Making venison stew on top of the wood stove today.

Todays high is only suppose to be 27. So this kind of cold weather makes a great day to be cooking on the wood stove. Since I will be standing quite often by the stove door throwing wood in all day, I might as well be stirring something also. So I just got through cubing up some deer steaks and seared them on the range top. Have just added water and transfered them to the wood stove to slow cook all day. Later I will add the vegetables and tomato sauce. Then later this eve I will set down to a delicious bowl of venison stew. "Uummm, umm!"

Anybody else using there wood stove to cook with? Maybe Hominy Grits?!!!

[Ozarkquilter46]

Yum YUMMMMM what time are we supost to be there for dinner I love sitting around a wood stove.

[gilberte]

Sundays are our big cooking day During the cold months we make a big pot of beef stew,turkey or chicken soup, fish and or corn chowder put it in quart jars, vacuum seal, and put in the fridge. During the week pop open a jar and heat on the woodstove. With a big ol junk of homemade bread this becomes our fast food for a quick lunch or supper

[poultryprincess]

Every morning I get up, start the cook woodstove, put the perculator on the cook woodstove & feed the chickens. When I come back inside it's time to wake the King & sit down to a hot cup of coffee. The weekend is our splurge breakfast day. I cook our homemade sausages, homefries, hot peppers & duck eggs all on the woodstove! Every Sunday we have a big pot of spaghetti sauce simmering on the woodstove. It takes about 4 - 5 hours for the pork roast, sausages, chicken & meatballs to cook properly in the sauce. I must confess that we don't cook as much on it during the week.....but venison stew sure sounds good - might have to try it.

[crashy]

Yummy I will bring some homemade rolls!!! And some butter!!!

[Tracy Rimmer]

Can I bring an apple pie and join in? I love venison!

Tracy

[ratherbefishin]

can't cook without a cast iron dutch oven, either.Sacrilige to use anything else on a wood stove...I saute a big onion, chop up the venison,remove the onion, brown up the venison, and then add the onion back, some chopped celery ,salt and pepper, maybe a clove of garlic, good shot of barbeque sauce-and add a bottle of beer.Put the lid on and leave it alone for most of the day.Crack the other bottle of beer and eat it with a good slab of home made bread and butter.

[perennial]

Your making me so hungry. I love venison, but don't know any hunters or any way to get it - that's what living in a suburb will do for you.

I was once able to get venison tenderloins at our butchery, but that was a long time ago.

You are all so lucky to have fresh venison.

When i cooked the tenderloins, i used a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper and grilled them on my stovetop grill pan, then when they were just about done,
i brushed maple syrup on them. I then made a sauce of the stuff in the pan by
adding water and reducing it! It was so good.

You are all making me want to make a stew today. I think that's an awesome idea to put the jars of soup in the fridge instead of buying canned soup! I'm on that just as soon as my chickens finish roasting today.

[wy0mn]

ratherbefishing. Sounds like you belong in the kitchen instead of on the lake. That sounds like my style of cooking.
Sold my woodstove a few years back, file under dumb@$$. Still have the castiron cookware .
If this rain stops I may go harvest some bushytails for dumplings.
Knew there was a positive side to working nights...

[perennial]

Whats a bushytail?

[WanderingOak]

Originally Posted by brural

Whats a bushytail?

Think acorns. They usually raid the bird feeder.

[gilberte]

Just wanted to make one thing clear about my post, the vacuum sealing does not take the place of pressure canning for long term, non-refrigerated storage. We use the soup up within a couple weeks and have never had a problem and it tastes as good or better than the day it was made

[ratherbefishin]

fishin' beats workin'.I never tried squirrels, we have an invasion of the gray squirrels around here , they were introduced along with cottonTail rabbits and bullfrogs.I guess I should shoot some to reduce the numbers- they run off the native red squirrels.Whatabout using a 22?And-how many do you need to make a squirrel stew?

[poultryprincess]

I'd like to know what a cast iron, dutch oven is.....I haven't got a clue.* I'm Curious how you would clean an old rusty cast iron pot. I had planned on curing it in the oven once I removed all the rust, but it keeps coming. Could I use CLR, or is that too toxic? I bought it used for $10. so I can't complain. The others I found were $45.00, were just as old but no rust.* Do you cover your cast iron fry pan handle with something - so you don't burn yourself? *** And if that isn't enough questions for ya, I have another one :no: Is there some kind of material that can be put on the woodstove to place your plate on? I find it crowded when I am cooking & need to take something out of the pan, & then add something to the fry pan....all the while running back & forth to the kitchen table. They must have had a slab of marble or tray that could sit on the woodstove while cooking. THAT'S ALL - no more questions! I await your divine wisdom :worship:

[ratherbefishin]

a cast iron dutch oven is typically a large cast iron pot with a lid.It can have feet on it for cooking over a coal fire, or flat bottom for regularoven or stove use.The lid can have a deep lip, again to hold coals for top heat when outdoor cooking.I have both types.Just think''slow cooker'' and you'll ge the idea.They are marvelous for making almost anything from stews soups, to actual baking pies and bread[ with a plate to hold them off the bottom]
The best way to get rust off is to use coca cola- the cheapest and best food safe rust remover around-matter of fact if you knew whatwas in the stuff- you'd never drink it.Just buy a 2 litre bottle and fill your pot and let it soak over night.Of course then you'll have to season it again, but the rust will be gone.
I've used a lye bath to get off really baked on grease, butthat's for heavy duty restoration.Again, you have to re season it before using

[edcopp]

Good greif, damsel in distress.
Let's see. Rusty old iron pot. If it is about a 5 or 6 quart size and has an iron lid it might just be a "Dutch Oven". Most "Dutch Ovens have a fairly flat lid with a rim around the edge. The usually have short feet on them too. The idea here was to set the pot in the fireplace and then scoop some hot coals on top of it so the food would cook from the top and the bottom at the same time. It was highly reccomended to put the food in first.

If you find one of these with no feet and no rim on the lid it is just an iron cook pot, ideal for stew. If you have one that is all rusty and refuses to come clean, the "old timers" tell me that you can bury this in the swamp in a mucky place for a few weeks and the rust will be gone. I don't know about that one because I never tried it. Was also supposed to get steel traps cleaned too. A lot of people use oven cleaner to clean off rust. I have used a hand drill with a round wire cleaning brush. This will get the rust, and work up an appetite at the same time.

Another "old timer" said that the best thing to season iron for cooking is olive oil. I believed him too, just by looking at him you could tell he knew his stuff about food. He said to just oil up whatever you wanted to season and put it in a 375 deg. oven for an hour and a half. We put a cookie sheet under the iron stuff to catch the drips.

One thing that works good for putting veggies and stuff in the pot is another skillet. This can set right on top of the stove too and will not be hurt. We have a variety of trivits that we often use. A trivet is a little metal thing that sets on top of the stove and acts as a spacer for whatever is sitting on top of the trivet. The trivet may be made out of cast iron or wire.

I do have a very special item that I use around the woodstove all the time, that is a pair of leather welding gloves. Put one of them on and the need for a potholder is greatly reduced. Move pots, skillets and trivets wherever you want with no problem. Put the stew pot on top of a trivet so that it will slow cook for a long time. The soup or stew will just get better and better.

Originally Posted by edcopp

I do have a very special item that I use around the woodstove all the time, that is a pair of leather welding gloves. Put one of them on and the need for a potholder is greatly reduced. Move pots, skillets and trivets wherever you want with no problem. Put the stew pot on top of a trivet so that it will slow cook for a long time. The soup or stew will just get better and better.

THANK YOU!!! Thank you, a thousand times over! I've been so disappointed in the "professional" oven mitts I've bought ***3 pairs of so far *** and they just get thin and can't be washed!!!

I went and asked my hsuband after reading your suggestion and lo and behold! He actually had a pair of leater welding gloves, sitting out int he shop not being used, that neither he nor our ds who helps him all the time can fit into anymore! Yet, they fit me and my two helper-daughters just fine!!!

WOO HOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Thanks again!!!

Hey Brural, you can go visit your nearest processer who process deer for hunters and ask them if they have any extra venison to get rid of. Every year they have hunters who do not come back for their deer so they have to get rid of them and will sell them to the first come first serve. When I was processing deer for people I was having the hunters to place a $20 down payment on their order. I done this to discourage any hunters who just wanted a place to get rid of their deer and still yet I would get stuck with a few cut up deer. But their was always somebody to come around and buy them from me.

[gilberte]

Originally Posted by r.h. in okla.

Hey Brural, you can go visit your nearest processer who process deer for hunters and ask them if they have any extra venison to get rid of. Every year they have hunters who do not come back for their deer so they have to get rid of them and will sell them to the first come first serve. When I was processing deer for people I was having the hunters to place a $20 down payment on their order. I done this to discourage any hunters who just wanted a place to get rid of their deer and still yet I would get stuck with a few cut up deer. But their was always somebody to come around and buy them from me.

This should be a crime of the highest order. Unless these folks are dead their hunting license should be suspended for life

[poultryprincess]

:worship: ratherbefishin :worship: edcopp THANXXXXX ** I was reading the reply of ratherbefishin while sippin' on a coke.....stopped me in my tracks! < it's the 1st one I've had in a month > ** edcopp - I would gladly try the mucky swamp thing.....if I could find one in all this snow! Up here in the Great White North, we are havin' some nice snowfall.....but nothing like N.California :haha: ** my cast iron pot is nothing fancy, no legs, no lid. Looks like it could hold about a gallon ---oops, I shoulda said 4 litres! At least I know what a Dutch oven is. When I caught the Martha Stewart episode on seasoning a cast iron pan, she didn't mention anything about the Dutch oven But she did show how to make an upside down pineapple cake in a cast iron fry pan, which gets all crusty & caramelizes on the underside.....mmmmm Thanx again brainiacs!