Anybody here have a wood stove with pizza or bake oven?
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SpaceBus
Minister of Fire
I'll dig out some of the food pics from my wood cookstove, and we also have an outdoor pizza oven, but it's for a two person pizza.
Are you looking for an indoor or outdoor unit?
Are you looking for an indoor or outdoor unit?
I’ve been looking at indoor wood stoves with ovens (Tulikivi has a few, Vermont has bake only), and wondering what the experience is. Do you cook with them as much as you thought you would? What do you make and how often do you cook? If not why not? Heat mgmt an issue? For a pizza oven can you get the temp to 8-900F? I’ve used an ooni before but if I’m going to redo my wood burner would love to cook inside
SpaceBus
Minister of Fire
My outdoor terracotta pizza oven gets at least 800df, maybe more. Accidentally burned my first pizza to a charred lump of dough.
My cookstove is a Tim Sistem "North" with a domestic hot water loop. I burn a fire in it nearly every day September-May and sometimes even on a cool summer night. We do still have our GE glasstop range oven as well, but mostly I use it as a kitchen timer/counter top. Like most other wood burning range ovens the top can get very hot, the steel top got up to 800 several times and my optional glasstop gets up to 1,000 when I push it. Like most other range ovens, the oven really tops out at 550-600df, but I have never needed it any hotter. In fact we have never gotten the oven above 500df. Our cookstove is very convective, which reduces clearance to combustibles to 6" and 2" for protected surfaces. This means that even though it has a similar heat output to our free standing cast iron Morso woodstove, my wife says she still feels cold even when the house is 70+df when burning the cooker. In regards to heat management the cooker can keep the house warm on a mild day (30-ish df), but when it's really cold we light the morso as well. There are some larger cookstoves that could probably carry the heating load for most houses, but then it is more challenging to use in milder weather.
We are still mid renovation and long term we'd like to get a large range hood and that will help keep the house cooler and that should allow us to use the wood cookstove into June and August. I mention this because I really don't like my electric range, and like it even less after using the wood cookstove. The only things I have burned are a few trays of peanuts because I forgot to set a timer. Otherwise the oven is sealed and does not let any moisture out, so it is very forgiving. This means more frequent cleaning of the oven door glass, but a small price to pay. I refuse to roast anything in the electric oven if possible. We also have a countertop convection oven/microwave that I use when it's too hot for the wood oven. Meat or vegetables roasted in my wood oven are vastly superior to my GE as well. Somehow even without allowing any moisture out my whole chickens come out with perfectly browned and crispy skin. Pizza also comes out very well now that I have found a pizza stone that fits inside of the oven, but not as well as a real wood fired pizza/bread oven. If you have a large family, my cookstove probably wouldn't work for you with the oven size. In terms of wood cookstoves it is a mid size oven, but compared to my electric range it is fairly small.
I'm not a fan of the vertical style cookstove like the Vermont Bun Baker (which is an Australian import). The small footprint is nice, but the cooktop temperature suffers and I'm not sure how easy it is to clean them. I see them more like a heating stove that can heat your domestic hot water and bake, which could have an advantage for you. Maybe having that with a separate electric or gas cooktop in a counter somewhere is better for your lifestyle.
Most cookstoves run around 300*f in the oven without turning the circulation on around oven. It then raises to about the exiting flue gas temp. (that is about twice as shown on surface thermometer on single wall pipe) My oven thermometer goes to 1000* f. but it gets too hot in my home under 2000 sf to run hotter than 500 for long. The kitchen Queen 480 I have is rated for up to 3000 sf. It is my only heat source (other than a coal stove when we decide to burn coal instead of wood) and we chose it due to being a steel plate stove, a larger hot water reservoir than any other cook stove, and a counter rotating oven flow.
We have a commercial Garland double gas oven for summer, but prefer to use the wood oven. All other ovens rely on air circulation around food and cooking sheets where wood ovens have a door gasket and moisture only leaves through a very small vent into the chimney. Food cooks quicker with the steam present and you have to keep your body and face back when opening the door due to steam. Also when the door is open, moisture condenses fast and drips off the inside of the door on the floor hile door is open, so we keep a towel ready if the door is going to be open for long. The inside of oven and door is stainless, another reason I chose the KQ. Since it is a moist heat, juices from meats do not dry out, overcooking doesn’t dry out, and food cooks quicker with steam present. It is difficult to brown the top of a casserole.
I thought there would be a learning curve for oven cooking, but not at all with this stove. It’s easy to bring it up 50* or so above what you want so when cold food is put in it drops to the perfect temp. Then just maintain fire and air adjustment to keep it there. Never burned anything in the oven yet since it is so forgiving with moist heat. My wife was removing cookie sheets the first time and ran out of room on the counter. So she sat one sheet on the stove top over oven a few seconds to make room. Instant burn on the cookie bottoms. You learn to move pots and pans around on the top for the desired heat instead of controlling the heat of a burner on a conventional stovetop.
The biggest plus is the oven is always ready to put something in during winter and simply adjust circulation and fire for desired temp. During extreme cold outdoor temps, 0 and below for us, We leave the oven door slightly open overnight but do not turn oven on for more heat output. You can’t leave the oven door open for more output until the stove, oven and chimney are up to temp since what little circulated around oven will cool before entering chimney creating creosote around oven.
Another important consideration is where the oven clean out is. Most older ranges were on the front. Is the clean out door is on the back, it’s fine in the middle of the kitchen such as our installation, but you don’t want that clean out on the back against a wall. The Queen is one of the few that circulate UNDER the oven making the fire go sideways under it when turned on. Then up the side, and across top to get the outlet. Most ovens circulate across the top, down the side, and across the bottom before rising up the back and out., Burning coal is fine with them since you only get fly ash to clean out around oven. Burning wood cools and condenses at the bottom leaving a gooey tar like creosote mess that can solidify and become very difficult to remove. That was an issue with antique ranges and rots them out under the oven. That was another main reason for choosing the Queen. I’ve heated with many stoves over the years and this one has been the ultimate for us. I did add a thermostat when they were being used in Amish households before they were tested, and now available on the newer models.
The newest model from Kitchen Queen, the Grand Comfort, has secondary combustion which is the only upgrade needed from an older one.
http://www.kitchenqueenstoves.com/
We have a commercial Garland double gas oven for summer, but prefer to use the wood oven. All other ovens rely on air circulation around food and cooking sheets where wood ovens have a door gasket and moisture only leaves through a very small vent into the chimney. Food cooks quicker with the steam present and you have to keep your body and face back when opening the door due to steam. Also when the door is open, moisture condenses fast and drips off the inside of the door on the floor hile door is open, so we keep a towel ready if the door is going to be open for long. The inside of oven and door is stainless, another reason I chose the KQ. Since it is a moist heat, juices from meats do not dry out, overcooking doesn’t dry out, and food cooks quicker with steam present. It is difficult to brown the top of a casserole.
I thought there would be a learning curve for oven cooking, but not at all with this stove. It’s easy to bring it up 50* or so above what you want so when cold food is put in it drops to the perfect temp. Then just maintain fire and air adjustment to keep it there. Never burned anything in the oven yet since it is so forgiving with moist heat. My wife was removing cookie sheets the first time and ran out of room on the counter. So she sat one sheet on the stove top over oven a few seconds to make room. Instant burn on the cookie bottoms. You learn to move pots and pans around on the top for the desired heat instead of controlling the heat of a burner on a conventional stovetop.
The biggest plus is the oven is always ready to put something in during winter and simply adjust circulation and fire for desired temp. During extreme cold outdoor temps, 0 and below for us, We leave the oven door slightly open overnight but do not turn oven on for more heat output. You can’t leave the oven door open for more output until the stove, oven and chimney are up to temp since what little circulated around oven will cool before entering chimney creating creosote around oven.
Another important consideration is where the oven clean out is. Most older ranges were on the front. Is the clean out door is on the back, it’s fine in the middle of the kitchen such as our installation, but you don’t want that clean out on the back against a wall. The Queen is one of the few that circulate UNDER the oven making the fire go sideways under it when turned on. Then up the side, and across top to get the outlet. Most ovens circulate across the top, down the side, and across the bottom before rising up the back and out., Burning coal is fine with them since you only get fly ash to clean out around oven. Burning wood cools and condenses at the bottom leaving a gooey tar like creosote mess that can solidify and become very difficult to remove. That was an issue with antique ranges and rots them out under the oven. That was another main reason for choosing the Queen. I’ve heated with many stoves over the years and this one has been the ultimate for us. I did add a thermostat when they were being used in Amish households before they were tested, and now available on the newer models.
The newest model from Kitchen Queen, the Grand Comfort, has secondary combustion which is the only upgrade needed from an older one.
http://www.kitchenqueenstoves.com/
SpaceBus
Minister of Fire
We considered a green KQ 380 when looking at cookstoves, but the rear cleanout made it a no-go for us with placement close to a wall. The Heco lineup seems to offer the next best thing if someone is interested in Amish made stove that could heat your sole heat source. These are big stoves with big ovens. Our house is 1200 sqft split between two floors, so any of these big stoves are probably on the big side for us regardless of what side the cleanout is on. One thing I noticed across the board for all brands and models is satisfied customers. I have not encountered any complaints from cookstove owners. Some cookstove manufacturers sell direct, some are imported, and some will only sell through a dealer. Obadiah's and Stoves and More have most makes and models available to browse on their websites and I have done business with both of them.
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