Cleaning Cookstove Help Please

AverageJo · #21 12/04/12, 11:55 AM

Thanks again for everyone's input!! Great ideas here. The lard didn't work too well on a cold stove in a cold room. LOL... So, I'm going to go back and try again. I hope to take more photos as the stove goes through its transformation and will check back again with you when it's done.

hotzcatz · #22 12/05/12, 01:43 AM

Peanut oil is a high heat oil. It has to get really hot before it will smoke, so you may want to try that. Some folks are allergic to peanuts and won't like peanut oil, other folks are vegetarian and won't like lard, but it's your stove so do what works for you.

raymilosh · #23 12/06/12, 01:19 PM

I cook on a Waterford Stanley cookstove in the winter. I also use it to heat the house.
When mine gets rusty after the summer, i use steel wool, then stoveblack. Some brands do make a smoky mess, but others do not. Well... not much and only once. I also "polish it up" (which also accomplished wiping off the excess) while the stove is hot with crumpled up newspaper after applying the stoveblack.

When I first got the stove, I didn't know what i was doing and tried cooking directly on the stovetop...once. When I finished cooking, I couldn't remove the stovetop or turn it off, so the leftover food and oil burned and smoked up the house. Ever since that day, I have cooked in pots and pans. I remove them from the stove top when I am done cooking so they don't burn.

I am surprised to hear folks who also use cookstoves say to put oil on it. Doesn't it burn and smoke up the house every time you do it?...or do you do it once a year to treat the surface, let it burn and smoke up the house, then leave it alone for the winter?
I'm gunuinely confused and interested to hear others' experiences/comments.

MichaelK! · #24 12/07/12, 09:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by raymilosh

I am surprised to hear folks who also use cookstoves say to put oil on it. Doesn't it burn and smoke up the house every time you do it?...or do you do it once a year to treat the surface, let it burn and smoke up the house, then leave it alone for the winter?

It will smoke once then be good to go. If you like the smell of bacon, I suppose you don't even have to complain about that first smoke.

After the oil gets heated, it sort of hardens onto the surface, just like your cast iron cookware. The charcoal helps make an even better surface.

You wouldn't get so confused if you spent more time doing and less time thinking.