Using my wood stove for cooking...safety/function questions

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.

emt1581

Minister of Fire
Jul 6, 2010
523
PA
The griddle surface on the top of my stove is around 9"x 18". This would mean that if I put a 10" or 12" cast iron pot on top it would overlap the griddle by about .5" to 1" on two sides. Now I plan to buy the set of pots linked below at Cabelas next week.

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Camping/Outdoor-Cooking/Cast-Iron-Dutch-Ovens|/pc/104795280/c/104754780/sc/104257980/Cabelas-Five-Piece-Starter-Set/714769.uts?destination=/catalog/browse.cmd?N=1100712&WTz_l=SBC%3BMMcat104794380%3Bcat104754780&WTz_l=SBC;MMcat104794380;cat104754780;cat104257980

I'm curious about a few things before I do though...

1. If a cast iron pot gets good and hot and is resting on the paint/enamel due to that overlap I was talking about...will it damage the stove in any way whether cosmetically or functionally?

2. Can I put a dutch oven INSIDE my stove for cooking? Again, any issues there?

3. Anything else I should know before trying to cook with the stove?

Thanks!

-Emt1581
 
Two words. Aluminum foil.

Edit: About the dutch oven in the stove. One word the next day. Landfill.
 
BrotherBart said:
Two words. Aluminum foil.

Edit: About the dutch oven in the stove. One word the next day. Landfill.


hmm...ok...I'm gonna need more than three words there.

So tinfoil over the whole top I get...and that means no damage...right?

But Landfull...ya lost me.

Thanks

-Emt1581
 
emt1581 said:
BrotherBart said:
Two words. Aluminum foil.

Edit: About the dutch oven in the stove. One word the next day. Landfill.


hmm...ok...I'm gonna need more than three words there.

So tinfoil over the whole top I get...and that means no damage...right?

But Landfull...ya lost me.

Thanks

-Emt1581

ah yes... trying to interpret BrotherBart-ese can always prove challenging :lol: If I translated correctly, I believe he means that the dutch oven would be headed to the landfill if used in a stove?
 
Mt Ski Bum said:
emt1581 said:
BrotherBart said:
Two words. Aluminum foil.

Edit: About the dutch oven in the stove. One word the next day. Landfill.


hmm...ok...I'm gonna need more than three words there.

So tinfoil over the whole top I get...and that means no damage...right?

But Landfull...ya lost me.

Thanks

-Emt1581

ah yes... trying to interpret BrotherBart-ese can always prove challenging :lol: If I translated correctly, I believe he means that the dutch oven would be headed to the landfill if used in a stove?


Correct. The proper use of a dutch oven isn't to bombard it with extreme heat, but well placed coals over the top of the lid. Placing it inside a stove would shorten it's lifespan quite a bit.
 
BB is sometimes guilty of hyperbole. If your dutch oven ever gets so crusty that you want to clean it down to bare metal and start over, an evening in the stove will do it handily. So will a very hot campfire. He is very right about it being way too hot to cook in there.
 
Milt said:
If your dutch oven ever gets so crusty that you want to clean it down to bare metal and start over, an evening in the stove will do it handily. So will a very hot campfire.

That is the point I was going to make.
 
Alright so I can put the dutch oven in my stove to clean quickly but not to cook with. Is there ANY way or anything I can buy so I can bake with my stove...maybe even with a dutch oven on top?

As far as the stove top...a single layer of aluminum foil will protect the pain/enamel with a 10-20lb pot of food on top of it?

Thanks

-Emt1581
 
emt1581 said:
Alright so I can put the dutch oven in my stove to clean quickly but not to cook with. Is there ANY way or anything I can buy so I can bake with my stove...maybe even with a dutch oven on top?

As far as the stove top...a single layer of aluminum foil will protect the pain/enamel with a 10-20lb pot of food on top of it?

Thanks

-Emt1581



Don't you have cookstove??? Or are you practising for an emergecy??? I would be careful not to mess up your pretty enamel sove, but thats just me good luck.
 
cptoneleg said:
emt1581 said:
Alright so I can put the dutch oven in my stove to clean quickly but not to cook with. Is there ANY way or anything I can buy so I can bake with my stove...maybe even with a dutch oven on top?

As far as the stove top...a single layer of aluminum foil will protect the pain/enamel with a 10-20lb pot of food on top of it?

Thanks

-Emt1581



Don't you have cookstove??? Or are you practising for an emergecy??? I would be careful not to mess up your pretty enamel sove, but thats just me good luck.


Emergency. Like I said in my post, I want to be able to cook meals if the power goes out long term. I've got a grill, a propane/camp stove, etc...but a wood stove would be super convenient to cook on because it's stable and already hot.

-Emt1581
 
Seems to me you could cook in a Dutch oven just fine so long as you aren't trying to heat your house at the same time. Let it die down to coals and rake them to the sides and place the oven in the middle and pull them back in. I'm sure it would take some practice but don't see any difference between that and a campfire. Like I said though, don't try it with you cat firing off at 1500 degrees.
 
WoodpileOCD said:
Seems to me you could cook in a Dutch oven just fine so long as you aren't trying to heat your house at the same time. Let it die down to coals and rake them to the sides and place the oven in the middle and pull them back in. I'm sure it would take some practice but don't see any difference between that and a campfire. Like I said though, don't try it with you cat firing off at 1500 degrees.

I was actually thinking the same thing...so long as it wasn't a roaring fire...and with a dutch oven AND enough room to lift it out I don't see how it could be...a 2-3" bed of coals and maybe a few on top of the lid should allow enough heat but again, I've never done it. I'm not sure if I'd need to keep the door to the stove open or something else to do it safely. Plus I wouldn't want to burn/ruin whatever I'm cooking.

Thanks

-Emt1581
 
Learning how many coals is appropriate is the hardest part. If your dutch oven gets so crusty that you need to fire it hard to clean it, you've already been doing something wrong and for a long time. Yes it will work, but there is a chance of warpage / cracking from too much heat. With my modern lodge pans I'd consider it maybe. But most of my pans are antique (belonged to my great grandmother, made by my grandfather in a foundry, or just plain been w/ me so long that I'd feel terrible if I damaged one that way).

I coook almost exclusively in cast cookware (have one non-stick small pan for making fluffy scrambled eggs). I'm an eagle scout and from age 10-18 I ate quite a few meals out of dutch ovens put into a bed of coals. It takes practice. If you screw up and burn stuff to the pan, make sure you clean the pan before it cools down. Throw some water in it, let it steam, use a stiff vegetable brush as necessary. If you really did damage, get out the oven cleaner, follow directions, scrape clean, re-season.

pen
 
pen said:
Learning how many coals is appropriate is the hardest part. If your dutch oven gets so crusty that you need to fire it hard to clean it, you've already been doing something wrong and for a long time. Yes it will work, but there is a chance of warpage / cracking from too much heat. With my modern lodge pans I'd consider it maybe. But most of my pans are antique (belonged to my great grandmother, made by my grandfather in a foundry, or just plain been w/ me so long that I'd feel terrible if I damaged one that way).

I coook almost exclusively in cast cookware (have one non-stick small pan for making fluffy scrambled eggs). I'm an eagle scout and from age 10-18 I ate quite a few meals out of dutch ovens put into a bed of coals. It takes practice. If you screw up and burn stuff to the pan, make sure you clean the pan before it cools down. Throw some water in it, let it steam, use a stiff vegetable brush as necessary. If you really did damage, get out the oven cleaner, follow directions, scrape clean, re-season.

pen

Eagle with Bronze Palms here. ;)

Honestly, I think I'll experiment a bit. It'd be one hell of a capability if I could do it. It would mean being able to bake breads, make sammiches with that bread, etc., not to mention cakes, muffins, etc....

Thanks

-Emt1581
 
I use my dutch oven for this recipe quite often. Very simple and delicious bread. Would take some trial and error in the stove of course but I'd recommend starting here (just make sure you have some good hot pads / ove-gloves).

http://www.sullivanstreetbakery.com/recipes

pen
 
The newbie has two things to add here.

1. Make sure that cast iron set isn't Chinese made first. They sometimes use lead in their metal products as they have very poor QC Standards. We bought a Lodge Dutch Oven for just the purpose of stove top cooking. Lodge is made in the U.S.A. It's a bit more expensive, but worth knowing that I'm not gonna get sick from cooking with it.

2. We were just gonna put a few pieces of rope gasket to keep the dutch oven from scratching our stove top. I can already smell the venison roast cooking.............
 
sheepdog000 said:
The newbie has two things to add here.

1. Make sure that cast iron set isn't Chinese made first. They sometimes use lead in their metal products as they have very poor QC Standards. We bought a Lodge Dutch Oven for just the purpose of stove top cooking. Lodge is made in the U.S.A. It's a bit more expensive, but worth knowing that I'm not gonna get sick from cooking with it.

2. We were just gonna put a few pieces of rope gasket to keep the dutch oven from scratching our stove top. I can already smell the venison roast cooking.............

Why not just use a trivet? We cooked a stew tonight on our stove in a cast iron dutch oven with a trivet under it. Worked great and tasted fantastic!
 
The recent October snow that took out power for a few days and left us wanting to start the stove to keep warm allowed us to experiment with this and got me thinking the same thing you were -- let's cook on this sucker!

We put a piece of tinfoil on the top and toasted bagels and muffins, heated up a couple of bean and cheese burritos, and warned other stuff a bit. The power came on before we had the chance to do too much experimenting and the weather has been pretty agreeable so we haven't had roaring fires going since, but here's my quick thoughts for this season at least...

- We are going to try to heat water for the morning coffee this year, at least on the lazy days and weekends. (My wife is getting a coffee press for Christmas for this very purpose.)
- Do not cook anything that will splatter. ('Nuff said!)
- Leftovers should warm up nicely...
- Some stuff will cook nicely, too.
- I'm dying to roll some potatoes up in foil and see how they come out in the hot coals... not sure I'd try that with a roaring fire, so maybe it will be an experiment for one of these days where we let the fire die off as the day warms... not sure how well this will work out.
- Reminds me of when my dad and my sister and I would cook bacon and eggs on the side of the contraption he set up to cook off maple sap into maple syrup. Some of the best memories are of those days in the middle of a New England snowstorm frying up some bacon and pouring sap into the pan...
 
RichUncle said:
The recent October snow that took out power for a few days and left us wanting to start the stove to keep warm allowed us to experiment with this and got me thinking the same thing you were -- let's cook on this sucker!

We put a piece of tinfoil on the top and toasted bagels and muffins, heated up a couple of bean and cheese burritos, and warned other stuff a bit. The power came on before we had the chance to do too much experimenting and the weather has been pretty agreeable so we haven't had roaring fires going since, but here's my quick thoughts for this season at least...

- We are going to try to heat water for the morning coffee this year, at least on the lazy days and weekends. (My wife is getting a coffee press for Christmas for this very purpose.)
- Do not cook anything that will splatter. ('Nuff said!)
- Leftovers should warm up nicely...
- Some stuff will cook nicely, too.
- I'm dying to roll some potatoes up in foil and see how they come out in the hot coals... not sure I'd try that with a roaring fire, so maybe it will be an experiment for one of these days where we let the fire die off as the day warms... not sure how well this will work out.
- Reminds me of when my dad and my sister and I would cook bacon and eggs on the side of the contraption he set up to cook off maple sap into maple syrup. Some of the best memories are of those days in the middle of a New England snowstorm frying up some bacon and pouring sap into the pan...

Wow! Cool! Thanks so much for sharing.

-Emt1581
 
Status
Not open for further replies.