Hi folks, wondering if anyone has tried cooking on a domestic cast iron multi fuel burner. My concern is the surfaces, do you need a steel flat plate or silicon surface between the cast iron cookware and stove.
phil
phil
cooking on a domestic wood burning stove
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I cooked a few things on my wood burning stove in the living room and never bothered with anything, i dont do it regualry though!
i do it quite often, mainly long cooking times like stews and ragus. make up a set of trivets of different thickness so you can have some control of heat, use good pans and go for it. its free heat and nothing tastes better than eating a dinner than when E.ON got nothing out of you. A large pan of water is always on there as well for washing up and to wash me when the lecky goes off. you can do spuds for you lunch if you have a cast iron pot, put a ring of 2p pieces under the pot and put in the dry spuds, 3 hours later nicely baked. butter and beans hmmmm
We had one at our last house, i used to cook fryups for me and the kids on it, but only did it when the wife was out. She used to come back to be greeted by us with smiley faces, full bellies, and a house smelling of fry up, and me lying about cooking in the front room !.
Rob
Rob
forestwalker
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
I do it all the time during the colder parts of the year (sometime in September to May). It is a hot surface, one puts pots on it to heat the contents.
A few hints:
* Your stove-top may not be the same temperature all over. Learn the pattern, and use it to your advantage when cooking
(the same as you do by turning the dial on an electric of gas range).
* Get some iron trivets (ours were intended for protecting a table from hot pots, think 1-3 cm high). Use when a pot
needs to simmer but not boil.
* Get a steel kettle for hot water.
* Get in the habit of clearing ashes out everywhere needed. You will learn how often this is.
I prefer it to the electric.
A few hints:
* Your stove-top may not be the same temperature all over. Learn the pattern, and use it to your advantage when cooking
(the same as you do by turning the dial on an electric of gas range).
* Get some iron trivets (ours were intended for protecting a table from hot pots, think 1-3 cm high). Use when a pot
needs to simmer but not boil.
* Get a steel kettle for hot water.
* Get in the habit of clearing ashes out everywhere needed. You will learn how often this is.
I prefer it to the electric.
Well you could just try it? Its OK to cook on one but don't see much point apart from if the power fails.
It's great for anything that needs a long cooking time, like stews and hotpots. I use things like the bottoms of baked bean cans (burned off in the fire) to lift the pot off the top of the stove a little if the top is too hot. If you have a house-proud SO be prepared to worry about the paint finish, not many of the stoves I've seen in showrooms lately have more than a quick spray of matt black. This will last about an hour before turning to rust when it gets wet. If it's cast iron it will then just stay like that, cast iron doesn't rust quickly, but if it's steel the rust might get worse quite quickly if you aren't careful. If a pot boils over there's a risk of cracking a hot stove top or glass panel (if your stove has one). So far I seem to have got away with it. 
I always have a couple of kettles and a 2-gallon water carrier on the top of the stove, can't beat free energy.
I always have a couple of kettles and a 2-gallon water carrier on the top of the stove, can't beat free energy.
It's great for anything that needs a long cooking time, like stews and hotpots. I use things like the bottoms of baked bean cans (burned off in the fire) to lift the pot off the top of the stove a little if the top is too hot. If you have a house-proud SO be prepared to worry about the paint finish, not many of the stoves I've seen in showrooms lately have more than a quick spray of matt black. This will last about an hour before turning to rust when it gets wet. If it's cast iron it will then just stay like that, cast iron doesn't rust quickly, but if it's steel the rust might get worse quite quickly if you aren't careful. If a pot boils over there's a risk of cracking a hot stove top or glass panel (if your stove has one). So far I seem to have got away with it.
I always have a couple of kettles and a 2-gallon water carrier on the top of the stove, can't beat free energy.
Its not free energy though Ged is it? Its taking power that would heat the room room to heat water you may not need for a long time.
Something like this would be better for cooking and throwing some heat into the room
http://www.lehmans.com/store/Stoves...Stoves___The_Oval_Wood_Cookstove___1903?Args= Popular type of stove with the Amish I'm told.
In the sense that nothing in life is free, and there's an opportunity cost associated with owning land and, I suppose, tools, then I suppose you're right.
If you mean that the water takes heat that would otherwise heat the room all the time it's on the stove, no, that's wrong. Once the water is hot (more or less boiling) the heat just goes into the water and comes out again so no heat is lost at all. True, some of it sits there doing nothing until I make tea. Then it gets inside me a lot quicker than if it had heated the room.
In fact the heat is only wasted if you pour the hot water down the drain. If the fire goes out, then neglecting a little evaporation you get the heat back from the water with 100% efficiency. Perfect energy storage. In the sense that I grow wood for fuel, so it costs me nothing but the time and effort to manage the land, and to cut, split and season the timber (all of which I very much enjoy), then yes, it is free. Even the junk mail is delivered without charge.
forestwalker
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Well, there is a loss when the water changes from liquid to gas, and at least some of the steam will go out the ventilation ducts, but apart from that you are correct.
They are all OK Red, the Amish survive on the 'tinny' stoves lol. Some of the American stoves are real works of art compared to the rather bland looking stoves we tend to see in the UK. I grew up with Aga stoves (well about twenty years), and they were also OK, but if I had one I'd insist on a four ring gas hob as well. Even my Aga loving mom had a fitted propane hob at the farmhouse.
I must confess to having a Cannon professional double oven and hob running on propane Richard. I love the Esse, but its hot to use in the summer
If I were you I'd just give it a go , you don't want to be caught out if you do have an electrical outage.
It pays to be prepared and know what to do in a situation like that.
It pays to be prepared and know what to do in a situation like that.
I love mulling my cider on top of our "woody"...just put the ingredients into my pewter pot and stir occasionally with a pint-sized wooden spoon...
teh only words of advice I would add are firstly don't put a cold cast iron pan onto a really hot stove top (let it warm a bit first, I've seen pans crack through the thermal shock of this in a cold cabin). Secondly for the temperature control on the plate my old gran used a few coins. Just put three coins on and stand the pan on those, pennies for hot and pounds (was thrup'nny bits) for warm and none for very hot; she nudged them to a corner when each wasn't needed
i often cook things like stew and chilli on top of my woodburner, and have struggled with regulating the cooking temperature other than by altering the heat of the fire, i shall try the coin trick as suggested by numerous people, thanks for the tip.
stuart
stuart
