mill ends and small alder thinnings which I have a lot of.

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Very Kool, I need ta break down n' get a digital cam so I can do that too!!

My old stove is not quite that fancy, (it has enamal paint not the stainless or nickel plated stuff yers has), but Mom's reproduction is breath taking.

Sometime I would like ta talk to you about yer saw mill. That would werk real well on RR island!!

Respectfully, JR

Re: anybody else cooking on a woodstove?

digital cameras are pretty dang cheap these days. This one is not so cheap, but it is waterproof, so that makes a difference.

You have a PM about the sawmilling.