Old smoke dragon for outside cooking?

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Alan Gage

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Oct 8, 2008
88
NW Iowa
Been thinking I'd like to set up an area for wood cooking in my backyard and wondering how to do it? Thought of building a fireplace/stone oven thingy from scratch but the two main criteria are functional and cheap. Cheap it would be, functional probably not if I tried all the masonry work myself to save money.

Then I thought, why not find a big old cast iron stove for cheap that I can set on a brick pad. I could cook with doors open, doors close, stove top, whatever. Find one big enough so that I can set up an adjustable rack inside. It should be pretty easy to build up around it with stone/brick to improve both the looks and heat retention. Cheap, easy, functional...perfect!

I haven't come up with a reason not to do it this way yet so I figured I'd come here and ask the rest of you. What are the hang ups that I'm missing? Any other suggestions?

Alan
 
Couple of thoughts. We only cook with wood and have an outdoor kitchen also. First what ever you use for a stove make sure you have a screen on the cap. I do not run a screen on the house stoves but do on the outdoor kitchen especially as its going when its warm out and there is higher fire hazard. Second I would find an old cookstove as you might find a heating stove is to much heat in summer. We do most of our canning on the outdoor cookstove and the place heats up even with only 3 walls and those walls have large windows. Old cookstoves are getting valuable but if you do not care what it looks like i think you could get one on the cheap.
 
Many folks pipe the stove right into a smoke chamber so you can cook slow and low or at a pretty good clip. All you really need is a decent fire pit to cook with - and a grill for it. Or you can get fancy for sure. If you were looking for cheap and functional, I might just go with a block fire pit and rig up a grill setup for it - adjustable is good...
 
Only negative is rust.
 
Sorry for the delayed response, been on the road. Thanks for the thoughts.

I'll have to look into an old cook stove, I hadn't really thought much about that route. I know nothing about cookstoves and will have to do some research. Any big draw backs to them? Things I should pay careful attention to when choosing one? Like, "make sure it does/doesn't have this" and "make sure xyxy is still there and that it works."

And a fire pit for cooking will be forthcoming as well but I bake a lot of bread so want something a little more enclosed that can give me more options.

Fun to think about and I've got a few months before it will be warm enough to do much about it so I'm sure I'll come up with plenty more ideas by then.

Thanks,

Alan
 
Yes I had the same notion just last night. I was thinking I could turn my old Franklin Fireplace into a smoker. I think if I construct some sort of metal box that I could attach onto the top of the collar of the stove it just might work. It of course would have to have some type of rack in it, but I don't think it is too far fetched. It seems to make perfect sense. That is to reincarnate something that it can do so well, smoke.
 
Rust was mentioned, as well it should be.!!

I`m thinking an outdoor patio with only a metal or whatever roof. So, the old stove in the center, but still needs about 10ft or so of chimney pipe going up thru the centre.

My neighbour actually bought one of those outdoor fire(things) and has a roof over it and a pipe going straight up thru the centre. So--to keep that evil rust away, thinking you might have to do the same kind of thing.

Any kind of cast iron or metal left outdoors-and exposed to the elements is just gonna be waste material in very short time. IMHO!!
 
If you decide to try a cookstove there are just a few things to look for. Most important is the oven. Ovens are first to go many times. If it has a hole you can fix it and you can use the condition to get the price down. Next is the firebox. Many have grates and you should check that they are ok and the air control and bypass damper are working. A little rust just means its been sitting but make sure the rust is not to deep.
Advantage of a cookstove over a heating stove is 2 fold. First it takes much less wood to cook with and second the stove surface will heat up nicely with an oven as an extra bonus.
 
This might be an instance when a Vogelzang might be the answer . Vogelzang sells an inexpensive painted cookstove , about $1200 . Another low cost cook stove is sold by a company called Buffalo Import [buffaloimport.com]-a porcelain coated one [made in China though] for $1995 which I think includes shipping .
 
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