Ages ago there was a thread about cooking on wood fires such as pot bellies.I haven't had any success in finding that thread (yes, i tried the Search), and I have waded through single pages for hours, but can't remember what the title of the thread was, SO, if anyone can remember it please tell me, thank you. Failing that, if you have ideas of meals that work cooked this way, I would love to hear them. Thanks.
poppysinger2,
Apr 25, 10:09am
I used to make soup and porridge (not at the same time ) on my wee oregon wood fired potbelly, used a heavy botton cast iron pot andworked a treat . Once I cooked a steak after I had loaded it up with some chunks of pine and keep these blazing but I only did it the once ! Slow cooking casseroles with beans and lentils also fabulous .
magenta,
Apr 25, 10:32am
I have a wood fired stove and use it mainly for soups and stews.You really need to use cast iron pots though. You can also do pikets if you can regulate the temperature enough.
kuaka,
Apr 25, 11:15am
I've got a woodburner but I can't cook on it because the type of top it has on it doesn't get hot, but in my previous home we had a Kent woodfire, and I used to cook on it, mainly casseroles in a cast iron casserole dish, but I also used to do the spuds, boil a copper kettle and make soups.I just thought it silly to put the electric stove on when the woodfire was perfectly adequate as long as I got organised and put things on a bit earlier than I would normally.
elliehen,
Apr 25, 11:51am
There's a book you might like to get from the library: 'Wood-Fired Cooking" by Mary Karlin (published 2009).
cookessentials,
Apr 25, 7:17pm
Get yourself a good cast iron trivet if using saucepans to keep the base off the wood burner which will help stop food catching.
gardie,
Apr 25, 7:30pm
A trivet made out of a coil of number 8 wire also helps regulate the heat.I just put it underneath when I want to turn the heat down slightly.Agree about the cast iron casserole - i even use that to cook my sausages with onions.
bearskin,
Apr 26, 12:04am
Can't wait for the time when we get to cook on the woodfire top. It's prefect for stews and soups, but we find if you crank it up for a few minutes it's perfectly possible to do a passable fry up on it as well - it's not full-on enough for eggs really, but it will cook sausages and bacon. We've picked up pans here and there - got a Cast Iron enamelled casserole pan just like a Le Creuset from one of the High St stores for under $50, and an old Cast Iron frypan off the local market too.
wildflower,
Apr 26, 4:08am
We have a chippie for heating our water, I use the top of that daily, saves on gas for the oven.Boil water, cook, stick stuff nearby on cold days to help rise yeast etc, very handy.
timetable,
Apr 26, 4:25am
stews, cassaroles, soups all do really well on the pot belly's... just watch that it doesn't boil dry as they can get rather hot fairly quickly!!!! i used to just have it chugging away when cooking soup etc and it just had a nice rolling boil going and i just stired it from time to time and it was brill.....
dawnay,
Apr 27, 12:27am
Thank you all for your suggestions.I do have cast iron cookware.Think I will start with soups and stews and make sure I can regulate the heat okay.Thanks
pickles7,
Apr 27, 12:55am
I used two cast iron casseroles, on my cooker, and never had food catch in them. I would bring some things up to boil before putting them on the fire, mostly meat dishes, soups I had simmering all day at times. Cast iron is great to cook in, keep an eye out, I picked mine up at a garage sale two for $15.00. one red, the other orange. Pot belly stoves, are way hotter, than stand alone fires.
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