Anyone cook INSIDE their wood stove?

[branchburner]

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

I'm not sure where having a fire from this grease within your stove or flue is a problem. The amount of grease that would remain unburnt and allowed to build up, rather than exit with the smoke, could only be a small fraction of the creosote that builds up with even normal stove use. A flue that sees daily temps up to 1000f is a lot different than a range hood and exhaust system. For cooking the occasional (or even daily) steak at home, I can't see anyway the risk of a problem would be significantly greater than zero.

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

I'm not sure where having a fire from this grease within your stove or flue is a problem. The amount of grease that would remain unburnt and allowed to build up, rather than exit with the smoke, could only be a small fraction of the creosote that builds up with even normal stove use. A flue that sees daily temps up to 1000f is a lot different than a range hood and exhaust system. For cooking the occasional (or even daily) steak at home, I can't see anyway the risk of a problem would be significantly greater than zero.

Ok, I guess I am wrong, but I do know that High fat foods are more likely to cause grease fires and these units that we are talking about were created to burn wood for heat and they can still be dangerous if not done correctly, so I wanted to bring that up, cook all the salmon and ribeyes you want. Bon Appetite....

 

[Dakotas Dad]

Ok, I guess I am wrong, but I do know that High fat foods are more likely to cause grease fires and these units that we are talking about were created to burn wood for heat and they can still be dangerous if not done correctly, so I wanted to bring that up, cook all the salmon and ribeyes you want. Bon Appetite....

MmmMmmm rib eyes.. the only beef I buy. and even that rarely. Really the only meat I buy actually.

Now I know that for dinner is going to be some venison kabobs done in the stove..

Cave man style!

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

This is my cave man style.....

 

[Dakotas Dad]

Why do you have to tie your rock down? If you do a little more work on it's training, it WILL stay were you tell it too. At least that has worked for us.



And good looking grill and set up. We have a campground style raised grill for that style cooking. But this time of year, especially this freaking year, we don't use it much. I am actually quite tired of the *&%$!! on the weather channel who keeps saying "A winter weather advisory is in effect for our area" over and over and over..

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

That was an experiment, last year on the web I searched "fireplace cooking" cause I too was curious about using the fireplace at the time to cook, well they tied a whole chicken to a rope in front of their house hold fireplace, dangling and turning it cooked well according to them, well I was running out of daylight so I ended up tossing it on the grill so it would cook faster, boy you can really taste the difference when you cook over wood. Whole chickens cook well over a bed of hot coals.....

 

[Osage]

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

I just let the fire burn down to coals and raked most them to each side. The grate sets about 4" above the coals (depending on how you rake them). It turned out great. Had a light smoke taste. You could also use some wood chips to add more smoke flavor.

 

[Kosmik]

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.

Yeah, probably a good portion of what collects in a commercial hood is the condensation of the wet hot vapors (as usually waters are boiling and whole bunch of other stuff is going on) on the cold metal frames and filters.
Just saying it'll be interesting to see.
Maybe a new take on kitchen venting/design, biogas combustion running the ovens.

 

[tcassavaugh]

cut it out guys......i'm getting hungry and its past lunch and too close to dinner. all that stuff looks ssssooooooo good.

 

[turbocruiser]

cut it out guys......i'm getting hungry and its past lunch and too close to dinner. all that stuff looks ssssooooooo good.

Seriously! I've used cast iron components before with relatively good results (especially dutch ovens because the lid there basically prevents ash from contaminating food and they also have handy handles). The expanded metal idea is fantastic and extremely easy and I actually have some scrap in the garage that's just begging to be tried. I've considered using those fancy stainless steel expanded metal things they advertise at Williams Sonoma specifically for grills and grilling but I'm leery of the "made in china" label.

But now after this thread I am also trying to figure out how to fabricate a functioning rotisserie mechanism using the secondary airwash system as the turning force to do rotisserie shish-ka-bobs! And I'm wondering whether a slow overnight cool down could produce a good slow-cooked-stew. And I'm wondering how to do big corn bread loafs cause I love love love big corn bread loafs. And, and, and .

Out of control but seriously I'd love to second the motion to have a "cooking with wood" area. I'd love it to include not only cooking methods and cooking tools but recipes, pictures and even what type of wood one would use for the flavor (in other words we probably wouldn't want to slow cook something on elm but do that same thing on other woods aaannnddd wonderful comes out of the stove)! The funny thing is I've really never been interested in cooking until or unless fire was involved so I love to grill, but won't bake or cook or whatever it is called with that electrical thing in the kitchen!

 

[ailanthus]

I've managed to bake some pretty good bread in a covered cast iron pot (with lid) when the stove is mostly cooled off. Also eggs on a cast iron skillet and coffee in a small stovetop perc have become part of my saturday morning routine. Which reminds me...

 

[xman23]

Years ago, I tried doing baked potatoes in the stove. The outside skin was blacken a the inside uncooked. I'm not a cook. I guess if you have an idea how to get the temp right for what your cooking, it can be done well. But nothing like the oven at 350 degrees.

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

Years ago, I tried doing baked potatoes in the stove. The outside skin was blacken a the inside uncooked. I'm not a cook. I guess if you have an idea how to get the temp right for what your cooking, it can be done well. But nothing like the oven at 350 degrees.

Did you wrap the potatoes in aluminum foil? If you did, try wrapping them twice, if you didn't, that was your problem, I say try it again....

 

[terpsucka]

How do you keep things (especially burgers) from lighting up? I sometimes have that problem over a really hot fire on my grill; could only imagine in my stove.

 

[Warm_in_NH]

After reading this thread the other day we bought a couple of rib eyes. With some helpful advice from another forum member, I can say, YES, we've cook INSIDE, the stove.

Two rib eyes in a cold cast iron skillet placed on hot coals for a few minutes a side produced the best steaks I've ever had out of a skillet, ever.

Wicked good, will definitely be doing it again. We started doing stews this year and Chix dishes in a Dutch oven on top of the stove, a steel trivet makes it easy to regulate the temp on top. This was a first for the inside, again, awesome, if you haven't tried it yet, just do it .

Someone mentioned the heat of the handle will be rather high, they're right, just have your plan laid out before you start. Not knowing what to expect I set an emergency trivet on the hearth to put the pan on etc...heavy duty oven mit was sufficient but barely.

 

[Dakotas Dad]

How do you keep things (especially burgers) from lighting up? I sometimes have that problem over a really hot fire on my grill; could only imagine in my stove.

On your grill, you have openings below the food to the heat/flames, in a frying pan or dutch oven you don't.

 

[Kosmik]

The fattier the meat, the more prone to flaring on a grill. But the fat is where the flavor is.

 

[johnpma]

Purchased an old home and just installed a small stove in the fireplace. Have acres of hardwood, and many down trees from the previous two years storms. Wife and I fired up the stove while painting on the weekend. By the end of the day we had a nice bed of red glowing coals

Took two baking potato's sliced them length wise put a large chunk of onion and a slab of butter in them. oiled up the potato skin with olive oil salt& pepper and wrapped them in foil and placed them in the coals YUM!! Right or wrong to do they were out of this world delicious!!

 

[firebroad]

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

Just a suggestion, use a skillet that you don't care if it warps or not. Sometimes they will warp on the bottom, and if you have an electric stove, it won't lay flat anymore.

 

[Dustin92]

This thread inspired me to try cooking in our insert- mentioned it to my Dad, he thought it was a fabulous idea and even welded up a grilling grate for me to use, 4 legs of angle iron, about 5" high, and a piece of expanded steel grating about 12" x 16". I grilled some steaks last night, I let the coals burn down too far before cooking. I thought they tasted like they had been boiled, but everyone else thought they were great. I made hamburgers tonight, and had a screaming hot bed of coals. They turned out perfectly seared and with great flavor. I was concerned about it flaming up, but the coals were so hot it just smoked. Might try some chicken tomorrow night. We haven't had anything grilled all winter because the outdoor gas grill won't get hot enough to cook when it's cold out.

 

[branchburner]

Just a suggestion, use a skillet that you don't care if it warps or not. Sometimes they will warp on the bottom, and if you have an electric stove, it won't lay flat anymore.

Thanks, good advice. We already have one that we warped, but too big for my stove. Waiting for a thrift store or yard sale purchase before I sacrifice our favorite well-seasoned skillet!

 

[branchburner]

I was concerned about it flaming up, but the coals were so hot it just smoked.

My stove has a bypass damper, so with the damper shut and the air supply shut, I get no flaming... just like putting the cover on the Weber when charcoal grilling. The difference is, the flavor in the wood stove is MUCH better than with charcoal.

 

[logger]

Dutch oven works great, just did a burgundy wine venison stew yesterday

 

[johnpma]

had a nice bed of red coals when I got home last night baked some potato's in a cast iron pan, then cooked two fresh ribeye steaks from the beef farmer up the road while cooking green beans in one pan and oinions peppers and shrooms in another on top of my US Stove 2000 Love the top flat surface on this little stove For $484 from tractor supply this little stove has been wonderful.....

 

[Mark Richards]

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.

I tried this for my vegetarian daughter. Take a cabbage cut into 1/4's. Scoop 2 to 3 holes into each quarter and place butter into the scoops. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. Double wrap with foil and place into hot bed of coals and cook for 8-10 minutes. Unwrap and eat. Both I and my daughter loved the flavor and so easy to do.