Anyone cook INSIDE their wood stove?

[wowser]

I've been cooking inside my stove this year and wondering if it's bad for it. I put a cast iron skillet on top of a bed of coals and get it ripping hot, then throw steaks, burgers, or salmon with the skin on it, close the door and wait just a few minutes. Turn everything over and in 10-12 minutes I have the best heat flashed meal ever. Nice crust on steaks, nice crisp skin on salmon. I use a fireproof glove to get the pan out. Wondering if anyone else does this and if there's any downside like grease getting into the chimney liner and causing a fire.

 

[osagebow]

I have done the same, no worries. I can also fit a pizza stone up front with a nice sized fire behind it.

 

[fossil]

There have, over the past few years, been a number of threads, some w/pictures, about folks cooking inside their stoves. Some frying like you're doing as well as some baking and some cooking dishes/meals in dutch ovens. Rick

 

[KindredSpiritzz]

they make these things now days called "ranges" and they come in electric and gas flavor. I swear some you boys get stranger by the day.

 

[wowser]

Range only gets to 400°, wood stove gets a lot hotter with a lot dryer heat. My steaks cook as good as a good steak house. High heat = flavor. If you ever worked in a commercial kitchen it's like cooking with a salamander oven.

they make these things now days called "ranges" and they come in electric and gas flavor. I swear some you boys get stranger by the day.

 

[osagebow]

. If you ever worked in a commercial kitchen it's like cooking with a salamander oven.

Thanks for the French onion soup molten cheese burn flashback..

 

[Kosmik]

A lot of crap collects in the hoods of a commercial kitchen.
It'll be interesting to see if anything collects if you sear enough steaks, or have errant pieces of cheese.
I'd think things that don't sear/burn would be more friendly. But maybe since the flue is hot, it gets carried away.

 

[Osage]

Made a grate out of expanded metal that can set above the coals and can close the doors. Have baked pizza, grilled burgers and even tried to bake cookies. Will have to try the cookies thing over again.

 

[tcassavaugh]

most of my cooking trials have been on top of the stove. I've gotten "bit" enough just putting wood in the stove don't think I want to "linger" adjusting a pan, grill or dutch oven. my brother cooks sometimes in his earth stove. he's on a fixed income and helps keep his electric and gas/propane bill down. I save it for emergencies and most of the time I can fire up my Weber or my little Coleman stove. great to you guys that do......protect those arms.

 

[David.Ervin]

It'll be interesting to see if anything collects if you sear enough steaks, or have errant pieces of cheese.

For as often as one would probably cook in the stove, and as hot as it'll get when the doors are closed and the secondaries are blazing, I'd be surprised if one could detect anything greasy after a day or so with something less sensitive than a mass spectrometer, CSI style.

 

[ridensnow23]

Made a grate out of expanded metal that can set above the coals and can close the doors. Have baked pizza, grilled burgers and even tried to bake cookies. Will have to try the cookies thing over again.

How did the pizza turn out? Any tips or tricks? Nothing better than wood fired pizza as far as I am concerned.

 

[David.Ervin]

Come to think of it, some of the best steaks I ever had were cooked in a cast iron skillet over a campfire. Might give it a go this evening once the fire burns down

 

[firefighterjake]

Yes.

 

[branchburner]

a grate... that can set above the coals and can close the doors.

For cooking steak or salmon, I use this method rather than a frying pan. I don't know how a steak in a pan could ever be better than one cooked directly over the coals, allowing it to slightly char and imparting more smoke flavor. I know it's a matter of taste, but it seems impossible that a pan can trump a grill.

 

[branchburner]

'd be surprised if one could detect anything greasy after a day or so

When I grill salmon, the splatter spots will surprisingly remain visible on the glass for a day or even two... but they do then burn off, leaving no trace.

One of the great things about grilling in a stove is you can walk outside in 20-degree weather and get the smell of summer, coming from the chimney!

 

[Dakotas Dad]

For cooking steak or salmon, I use this method rather than a frying pan. I don't know how a steak in a pan could ever be better than one cooked directly over the coals, allowing it to slightly char and imparting more smoke flavor. I know it's a matter of taste, but it seems impossible that a pan can trump a grill.

You get the pan nuclear hot.. trust me there is "char".. I have eaten in some VERY good steak houses in my day, and to date, the best steak ever served to me was done in a skillet that was about 900F.. This why it needs to be cast iron, and of course without a "teflon" coating, as that stuff starts to break down around 450F...

 

[branchburner]

You get the pan nuclear hot.. trust me there is "char".. I have eaten in some VERY good steak houses in my day, and to date, the best steak ever served to me was done in a skillet that was about 900F..

Thanks, I'll try it... it never occurred to me to get a cast iron skillet nuclear hot, but I have the technology!

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

As a chef, yes it can be done, I have an insert and 2 outdoor pits, I cook on both outside, I have not yet tried the insert, if I were to try, I would start with potatoes wrapped in foil twice, personally I would stay away from fatty items such as salmon and prime rib steaks, they let off a high degree of fat and could, idk, could start a fire down the road, in my opinion it is asking for trouble. These stoves are not meant for cooking, but cooking can be done, just do it safely, I'm sure you Could even bake a cake if you had the proper technique and temperature..... But nice thread, keep it going...

 

[firefighterjake]

For the chuck eyes . . .

Coated the cast iron with olive oil. Plunked in steaks. Seasoned with salt and pepper. Placed on hot coals. Flipped over in about 2 minutes (yeah, it was that quick and hot). Cooked for another 2 minutes. Removed . . . using the thickest hearth glove I had . . . and even then it was plenty warm.

There was some grease splatter on the "glass" . . . but it burns off in the next burn.

Great tasting steaks . . .

 

[tcassavaugh]

...... maybe we should start a sub-forum "cooking with wood" .....looks like there might be a lot of interest certainly some good ideas for sure.

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

Usually when restaurants burn down, it is due to neglecting to clean the hoods that collect the airborne grease and soot, if your gonna cook steaks, salmon and burgers, I'm sure a chimney sweep company is not capable of removing the grease from your pipe, only degreaser and hot water does that...just saying.....

 

[firefighterjake]

Usually when restaurants burn down, it is due to neglecting to clean the hoods that collect the airborne grease and soot, if your gonna cook steaks, salmon and burgers, I'm sure a chimney sweep company is not capable of removing the grease from your pipe, only degreaser and hot water does that...just saying.....

True to a point . . . electrical and arson fires are also right up there.

However, cooking a few items now and then in a woodstove is a bit different than the sheer volume of items running through a typical restaurant in terms of grease-laden vapors.

 

[Dakotas Dad]

Usually when restaurants burn down, it is due to neglecting to clean the hoods that collect the airborne grease and soot, if your gonna cook steaks, salmon and burgers, I'm sure a chimney sweep company is not capable of removing the grease from your pipe, only degreaser and hot water does that...just saying.....

Of course it's a matter of buildup.. Pat's in Louisville cooks a couple hundred steaks a NIGHT... I do a few a YEAR... and I am betting the inside of my stove is WAY hotter than the inside of any range hood. The grease and splatter IME, burns right off, doesn't hang out and build up..

 

[coaly]

they make these things now days called "ranges" and they come in electric and gas flavor. I swear some you boys get stranger by the day.

Those newfangled ranges um............. replaced wood !

Only heat source for my house, oven thermometer goes to 1000 f.
Stable 350* with normal wood fire before turning oven on. Leave oven door open at night when more heat is needed. Put one of these in your kitchen, and your current stove collects dust. Mine hasn't been lit in 2 years. Oh yeah, now it heats my water too. AND we cook on it in the summer. Bypass lever puts unwanted heat up the stack instead of heating 900 + pounds of stove with raised grate providing flame under pans.



She now prefers wood, including making her own fires, over the commercial Garland gas range in background !

 

[Dakotas Dad]

It has a bypass for the summer? Always wondered about that. Good to know.

Oh, and good looking stove. The family I got the Manny from was getting rid of it because they were tired of cooking on/in the manny and was getting a real wood cook stove, I actually think this very same model.