# What's it like cooking on a wood stove?



## lead_dog (Jul 27, 2009)

We plan to relocate in a few months to a southern state we currently cook on a regular electric stove and oven but were considering changing to a woodstove from Lehmans, etc. 

I know many of you already cook with wood stoves and I'm wondering what the experience is like versus the traditional electric stove. I'm worried about the length of time it takes to get the stovetop oven up to temperature and how hot the house becomes in the warmer months. This is new for us and we're just trying to understand what to expect. We're committed to living a much more simplistic and sustainable lifestyle.

Thanks very much for any input you can provide.


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## badlander (Jun 7, 2009)

I cooked on a Vogelzang box wood stove for 4 years, mainly using it as a cook top for skillet, boiling and slow cooking with a Dutch oven. Maintaining heat was no problem even with the slow cooking I just changed the location of my Dutch oven to a spot on the stove where it would simmer instead of boil. I have to admit that I didn't use the wood stove during the hot summer months but switched to a grill with a propane burner outside under a covered porch. Some of the newer wood stoves have thermostats built into them so maintaining heat is no problem.

The Amish around us routinely have a 'summer kitchen' where the women can cook over the heat of summer so that the house isn't super heated by the stove. They also have outside wood heated ovens that they use to bake bread.

I have to admit that now, having went back to an electric range, I sometimes miss the flavor of that slow cooked roast that I used to cook on the box wood stove along with the big kettle of beans. Just something different about the flavor of the food.


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## mrs whodunit (Feb 3, 2012)

You will get to know your woods very well as you control the heat with the types of wood you burn. You will want a nice steady heat.

My favorite woods for the wood cook stove are cherry, black locus and thornbrush.

Never cooked on a modern wood cook stove.... maybe they are differant?

When I was a kid we started the stove in the morning and kept it going all day. Didn't use it when the weather was warm.

In this house (114 years old)I know the mother canned in the basement on her wood cook stove. Must have been hot down there after having that stove going all day.


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## Rick (May 10, 2002)

We use an Amish made, Flame-View - cook top without the oven.

A trivet or 2, and/or inverted frying pan keep the temp where it needs to be.

Bricks on the cook top modulate the temps also.

It has a warming oven - Amish Microwave  that is wonderful for heating, and re-heating.

It has a water jacket that circulates water to a 10 to 14 gallon reservoir to the point of boiling. We heat bath water in 10 minutes in 2 gallon steel pots on the cook top also.

We passed on the baking oven, and instead put a huge cast iron dutch oven (we got ours at Aggi-Supply) with bricks under cast iron loaf pans and 
pie pans to bake breads and pizza, etc.

We have a "Summer" grate for it, that allows a small fire to be kept going for cooking. 

I imagine one could use it at sunrise, on a day where the morning temps were 55 deg F, with all windows open, and it wouldn't get TOO hot, but even with 12' log walls, and an open floor plan cabin we have yet to try it!


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## Barefoothaven (Jul 3, 2013)

We had a wood stove installed when we moved into this house just over 2 years ago.
I'd cooked on/in a wood stove before so it wasn't too hard. I just had to get use to the wood up here and let the new stove settle in.
We heat our hot water cylinder off our wood stove also. I'll light it every third day for that.
We also have a gas oven with hob but I find my wood stove boils my whistling kettle waaaaaay faster than my gas hob.
Aslong as my wood is dry (hardwood called totara) I can heat the oven in no time. 
It gets quite hot up here in summer so we open sliding doors up on both sides of the lounge and dining room when the stove is going. And sometimes put on a fan to circulate the air faster.
Everything cooked in a wood stove oven just tastes better. It really does.... You just have to get to know your stove 

I'd be lost without my wood stove


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## badlander (Jun 7, 2009)

As Mrs Whodunit said, you will get to know your woods. Hickory, Honey and black Locust and Oak will burn the hottest for you. Locust provides the highest btus along with Hickory then Oak. Apple and Osage orange ranks up there also but I don't know too many who burn it for heat or cooking.

Here's the chart we use for reference:

http://forestry.usu.edu/htm/forest-products/wood-heating


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## arnie (Apr 26, 2012)

one thing for sure it will be hot in the summer .I have one that rarely get uaed now that I,m older because of the extra work keeping wood for it I used coal to they are great in the winter and in the spring when that heat in the kitchen is welcome . consier having a modern stove for the summer


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## katlupe (Nov 15, 2004)

I love cooking on mine. It is an antique model. Our plan is to purchase a new Pioneer Maid one as soon as our house remodeling project is finished. I found it easy to cook on and the food comes out so much better. As long as you have the wood close by and can keep your fire at the temperature needed, you should have no trouble. I use mine all year long, but I do not live in the south. In the summer though, I cook often on our grill or a fire pit so that can be used if you do not want to have a wood stove going inside.


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

We have cooked on ours for 41 years. We use Douglas Fir mostly. If a longer fire is needed we use some oak. Unless the oak is small or very straight grain, it is more than needed for baking. It is a small stove, sold by Montgomery Wards. A Montag with a water jacket. Very small model. We move it outside for the summer. It sets in a small area that we use for summer cooking, inside an open porch/patio, off the springhouse. The oven is very small, just big enough for the small cookie sheets but holds heat well and is easy to regulate. Yes, food tastes much better cooked with wood....James


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## MichaelK! (Oct 22, 2010)

We have a 1932 Monarch cookstove that I installed in the kitchen.

I'm sorry, but I think you are being very unrealistic about using a woodstove in the summer months in the south. Maybe you have greater tolerance to heat, but I don't. Even though my cabin's roof is insulated, in the summer the second floor loft gets hot enough that I go downstairs to sleep. I wouldn't even want to contemplate what sleeping would be like after running the woodstove.

In our own case, we have a hybrid system that works well for us. We use the woodstove in the winter months, when the extra heat is really appreciated, and switch to propane the rest of the time. We use a tabletop propane multi burner that's hooked to a 5 gallon barbeque tank. Five gallons lasts for months.

Another consideration is the fact that the woodstove is soooooo slowwwww. I timed how long it took to make my morning capicinno from a cold stove. It took 45 minutes! Sorry, but I'd rather take 10 minutes making it on propane, then sitting there looking out the window the other 35.

I love my woodstoves, and would fight to keep them, but only look forward to using them when there's the taste of frost in the air.


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## Abe R Crombie (Mar 13, 2005)

I agree with Michael about the heat.I cook and heat my domestic hot water through my kitchen range in the winter months and try to burn through the winter as long as possible but as Michael said there is a limit because of the heat.When the outside temperature is over 55-60*F it becomes unbearable to stay near the stove as well as the residual heat in the house long after the fire goes out. 
I too love my wood stoves and recommend a wood fired kithen range 110% but when you can't stands the heat,well,you know. 

Abe


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