cooking on an open fire (house fire)

[4D_scumpunx]

finally got a house with an open fire.. not too big but a good enough size for the small house its in..
So i was just wondering who/if anyone cooks on there open fire..
I want to use it to cook on/boil water during winter to try and save on bills a little and was wondering what you cook, what you use and if anyone
finds this a good method for cooking

 

[wingstoo]

British Red is the man for answering this, he has done some good meals when at his old place.

Might need to find a good way of suspending a pot and kettle close too though.

 

[spandit]

We've got a woodburning stove which is much more efficient than an open fire and easy to cook on. If you can get the wood cheap/free then they're great. If you have to pay for your logs they're not much cheaper than gas/oil central heating (a stove can burn woods like chestnut that spit too much for an open fire)

If you can get some sort of pan support then go for it! Cooking in embers is often best but you'd have to wait for the fire to die down

 

[Ogri the trog]

I regularly boil my kettle and cook things like toast, sausages and single pot reheats over the open fire through the winter months. I'd love to find the necessary bits to replicate my Grandmothers fire-place with swinging trivets, bread ovens and such - but I doubt there are many left.
Its been said already about enclosed stoves being more efficient so perhaps that could be a long range project for you.

Good luck

Ogri the trog

 

[John Fenna]

I have used my Dutch oven on embers at the side of the fire - sat on a 3 hinge trivet - to cook bread etc ...but I have the advantage of a wide fireplace (over 3' wide at the front, about 2' deep and 2' wide at the back)
I have been meaning to get a swinging hook built for it so that I can hang a kettle over the fire but cash is short and due to injuries I have not been up to forging for a while.
I also make my charcloth in the fire, and turn hedge trimmings into charcoal for my mini BBQ.... all done in Sweety tins and syrup tins
Unbeatable for chestnuts and marshmallows too.....
An open fire is a wonderful thing!

 

[British Red]

There are two types of accesories necessary for regularly cooking on an open fire. One is a a simple pot hoist (looks like two saw blades that interlock - one end suspended up the chimney). A pot hoist enables a pot to be hung, raised and lowered. I have one kicking about somewhere if people need pictures. The other is a "fire crane" the most elaborate of these have arms that can be extended and retracted, raised and lowered, and sung in and out - allowing full threed dimensional movement. There are other clever devices around as well - even clockwork roasting spits.

Open fire cooking is great fun and can be achieved just by balancing a pot on the coals.

Red

 

[FGYT]

i have an old school cooking book that my wife's Great Auntie won at school in 1914 the Hints and tips to Teachers fwd is from the Education Department 1890
some of the example questions specifically tell you that the family your planning for only has an open fire / grate etc and no oven ( roasting is done in front of the fire not in an oven that's baking
I cant see any current schools asking similar questions even brought up to date

Q. For a family of seven, the father an artisan earning 30s a week and paying 6s a week in rent, living in rooms where there are only ordinary grates and no ovens, what sum might be spent on food and fuel and what dishes could best prepared under such circumstances. with two or threes recipes in detail

so have a hunt for old cooking books arounf the late 1800's etc they have a lot of usfull info in this one has even a section on Invalid cookery with lots of Broths and Gruels

ATB

Duncan

 

[ged]

I think an open fire in a home is indefensible nowadays.

As has been said, a stove is much more efficient (easily three times more efficient!) than an open fire. There are three main reasons for that:

1. An open fire takes five to ten times as much air from the room as a stove, and all that air has to be replaced with cold air from outside, and then heated.

2. An open fire cannot burn as hot as an enclosed fire, so it produces more carbon monoxide because a hotter fire is needed to convert carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide efficiently. When carbon monoxide burns, it produces heat instead of just going up the chimney and being wasted.

3. An open fire usually produces ten to fifty times more particulates (mostly unburnt fuel) than a stove. That's more kilowatt-hours going up the chimney unburnt and it adds to our pollution of the biosphere.

Stoves vary a great deal in price. I don't think it needs to be expensive to do the job. There are stoves designed to burn only wood, and 'multi-fuel' stove which can burn other solid fuels too. There's loads of advice on the Web already. See for example

http://www.findaproperty.com/displaystory.aspx?edid=00&salerent=0&storyid=21213

You will probably need to line the chimney if you plan to fit a stove (you need to keep the flue gas hot and some old chimneys aren't safe with a stove) but in my opinion it's well worth the expense. In the UK there are various regulations that you need to comply with to fit a stove, see for example

http://www.woodburnerwarehouse.co.uk/installing_a_stove.phtml

We have two multifuel stoves and we cook quite a bit on them. It's more fun than using the cooker, and much more convenient and a lot cleaner than an open fire. It's just like having a great bit hot plate really. There's usually at least one kettle on the stove, and in winter we often don't know what to do with all the boiling water despite using it for making loads of hot drinks, washing, washing up, and filling several vacuum flasks and half a dozen hot water bottles.

 

[FGYT]

i agree a Stove is a much better solution than an open fire for efficiency and safety.
as you say Ged open fires can actually make a house colder over all by the amount of air they draw in



we have just had the one in our new house refitted and the chimney lined as it was a death trap as was with cracked leaky flue etc

ATB

Duncan

 

[SiWhite]

Have you a small dog?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/acornsarebitter/4166562693/

 

[gentian]

I cook a lot on an open fire.......heat water, cook a chicken, bake bread etc. I bought some old pots, a large kettle to heat water for washing and a dutch oven which is great for all kinds of cooking and baking bread in. I have a ring of stones and found some old metal to put across it, otherwise i use a grill like 'thing' which makes heating water a breeze....oh roast potatoes !!! great !

 

[rik_uk3]

Got a woodburner that I could cook on. You could rig something like an old oven grill perhaps on an open fire although you may need to cut it to size. You can buy fire brick of different shapes and sizes on eBay.

 

[4D_scumpunx]

thanks for all the great and quick replies. been very helpful, my fire place is only... 20inch by 20inch and 1 feet deep.. so pretty small.. and worryingly cracked.. but having no money at all at the moment i cant afford to have it re-done... not bad for a fire over 250 year old though.
it shall be used to bake lots of bread, warm many brews and cook what ever i can find suited to cook on it (i'm vegetarian)

 

[santaman2000]

Hopefully this is my last house without a fireplace. I've actually learned a lot from this one and the next one I build (have built) will incorporate a lot of changes (but that's a different story) I'm lucy here in that wood cutting permits are only $10 per pick-up load on the Air Force Base reservation (it's a large reservation; about 60x30 miles) If I am fortunate enough to retire to Idaho it's a bit cheaper in the National Forest there.

I certainly intend to have my fireplace built with the hooks needed for proper cooking. A wood-stove is also planned but that will be in addition to the fireplace, not in place of it.

As for it being "defensible", well I don't have to defend it.

 

[Andy BB]

Indefensible? Oh dear - I can feel a rant coming on....................