Cook on a Wood Stove
This is how to cook on a wood stove that is meant for cooking. Good skill for power-outages, cabin camping, and just for fun
Contents
Steps
- Heat up the stove by building a nice fire in it with the damper(s) wide open.
- Get your cooking gear out and the ingredients ready.
- As you heat up the stove, put a kettle or pot of water on to heat as well. You'll need it for soup, stew, tea, coffee, dish washing...everything. It also serves as a heat-storage measure so use a big kettle. A canner works well.
- Test the top of the stove by tossing a DROP of water on it. If the water sizzles and danced, the stove is pretty much ready.
- Vary your technique depending on what you're cooking:
- To make soup, put on a pot, let it heat up well (keep the stove hot, adding wood as necessary and opening/closing the damper to try to maintain a temperature), fry whatever you want fried (meat, onion, etc) and add some boiling water or soup stock. If you add cold water it will take forever to heat up again...that pan of hot water is crucial.
- To "bake" something, put it in a pan (cake, bread) or in foil (potatoes) and if the top of the stove is very hot put foil items on a trivet or a bit of crumpled foil. Then cover with a larger pan that goes all the way down to the stovetop. Big metal bowls also work for this sort of make-shift oven.
- You can use the fire-box of the stove as a sort of broiler or tandoori oven. Wrap whatever you want to cook in heavy foil and put in the coals after things have cooled down a bit (warning...you may turn your food into charcoal).
- To fry on the stovetop, use a thin thin pan. Cast iron pans on a cast iron stove take forever to heat up so might work for soups and stews left all day, but not great for frying. If you don't have a thin frying pan or saucepan to use, back to the heavy-duty foil! (a coffee can will work too!). Set the pan on the stove, oil it up well. Test for hotness with a drop of water and fry away.
- When done cooking, turn the dampers down and let the stove cool a bit, but keep that pan of water on there. You never know when you'll want a cup of tea.
Tips
- Keep a lid on the hot water pan(s) or you will end up with a very steamy and damp cabin in the winter and a veritable sauna in the summer
- Seriously. That pan of hot water is crucial. Keep a few gallons on the stove at all times when winter camping in a cabin with a woodstove. Just keep refilling as you remove water or keep two pans going so one is always very hot.
- Keep it simple at first. Start with scrambled eggs or a can of soup, not a souffle. If you can't cook it on the stove at home, you won't be able to cook it on a wood stove.
- Don't do this in the summer. It's too hot. Cook outside with a solar stove or eat cold food.
- Take your time. This isn't a microwave.
Warnings
- Keep a big tin of salt and/or baking soda nearby in case of grease fires
- Make sure you have heavy duty pot holders available. Everything will be very hot, the handles included.
- If the stove has a brick lining and/or is catalytic, it will be harder to heat it up to the point where you can fry on it.
- If the stove has no lining, it will heat up fast AND cool down fast so you'll need to fiddle with the fire and dampers more.
- Be careful not to spill grease on the stove. A grease fire is a horrible thing.
