norgeway
Well-known member
Have a wood cook stove, or have you ever cooked on one,I had a relative that had one when I was a kid,and now im getting the fever to have one to play with, any imput??
Does anyone!!!!
- Thread starter norgeway
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No, Don't Own One
But one imagines it is like using an AGA range or similar which burn solid fuels (coal, wood, etc).
Requires learning cooking methods long lost from the age before themostat controlled ovens, and adjustable flame/heat settings for burners. Also requires learning how to start and manage soild fuel fires.
On these ranges one does not control temperature per se, but moves things around from various pre-set ovens and "burner" plates. There are also ways to raise things over a plate with devices to give the effect of lower heat.
While the heat given off by such ranges is welcome during the colder/damp months, and a boon for air drying laundry (just don't cook fish at the same time, *LOL*), cannot imagine using one as my daily driver.
But one imagines it is like using an AGA range or similar which burn solid fuels (coal, wood, etc).
Requires learning cooking methods long lost from the age before themostat controlled ovens, and adjustable flame/heat settings for burners. Also requires learning how to start and manage soild fuel fires.
On these ranges one does not control temperature per se, but moves things around from various pre-set ovens and "burner" plates. There are also ways to raise things over a plate with devices to give the effect of lower heat.
While the heat given off by such ranges is welcome during the colder/damp months, and a boon for air drying laundry (just don't cook fish at the same time, *LOL*), cannot imagine using one as my daily driver.
washernoob
Well-known member
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My grandpa used one for years in his garage. It was original to his 1915 home. I never got to see it in use, but he used to tell me about it. He said he really liked it, and wished he kept it. The neighbors next door now have and use it on occasion.
My Grandparents still use one, There's has a series of baffles to direct the heat levels.
Left Hotplate over the firebox is Hot, Right hotplate over the oven is Simmer.
Firebox with ash pan below on the left, Oven on the and warming drawer on the right.
1 control to control the amount of air into the firebox
1 control to control the damper on the flue
1 control to control the damper that lets air around the oven
1 control to control the flow of the hotwater to increase/decrease the temp.
The hardest thing I find is regulating the oven temp, although once you get it right, it normally stays like that long enough to bake whatever you're baking.
You boil things and fry on the left. Simmer things on the right.
Temp guage is on the oven door and you just adjust the airflow mix until it's right.
The hard part is, if you get up in the morning and it's cooled down, having to get enough wood burning to heat it all back up again.
Left Hotplate over the firebox is Hot, Right hotplate over the oven is Simmer.
Firebox with ash pan below on the left, Oven on the and warming drawer on the right.
1 control to control the amount of air into the firebox
1 control to control the damper on the flue
1 control to control the damper that lets air around the oven
1 control to control the flow of the hotwater to increase/decrease the temp.
The hardest thing I find is regulating the oven temp, although once you get it right, it normally stays like that long enough to bake whatever you're baking.
You boil things and fry on the left. Simmer things on the right.
Temp guage is on the oven door and you just adjust the airflow mix until it's right.
The hard part is, if you get up in the morning and it's cooled down, having to get enough wood burning to heat it all back up again.
ronhic
Well-known member
My grandmother...
....had one of these until I was 15...
I loved cooking on it. Is actually quite easy to get the heat for the oven correct after a few attempts at cooking something and very little can compete with them for holding a constant heat as there is no thermostat to cut in and out.
The one my gran had, had a water jacket too....I managed to boil the storage tank one winter I had it stoked up that fierce and that's not easy when you think there is about 30 gallons of water to heat....!!!
....had one of these until I was 15...
I loved cooking on it. Is actually quite easy to get the heat for the oven correct after a few attempts at cooking something and very little can compete with them for holding a constant heat as there is no thermostat to cut in and out.
The one my gran had, had a water jacket too....I managed to boil the storage tank one winter I had it stoked up that fierce and that's not easy when you think there is about 30 gallons of water to heat....!!!
Soild Fuel Ranges
Pretty much dictated what sort of meals were prepared. Lots of things boiled, fried, braised, baked, and roasted, in short things that do not require complicated changes in temperature.
Roasts/joints were probably the most common thing served (if the family could afford meat that is), because they are so simple to make. Stick meat into oven late morning, or early afternoon, get on with housework, by suppertime the thing was done. No muss no fuss! *LOL*
Breads,puddings and pies were also big. Cakes represented challenge, and most housewives either got theirs from the baker, or learned through trial and error which recipes worked with her oven/range.
The UK/PBS "back in time" series "1900 House" had a modern family trying to deal with a coal fired range. As usual it was the housewive who took much of the burden. As she was at home all day with the thing, and had to cook three meals per day, plus get hot water for cleaning and laundry (though the house did have a copper), which would have been the deal back then anyway.
It took the show's producers ages of scouring the UK to find a period range and water heater, and despite the family trying and trying the range wouldn't get the water hot.
Finally after several "service" calls from the period restoration men who set up the range and water boiler, the problem was solved, and after about two weeks or so without, the household could finally take a hot bath. Turns out trying to err on the side of safety, the installers had installed the water tank really far back from the range, thus the heat was not transferring no matter how hot the range got.
At the time was involved in several online discussions, and many "old timers" chimed in on the matter. Most felt that the poor modern "housewife" had been done in because she wasn't given a serious course on how to deal with a coal fired range.
Now back in the day, a young girl certainly would have learned how to manage a range. First her help, along with her sisters would have been required to keep the household running, that is unless the family had servants. Also it was deemed part of her education, to prepare a girl for her lot in life; marriage, home and household. Not knowing how to cook would be one thing, but not knowing how to work a range/keep a fire going meant serious problems.
In the days before central heating and major indoor plumbing, the kitchen range not only supplied the only heat (besides fire places), but was the source of hot water as well. Woe betide any woman whose husband came home from a hard day's work and couldn't bathe/wash up because the fire had gone out.
Pretty much dictated what sort of meals were prepared. Lots of things boiled, fried, braised, baked, and roasted, in short things that do not require complicated changes in temperature.
Roasts/joints were probably the most common thing served (if the family could afford meat that is), because they are so simple to make. Stick meat into oven late morning, or early afternoon, get on with housework, by suppertime the thing was done. No muss no fuss! *LOL*
Breads,puddings and pies were also big. Cakes represented challenge, and most housewives either got theirs from the baker, or learned through trial and error which recipes worked with her oven/range.
The UK/PBS "back in time" series "1900 House" had a modern family trying to deal with a coal fired range. As usual it was the housewive who took much of the burden. As she was at home all day with the thing, and had to cook three meals per day, plus get hot water for cleaning and laundry (though the house did have a copper), which would have been the deal back then anyway.
It took the show's producers ages of scouring the UK to find a period range and water heater, and despite the family trying and trying the range wouldn't get the water hot.
Finally after several "service" calls from the period restoration men who set up the range and water boiler, the problem was solved, and after about two weeks or so without, the household could finally take a hot bath. Turns out trying to err on the side of safety, the installers had installed the water tank really far back from the range, thus the heat was not transferring no matter how hot the range got.
At the time was involved in several online discussions, and many "old timers" chimed in on the matter. Most felt that the poor modern "housewife" had been done in because she wasn't given a serious course on how to deal with a coal fired range.
Now back in the day, a young girl certainly would have learned how to manage a range. First her help, along with her sisters would have been required to keep the household running, that is unless the family had servants. Also it was deemed part of her education, to prepare a girl for her lot in life; marriage, home and household. Not knowing how to cook would be one thing, but not knowing how to work a range/keep a fire going meant serious problems.
In the days before central heating and major indoor plumbing, the kitchen range not only supplied the only heat (besides fire places), but was the source of hot water as well. Woe betide any woman whose husband came home from a hard day's work and couldn't bathe/wash up because the fire had gone out.
Hi Hans, these stoves are still common here in EU expecially in alpine regions, to the point that even exixt built in and totally integrated stoves like this one. Expecially people in north eastern Alps can't live without them ... so the MW oven coexists with these futuristic (but more often with the good old ones) wood stoves
In the latest years alternative energy sources here are getting more and more popular : solar, geothermal..... Wooden stoves have been redesigned not to cook only but even to match with solar systems for sanintary hot water and radiators. To override the downside Launderess well explains, they are fuelled with small wooden tabs (pellets). Pellets are automatically dispensed and burned when the ownwer has no time to look after the fire. The proper amount is burned to have the desired
My mother grew up cooking on a coal range and a friend of ours in Illinois had one in the kitchen across from the Hotpoint push button range. The firebox was on the left with sliding grates on the door to adjust air flow. The water reservoir was on the right. The cooktop extended from over the firebox to the cover for the water tank. The left side was hotter than the right. Pressure cooker instructions from the 40 into the 60s, I think, talk about moving the pressure cooker to a cooler part of the cooktop to maintain cooking pressure. My mother won prizes for candy, jelly, canned fruits & vegetables, pies and cakes made with that stove. The oven was between the firebox and the water tank with a thermometer in the door. From what my mom and this woman said, you had to turn things like pies, cakes and bread as they baked because the left side of the oven was somewhat hotter. My mother's family did not use the stove much in the summer. They used a kerosene stove on the porch, but some wood or coal stoves had a "Summer" position for the fire grate so that it was closer to the top of the firebox, meaning that more heat went into the cooktop instead of the room.
If you buy a used cook stove, you should have an expert examine it before you buy it. A stove made for burning wood can be ruined if someone burns coal in it. The resulting overheating will warp parts and that can open seams that allow the smoke to leave the stove at places other than the flue, a danger for several reasons. There are building codes for these including beefing up floor joists and surrounding these stoves with materials that do not burn when exposed to high heat. You can find lots of information by Googling wood ranges or cook stoves etc. You will become familiar with a devilishly dirty substance called stove black. I remember reading in some of my mother's old home economics books that nickel trim is soft and not durable. When electric stove ads from the 30s and 40s talked about their leaving no soot on your pans, they were referencing wood and coal ranges which could put smoke or soot marks on pans from small leaks around the eyes; one of the reasons cast iron was so well suited for cooking on them. The other reason is that the heat transfer factor between similar materials is higher than between different materials.
When I was in school, I worked with women who used wood stoves outside for canning during the heat of Summer. They did not even like to think about the experience.
Remember the three most important parts of a cookstove: lifter leg and poker.
If you buy a used cook stove, you should have an expert examine it before you buy it. A stove made for burning wood can be ruined if someone burns coal in it. The resulting overheating will warp parts and that can open seams that allow the smoke to leave the stove at places other than the flue, a danger for several reasons. There are building codes for these including beefing up floor joists and surrounding these stoves with materials that do not burn when exposed to high heat. You can find lots of information by Googling wood ranges or cook stoves etc. You will become familiar with a devilishly dirty substance called stove black. I remember reading in some of my mother's old home economics books that nickel trim is soft and not durable. When electric stove ads from the 30s and 40s talked about their leaving no soot on your pans, they were referencing wood and coal ranges which could put smoke or soot marks on pans from small leaks around the eyes; one of the reasons cast iron was so well suited for cooking on them. The other reason is that the heat transfer factor between similar materials is higher than between different materials.
When I was in school, I worked with women who used wood stoves outside for canning during the heat of Summer. They did not even like to think about the experience.
Remember the three most important parts of a cookstove: lifter leg and poker.
Rex wood stoves from 1984 catalogue
in the previous page there are MW ovens, then there are these two stoves.
In that year Zanussi merged into Electrolux and offered wood stoves and radarranges in the meanwhile. Actually Zanussi was born as a wood stove factory before WWI
This design is still common even if E'lux does not sell them yet
in the previous page there are MW ovens, then there are these two stoves.
In that year Zanussi merged into Electrolux and offered wood stoves and radarranges in the meanwhile. Actually Zanussi was born as a wood stove factory before WWI
This design is still common even if E'lux does not sell them yet
Stove Black
The words must send any woman alive who remembers screaming in terror! *LOL
Wood burning stove such as those by Morso are *very* popular these days. Amercians like them for cabins and alternate heating sources.
The things burn so cleanly some are EPA rated and recommended. Also unlike coal there isn't much soot to deal with.
The words must send any woman alive who remembers screaming in terror! *LOL
Wood burning stove such as those by Morso are *very* popular these days. Amercians like them for cabins and alternate heating sources.
The things burn so cleanly some are EPA rated and recommended. Also unlike coal there isn't much soot to deal with.
lordkenmore
Well-known member
Clean burning wood stoves and the environment
It has been argued by some into wood heating that wood stoves (at least reasonably clean burning stoves) are better than many other forms of heating. While there are emissions, those are offset by the fact that to make the system work, one must grow trees, and the trees do a lot to help clean the air. Meanwhile, there is no such offset for coal, oil, or gas extracted from the earth. Of course, that could be at least partly fixed--an oil company could (say) plant X trees for every Y barrels of oil produced. But, realistically, as things stand, major energy companies will fight to have the loosest environmental regulations, while they do "charitable" environmental projects that don't take much effort, but sound great in advertising.
It has been argued by some into wood heating that wood stoves (at least reasonably clean burning stoves) are better than many other forms of heating. While there are emissions, those are offset by the fact that to make the system work, one must grow trees, and the trees do a lot to help clean the air. Meanwhile, there is no such offset for coal, oil, or gas extracted from the earth. Of course, that could be at least partly fixed--an oil company could (say) plant X trees for every Y barrels of oil produced. But, realistically, as things stand, major energy companies will fight to have the loosest environmental regulations, while they do "charitable" environmental projects that don't take much effort, but sound great in advertising.
