Do you cook on your woodstove?

Here's our gas/wood/coal cookstove. We cook, stew, bake, warm, water bath and pressure can on this stove from about September to May, depending on the weather. It also heats our home quite well.
Our kitchen had 3 outside walls and a root cellar underneath, so it was always freezing. We added a summer kitchen onto one side of the kitchen, built a chimney, installed the stove and now we're so toasty in the wintertime. Our kitchen is large, I think it's about 17 x 20, and it's wide open into the dining room and up an open staircase, so warm air flows freely. We occasionally use a fan behind the stove.

The stove has 4 burners that can also be hooked up to gas (propane) but we have never hooked them up. It's on the honey-do list. We've also used coal in the stove on super cold nights. Off season we use an apartment sized propane stove in the summer kitchen. Our grill also has a side burner.

It was not hard at all to learn how to cook on this. Just consider your entire surface is hot, some areas hotter than others (over the firebox). If something is about to boil over, just move it to another spot. It's amazing how many kettles you can have cooking at once. We have not regretted this stove at all.

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Charleen in Western NY www.harperhillfarm.com

A bite of butter greases your track. ~ Gramma Sarah

When I lived in England I stayed in a very old (six hundrend or so years) that had an ARGA wood cook stove, it was the most amazing thing. I fell in love, my dream is to have one myself oneday

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I often cook on my wood stove/heater. I have baked and no it was not golden brown but it was cooked.
There is a wood stove cook book out there. I think its called the wood cookery? dont hold me to it its on my wish list. I want to make a metal box ot go infornt of my glass panel on my wood stove to get all that wonderful heat. I just need to find a big enough tin can that is rectangular. I love cooking on my wood stove/heater.
I want to one day have a wood cook stove. That is my dream

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I'm so done here.

Do you think you could post a picture of your stove sometime? We are thinking of getting a woodstove for the den. The last one we had was narrow & not efficient.

When you mentioned this I remembered I have a copy (literally copied it on a Xerox machine). The book was called The Country Journal Woodburner's Cookbook, how to cook and bake-and save energy-on an airtight wood stove by Janet Bachand Chadwick. I had checked it out at my local library some years ago. Her baking was done in a dutch oven or a roasting pan.

Here's one available:

http://product.half.ebay.com/The-Cou...foQQprZ4799563

and I know Amazon had a couple of sellers selling used copies too.

I used to do all my cooking on the wood stove. I've done the normal things like soups, stew, chili, etc., but also pancakes, biscuits, cakes, pies, complete meals. I never timed them, I just let them cook until they smell done. I have a cast iron griddle for pancakes, and do the baking in a dutch oven. Just set the dutch on top the stove, then scoop out a few coals to put on top the dutch and you've turned it into a oven. I used to get some funny looks from people when they come in and see 3 or 4 pots on the wood stove.

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I'm sorry about the large size of this photo. As you can see, our woodstove has two cooking surfaces: an upper and a lower shelf. The upper shelf is cooler and is used for slow cooking and simmering. The lower shelf is hotter and can be used for boiling and frying.

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That's almost the same as mine. Mine has a flat top, no upper shelf.

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Thanks CabinFever, that's a pretty one too.

On backwoods home website they have alot of cook books and one is the wood stove cook book I want shoot most of the books me and dh want.

Dh and i are going to invest in two of the colmen camp ovens. I took the measurements and I will need two. The both will fit on the stove. I almost cant wait till winter.

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I'm so done here.

Try the Lehmans Non Electric catalog. They have a book on woodstove cooking (not cookstoves, heating stoves) and the little ovens to put on top of the stove. They also have many other wares suitable to homesteading, as they serve the Amish community.

I am really enjoying this discussion! I'm hoping to eventually settle down and buy a small home with a big yard. I don't need a lot of land. I suppose about one acre would suit me just fine, as I'm a single person. I don't require a lot of space, since I'm single, but I do require a lot of space for a garden, and someplace to store veggies that I can grow in my garden. I'm hoping to be able to have a root cellar to store things like abpples, carrots, etc.
I also hope to be able to heat with wood, and seeing that I would be able to cook on my woodstove in the winter is awesome!
Michelle

We used a wood cook stove for years. It was a pretty stove and did the job well. You had to keep on your toes and learn how to move things around on it. The oven was great but it too needed to be watched. We ended up selling the stove a couple of years ago as it needed repairs and wasn't that efficient. There are times I miss it but we have our Vermont Castings stove there and we still cook on the top stews, soups, and most everything that can be cooked on a regular stove. We don't have the oven but that is not a big deal. It is much more efficient so that helps.

RenieB

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The Will of God will never Lead You where the Grace of God cannot Keep You

I went to walmart today and picked up two of the colmen stoves for the same price as online. So no it is NOT online only. The stove will hold two 9x5 bread pans and a nine inch pan. With 7 people so far to feed here dh wanted to get two.
The more time goes on the more I want to learn to work with metal. Welding etc. So many things I would find useful but just cant find any more in this day and age.

I will check lehmans now.

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I'm so done here.

Charleen, I love your stove. It looks very nice.

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look at this one its to big for my stove but mite be great for someone else
http://www.lehmans.com/shopping/prod...1&keyword=oven

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I'm so done here.

dave is this the one? http://www.lehmans.com/shopping/prod...ProductID=5342

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I'm so done here.

I have the 2004-2005 catalog and they list 3 woodstove cookbooks. Woodstove Cookery, Home Comfort Cookbook, and American Wood Heat Cookery. The last title is for cooking on your heating stove, not a kitchen cookstove, and appears to be the closest to what everybody is looking for. You have to run the woodstove anyway, might as well cook with it too. I would think most any woodstove would cook nicely, and some pot bellied stoves even had tops designed for cooking. They were used by the railroad, I believe. The Lehmans catalog has a lot of neat stuff if you want to reduce your dependancy on power from the grid.

Oh I found them and thank you. Now I have 6 more books to add tomy must haves. i collect old and old fashoned cook books. I have a great one from 1800. I need to dig it out of the plastic and see what it has in there. I also love amish cookbooks.

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I'm so done here.

My brother in law has been cooking on his wood cook stove for 23 years.

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