Learning to cook on a woodstove?

VermontCathy
VermontCathy Posts: 1,987 ✭✭✭✭✭

Does anyone here have any suggested books or other information on learning how to cook on top burners of a woodstove?

We've been heating with wood for years, but I've never tried cooking anything on the two burners provided on our stove. It's not a kitchen stove with an oven, just a typical home-heating stove.

I think soup would probably be easiest. Other things may be possible.

Has anyone done this successfully?

Comments

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,576 admin
    edited November 2020

    My aunt did this exclusively for many years, but with an old wood cookstove (with tiny oven). I use cast iron elements & cast iron to cook in, but that is still different as the heat should be controlled (one of my elements doesn't seem to know that).

    I would start with soup and yogi tea...things of that nature, then on to other things.

    You can get trivets to put on the stove and under your pots to help diffuse some heat:


  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    Woodstove Cookery: At Home on the Range. Jane Cooper. Awesome book!

    Barbara's Modern Woodstove Cookbook. Barbara Leckenby.

    Cast-Iron Cooking. A.D. Livingston

    The Lodge Cast Iron Cookbook: A Treasury of Timeless, Delicious Recipes. Lodge Cast Iron Company.

    Trivets are a great way to control heat levels.

    I have a proper wood cook stove now but I used a cast iron wood heater (without oven) to cook on for several years. It just takes a bit of getting used to. Personally, I burn less and have better overall results using my wood stove over my regular propane stove. You can get ovens that will sit on top of your stove for baking or use a Dutch oven. I have also seen an oven attachment that goes around a stove pipe above the stove surface.

  • ltwickey
    ltwickey Posts: 369 ✭✭✭

    My kids loved camping out in the living room and to continue that feeling, I would cook bacon and eggs on the wood stove.