veges I cook the veges on mine as well. There are many times over winter that the whole meal is cooked on the top of the woodburner. I also heat frying pans for cooking meat before I transfer it to the stove top. Makes me feel good to save the power. Even bringing a big pot of water to the boil for potatoes saves a bit. Regulating the temp is the tricky part so if it is important to maintain a certain temperature, you have to watch it a bit more carefully.
archieb,
Jul 18, 8:39pm
can you put the pots etc. straight on top or do you have to put a trivet typr thing (kind of like the matel bits that go over gas stoves) so the food doesnt catch? And also might your pot get damaged if you dont do that? Very keen it sounds like a great idea but want to make sure I'm not going to have "a la char" or a ruined pot! :)
uli,
Jul 18, 10:06pm
Does anyone cook on top of their fireplace/burner Yes - I would think anyone who fires up a wood stove would cook on it! Why would one not? And what do we cook? The same as you do on your gas or electric cooktop. Not quite sure what your question is really? You just put your pot with whatever needs cooking onto the hot stove top instead of on the hot electrically heated round element... . Am I missing something here?
cgvl,
Jul 18, 10:38pm
archieb I put my pots straight onto the top of the firebox (its cast iron), do not need to put anything under them. If making a casserole/stew then I have a plate sitting on hearth and put my wooden spoon on that as I regularly stir my stew to stop it from burning. It takes a couple of minutes longer to cook the vegies but not that much as the water is at a fast simmer, haven't had anything boil over yet. Did scones in the frypan the other day on it as well, you need to turn them after about 5-10 mins.
archieb,
Jul 18, 11:11pm
Thankyou cgvl I will give it a whirl!
clareypen,
Jul 18, 11:22pm
fish WE wrap it tinfoil, trivet and it only takes a few minutes. . put butter herbs wine lemonetc in the package to stop drying out
carterne,
Jul 19, 12:12am
generational gap I guess This type of cooking was never shown to me as I was growing up. (Lived in the tropics! ! ) I would imagine many others missed out on seeing how this was done. Electricity/gas is convenient and was relatively inexpensive in the past so our parents turned to stove cooking. Now we are learning to do this again. I enjoy the thought of "free" food. It is a bit experimental but I have the time in the weekends. I started with the pot of veges and the boiling of cheerios and have moved on a bit since then. A few weeks ago I tried a cake. it was alright... not great but good with ice cream. like I said before, the temperature is the difficult part for me. Uli, you posted a link to a good site for me a few weeks back. It was a good site but I have lost the link. Can you repost it please?
carterne,
Jul 19, 12:13am
trivet I often place the pot straight onto the box and then if it gets too hot I will put a trivet under it. The trivet I first used was actually the one off the stove top element and since then my husband made one up for me from scrap metal.
juliewn,
Jul 19, 8:47am
... yum. . this is sounding very good. . and is inspiring. . thanks. . and... bumping to the top for more great ideas and recipes to try. . I've previously had a logburner - one night I let the fire inside the firebox die down till it was red embers. . and while that was happening, I made some bread, left it to rise in a metal loaf tin, then placed several layers of tinfoil in a thick band around the bottom of the tin, and placed it on top of a steel stand I put over the embers. I left the fireplace door shut, and watched the bread bake. . it tasted very good - was a little burnt on the base - I'd have it a little higher above the embers when we have a fireplace again. Highly recommended...
carterne,
Jul 19, 1:28pm
sounds wonderful Julie I am going to try that too Julie. I have a heavy cast iron frying pan that might just work for this. I think we lack the right equipment these days to make the most of the woodburner but like you, I am adapting what I have. The cake I made was in a small cake tin. I set up the "oven" on top of the burner. It was made from a heavy bottomed fry pan and another cake tin that fitted over the top inverted to make the "oven". Took a long time to cook and as I said before it was OK with ice cream. I think the cake tin didn't hold the heat very well so I will work on that.
carterne,
Jul 19, 5:00pm
cooking now I couldn't wait for tonight for the embers so I lit the fire and let it die down this morning! ! ! ! ! There is what we call 'mouldy old fruit cake' in there at the moment. I made a make shif rack and put the tin in there with the mix. I will give it half an hour and take a look! ! ! By the way the fruit isn't really old and mouldy! ! ! Just the bits of fruit in the bowl that get shoved aside because there is a better looking piece there. eg bananas and apple in this one. It's just a banana cake recipe using opil instead of butter and whatever fruit I have. Looking forward to it. Wish the burner had a light inside so I could see clearly. Maybe I should just clean the glass! !
carterne,
Jul 19, 5:34pm
I am so proud! ! ! It worked. A great cake in half an hour! ! ! ! 14 year old son very proud of me too The only problem is that I have to let the fire die down first so I have to get the room warm and then cool a bit. But the cake it worth it! !
clint72,
Jul 20, 5:55pm
thanks to this tread... I cooked a casserole on Saturday on top of our fisher fire (and it was delicous! )and have just put a beef roast on it for tonight. My problem is I only have 1 cast iron pot so can only do 1 thing at a time. Any other ideas? ? We are having friends come for dinner on Wed night and would to do the whole meal on top of the fire. Thanks in advance.
lost-in-oz,
Jul 20, 7:19pm
start poking round in salvation army stores... ops shops, garage sales etc. I've purchased all my good heavy duty frying pans and pots from the salvos stores for around $4 each. Way cheaper than buying brand new. Camping stores are great too for cast iron gear.
uli,
Jul 20, 8:11pm
I use all my stainless steel pots on my woodstove No problems. Why do you think you can only use cast iron? It's not an open fireplace is it? It's just a hot surface to cook on.
tammiraven,
Jul 20, 9:12pm
Im with Uli ... . why? .
snapit,
Jul 20, 10:14pm
I learnt to cook on a wood stove many years ago that was the top and the oven so this is taking me back a bit. Good to see that people are making use of their wood burners. One I haven't noticed mentioned is toast. We had fire toast for breakfast Dad would let it die down to nice embers and would do our toast in the fire box using a long handled toasting fork he had made. Now you can probably buy them from camping and barbecue places. Supper was in front of the open fire and Dad would bring in a tray of bread butter jam golden syrup honey and marmite and we all 5 children had a piece of fire toast. Mum was never expected to do this job it was Dads "thing" You can also toast on the top using a cake cooling rack to put the bread on. Currently I do not use my hot water cylinder for anything other than showers, stove top hot water for dishes water, waiting to check the next power bill
carterne,
Jul 20, 10:49pm
cast iron I use ordinary pots on mine too. I would imagine that if the top of the woodburner was really really hot, you might warp the pot but under normal circumstances it should be just fine to use what you normally use. I suggest just starting with a pot of boiling water to see how long that takes and then go from there. Good on you for cooking the casserole. There is really no reason not to do this. It's just heat after all. Good luck and please share your recipes with us.
carterne,
Jul 20, 11:15pm
snapit I hadn't thought of toast. Sounds like a nice tradition to carry on. I love hot toast and honey. Thanks. Roll on weightwatchers! ! !
traceedwards,
Jul 20, 11:20pm
For baking & frying, cast retains heat and helps. . cook evenly. If you are boiling any ol' pot will do. In saying that I bake with an ordinary covered roasting dish with some 'insulation' on top to hold the heat.
traceedwards,
Jul 20, 11:22pm
and get yaselves a jiffy iron
uli,
Jul 21, 12:50am
Hmm - of course I never thought about the cheap Warehouse pots, you know the ones where the coppor bottom is just painted on. Yes I am sure you would warp those on a wood fire. Mine all have thick sandwich bottoms. The only thing I have to watch is to put them on a cool enough spot so the few I have with plastic handles don't melt the handles. The ones with steel handles are obviously better suited.
simplesean,
Jul 21, 2:39am
great thread! So how exactly do you bake a cake on top of the woodburner? I am envisioning some sort of large upturned bowl on top to create an "oven" Anybody got any more info... or a link? Ta :)
susan21,
Jul 21, 3:13am
I make toast on the fire as well... Yum I have also got one of those cast iron toastie makers. I pop it in on the embers, and the toasted sammies come out like round pies all crispy and beautiful... . Yummy! ! ! The boys love them.
carterne,
Jul 21, 3:39am
simplesean When I made the cake on the top I built a kind of oven on the top. I put a heavy bottomed frypan on the top of the wood burner. The cake tin inside that and then another bigger tin inverted on top of that. I also put some folded sheets of newspaper on top of that to hold in the heat. I don't have a decent dutch oven so that is all makeshift at the moment. it was a bit slow to cook that way.
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