Cooking on a Fireview

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BurnerPB

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Sep 17, 2009
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Hello,

I have not posted for about a year. I had to register a new account because my old account information was on another computer and I don't have that info.

Anyway, I purchased a Lodge Dutch Oven and a Butterfly oven in order to utilize the Woodstock Fireview for cooking some meals and hopefully have the ability to bake bread.

I was wondering if anybody here has any experience cooking on the Fireview (or any stove for that matter) and can share any tips.

Should I have any additional accessories to cook?

Should I get the Woodstove Soapstone Cooktop, Bootwarmers, or just use trivets?

I would appreciate any helpful information that anyone can share. Maybe Dennis or Todd can "chime in."

Thanks,

Mike
 
http://store.woodstove.com/xcart/product.php?productid=16661&cat=298&page=1

why need this on a soapstone stove?
trivets are great for steel stoves with high surface temps, but on soapstone wont the scratch surface? using ht gasket only insulates trivet/steamer more ime

i have sold/ installed Hearthstone for many years and have very few customers interested in cooking on them, so i will sit back and see what folks say...
 
I have a stainless steel dutch oven that I use to cook stews or roasts and it works fine. Just be carefull not to fill it too full, it may boil over if the stove top is too hot. Woodstock also sells some removable soapstone cooking panels that fit right on top if your afraid of scratches. I find about 300 degree top works good for a long slow simmer, just keep a good bed of coals and throw a few small splits in there when the temp starts to drop.
 
Woodstock sells panels for the top for $45 each. I picked one up when I purchased the stove as it might come in handy during a power outage. The rule of thumb is that with the panel the top will be half the temp of the stove top temp. So if your stove is crusing at 500 your cooktop will be 250.
 
Hey there Mike!

I'll be really curious how well that oven works out for you as I too would like to bake on top of my Fireview. Once you get your stove fired up and give that oven a test, please post your comments/review so that we can all benefit from your experience. I'm really curious to find out how stable a temperature that thing can hold since it is designed to have a flame feeding heat into it.
 
Hey there Mike!

I’ll be really curious how well that oven works out for you as I too would like to bake on top of my Fireview. Once you get your stove fired up and give that oven a test, please post your comments/review so that we can all benefit from your experience. I’m really curious to find out how stable a temperature that thing can hold since it is designed to have a flame feeding heat into it.
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From the website (below):

I don't know how many times I've heard people ask "How can I bake bread if the power is off?" This is how, with a Butterfly Oven. You just put this on top of anything that's hot - a camp stove, a wood stove, whatever, and you bake. It's black, has two adjustable shelves, handles for carrying it, heat reflectors along all sides and the top, and a door with a glass window and a thermometer. The bottom is open and the lower shelf has a heat shield underneath it to direct the heat towards the size of the oven.

From another site:
The Butterfly #2421 oven is not the same as the Coleman folding camp ovens. The #2421 does not fold up, it is insulated with internal panels, and it has two adjustable racks for baking, all radically different from the Coleman. The #2421 oven does require a high flame height to achieve baking temperatures, but baking temperatures are uniform throughout the oven. The Coleman, being uninsulated, requires an extremely hot flame and the temperature is not uniform, so bread can burn on the bottom before the inside is properly done.

"Butterfly" kerosene stove ovens are available from www.StPaulMercantile.com . St Paul Mercantile is highly recommended. Their prices are low and service is high - a great combination!


The Butterfly #2421 is a relatively large oven at 14 inches square and has an bottom opening of approximately 9" x 10," with a flame plate below the bottom oven rack. It must sit on a large, flat cooking surface. It will not fit on the small #2412 pressure stove or even an Alpaca cook stove, as the Alpaca has four tapered "wings" to support cooking pots only. Of course the oven can be placed on a cooking stand and be supported by the stand over a small stove.

The useable size of the Butterfly #2421 oven is established by the size of the door and by normal thermodynamic principles - ovens work because hot air can flow around the object being baked. The door opening is 11" wide by 9" high. The inside depth is 11". Baking pans of approximately 10" square are about maximum for proper heated airflow on all sides of the pan, and the height of 9" is more than adequate for bread and casseroles, for example.
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The oven is approximately a 14" cube. It is very sturdy and does not fold up. Inside dimensions are 10." high, 11" deep and 12" wide. The door opening is smaller, so for pan sizing, the door opening is 11" wide and 9" high. It will accomodate a 10x10 pan, which will allow a little air space around the sides for more even baking.
Click to expand...

I have been looking for an oven for a while. The one that Lehman's used to sell is no longer available. The Coleman fold-up ($30-$40) got decent reviews from campers but seemed a little flimsy and distributed uneven heat as well as reports of food burning on the bottom. I found this one and supposedly Butterfly is a very good brand and people in the "third world" seem to rely on kerosene cookers and ovens as their only cooking means. This one was designed for a kerosene cooker (which I might like to have) but also accommodates a wood stove nicely. It fits a 10" pan and has two racks.

I will keep you posted.


Mike
 
I appreciate it. I followed your link and did a quick google search as well. That oven does sound like like it is well designed for what it is - good that it is actually insulated on the walls vs some other designs. My concern really is whether or not the fireview surface will provide sufficient heat to maintain good baking temps in the oven to bake breads. Since the oven itself doesn't have a large thermal mass we have to rely on the stove to provide sufficient heat to keep the air hot around the bread to be baked. On the bright side - the soapstone under it will certainly provide a consistent heat source for a decent length of time.

I purchased the cook stone(s) so that I can worry less about scratching my surface, but also to raise the cooking surface above the cast edges. I don't know if they will really lower the surface temp by 1/2 again of the internal temp - when I was talking with folks at Woodstock the comment was more along the lines of it will take longer to get the surface up to temp to reflect cat activity with the additional thermal mass up there. Won't know until I try eh? First things first, have to get to know the stove without these stones on top, then play with cooking later.

Do you already have your stove installed and the oven in hand?
 
Welcome back.
Click to expand...

Thanks (if that's for me).

Do you already have your stove installed and the oven in hand?
Click to expand...

I have had my stove since October '08. This will season I will give it a real test(all of my wood was not completely seasoned last year). Everything good "they" say about Woodstock is true.

I ordered the stove two days ago, so I will update you on the quality of the design, how it fits, etc. It is a 14" cube and the Fireview cast iron frame on the top has a convenient recess that is about 14" from front to back (talk about a perfect fit). So I can put the oven either towards the left or right and still have room for the kettle and thermometer.

I will start to hopefully try it out to bake within the next few weeks and let you know.

Mike
 
BurnerPB said:
Hello,

I have not posted for about a year. I had to register a new account because my old account information was on another computer and I don't have that info.

Anyway, I purchased a Lodge Dutch Oven and a Butterfly oven in order to utilize the Woodstock Fireview for cooking some meals and hopefully have the ability to bake bread.

I was wondering if anybody here has any experience cooking on the Fireview (or any stove for that matter) and can share any tips.

Should I have any additional accessories to cook?

Should I get the Woodstove Soapstone Cooktop, Bootwarmers, or just use trivets?

I would appreciate any helpful information that anyone can share. Maybe Dennis or Todd can "chime in."

Thanks,

Mike
Click to expand...

Welcome back Mike.

My wife does a lot of cooking on our Fireview. Sometimes she will use it just to keep foods hot if I am a bit late, but during the winter she would rather use the wood stove than the cooking stove. Nothing special is required for her but she does seem to use a big cast iron frying pan a lot. She has cooked meals, made apple butter, cooked down tomato juice, etc. She is not afraid to use it at all.

Rather than setting pots and pans directly on the top, we do have some of the boot/glove heaters and use them under the pots and pans when I'm not using them outdoors!

We use these boot and glove warmers a lot. First, the large ones work great for inside of boots for drying and they seem to dry things out quite fast. The smaller ones fit nicely inside of gloves. When I go to the woods to cut (I cut almost all the wood in the winter), I usually take an extra pair of gloves; sometimes 2 extra pair.

Before leaving the house, I'll put a warmer inside each glove and then wrap the gloves inside a heavy cloth, like an old bath towel or something similar. When my gloves get wet or my fingers start getting cold I'll simply get out a warm pair of gloves! Man, that is worth a lot! If not needed during cutting I'll at least put the warm pair on before driving up with the load (I haul with an atv and trailer). As stated, having that warm pair is really worth a lot. The same thing happens when I plow snow (using the atv). Every so often I change gloves and those warm things really feel great.

Back to your problem. I like the dutch oven but doubt that the oven will work well on the Fireview as that oven is designed to work over an open gas flame. But that oven also interests me for outdoor cooking for sure.

Good luck and enjoy some cooking on that stove. Also remember that it is another way you can save a dollar on expenses. You have the heat; use it. Heck, we also keep a big pan of water on the stove all winter and sometimes several times during the day will use that hot water for washing or whatever. Just refill and let the wood heat the water and help humidify the home.

btw, thanks for the vote of confidence.
 
I've been baking all our bread on or in wood stoves for 30+ yr. Just start out experimenting. You may have to turn the loaf every ten minutes or whatever to keep it baking evenly, and that means you are dedicating the time to get it baked rather than setting a timer for the full length of baking and going off to do something else.

For many cooking jobs, the heavier pans [rather than thin, sheet steel ones for example] will help matters and reduce burning or uneven cooking. If you set the pans on the stove top of a cast or steel stove without a stone or other insulator as mentioned in previous posts, you'll discover different areas of the top of the stove that give higher or lower heat. I probably don't even need to mention that one.

The times given in recipes for baking or other cooking are only gonna be guidelines, as of course you will not be able to control the heat as easily as with a gas or electric range or oven. Drives my wife crazy, but you'll get it figured out.
 
SteveKG said:
I've been baking all our bread on or in wood stoves for 30+ yr. Just start out experimenting. You may have to turn the loaf every ten minutes or whatever to keep it baking evenly, and that means you are dedicating the time to get it baked rather than setting a timer for the full length of baking and going off to do something else.
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What sort of oven have you used on your stove?
 
On tops of wood stoves, I've used Dutch ovens and heavy, deep sided frying pans [cast]. Covered.

Now I have a Rais stove in the kichen which is a model having a built-in chamber on top, sort of an oven, and I use that for all baking and the stovetops for other cooking when they are operating. We also have a propane counter top set of burners [I mean those built-in countertop units....I cut the top off an old gas range, changed the "plumbing" as needed and built it into our counter]

The wood stovetop method, even with a Dutch oven type of heavy cast cookware, for baking, really does better with some form of the stone, etc., pad others have mentioned to prevent the brutal heat burning the bottom of the stuff you are baking. Doesn't matter with stews, soups, any other sort of thing you are cooking. Biscuits and other breadstuffs are fine this way, though you will need to run some experiments to figure out just how to gauge doneness. Every stove and cookware configuration is different and experimenting is the only way to really figure out how to do it in your particular situation. Expect to be cutting off some burned bottoms and etc. for a while. Once you figure it out, it's great. Particularly, as in our case, where you are heating with the stove anyway so it's already hot and in use.

Some sort of "chamber" to set atop the stove, as others have mentioned, would likely be an easier way to bake, though I've never had one to try out.
 
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