Cooking on Your Wood Stove

[icedog]

Although I can't imagine cooking with the furnace in the basement, I can't put a fire in the wood stove without at least thinking about cooking on it. Have any of you had any success with wood stove cookery? I have modified many recipes for preparation on a wood stove and I will gladly share them with you. I'll start with this simple side dish that is perfect for a cold winter day:

Baked Spuds a la Braddie

• Start with a couple potatoes (these are russets but when it comes to baking, spuds is spuds)
• Fresh dill
• Unsalted butter
• Sweet onion (Vidalia are best) sliced very thin
• Zest of one lemon

Notice the items listed above are the items on the plate in the photo. There are alot of items not on the plate which you can use as much of as you are willing to try.

Using a sharp knife, "book slice" the potato by cutting almost all the way through the potato as if to make very thick potato chips. Place the potato on a sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil(the heavier duty the better. I have no use nor any respect for flimsy tin foil. It is crap and should be mocked at every opportunity). Gently open the "pages" and stuff the thin inion slices between them. Smear the top of the potato and onion with unsalted butter. Lay a bunch of snipped dill over the top of all that and top with fresh lemon zest (if you don't have one already, get a Microplane: http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/2005166/4103/8-Starter-Set.aspx they are the best thing in the world for zesting a lemon, grating nutmeg and removing the callouses from your heels)

Close the foil very carefully as follows:

1. Bring the sides up together and fold them down together in approximately 1/2" folds until it is tight against the potato.

2. Fold one end in 1/2" folds until it is tight up against the spud. Leave the other end open.

3. Add a few drops (maybe 1/2-3/4 teaspoon)water and close up the other end tight up against the potato. Your goal in this exercise is to make a watertight, airtight package in which the potato will cook. If properly done, it is in effect a miniature pressure cooker.

Put the potato packages on a sturdy (earthenware) plate (okay, it doesn't have to be earthenware. I just don't get to use that word very often. Earthenware earthenware earthenware). and place the plated packaged potatoes on your woodstove (preferably while there is a fire inside the woodstove).

Place a stainless steel mixing bowl over the plated packaged potatoes and leave it alone until the potatoes are cooked. Two questions:

1. How do we know the stove in the above photo is hot?
2. How do we know when the potatoes are cooked?

Answers:

1. We know the stove is hot because Basil is not lying on the couch.
2. We can determine when the potatoes are cooked by lifting the bowl and squeezing the package. A cooked potato is much softer than a raw potato. If your wood stove is hot enough that your dragon is boiling, the potatoes will be cooked in about an hour.

You just baked potatoes for free!

[ronnie brown]

must be good spuds to have such a fine gard dog to watch them. does he get one when done? i bet they are good we do them the same but we place them in the hot coals and what a flavor it adds to them.

[icedog]

must be good spuds to have such a fine gard dog to watch them. does he get one when done? i bet they are good we do them the same but we place them in the hot coals and what a flavor it adds to them.

No spuds for Basil. Because he is in competitive weight pulling, Basil is on a pretty strict diet.

You put potatoes in your wood stove or are you referring to the coals of your charcoal grill? I don't have enough space in my stove for a couple big potatoes long enough to cook them. If I did manage to make enough space, the spuds would likely be reduced to carbon before they were cooked enough to eat.

[ben.mid]

Brad, looks like a little bit of what life's all about! I haven't lived anywhere with a wood burner, or open fire for a few years, & i miss it badly right now! Often do, but even more now.
Good to see Basil again too. As there is no wood burner here, Jake's currently lounging on the sofa!

[Sailor]

Now i got hungry. It is saturday evening and we have no all the necessary stuff, so have to wait until tomorrow. Going to be a long wait.
That is funny about the dogs by the way. Every time we are making food in the kitchen or on our oven, our dogs, for some reason, show up there as well, looking like they had never sen a food.

[gssixgun]

MMMmmmm Brad-a-souras Rex that looks like good eats... Now I have been known on occasion when the wifey is away to slice a steak into strips, and cook those strips over the fire in the stove.... Makes for a campfire cook out in the living room...

[nun2sharp]

What ya need Brad is a good cast iron bean pot w/ lid for the best Chili, stew or chowders!

[denmason]

Oh yeah, thems looks goods. The last time I cooked on the wood burner my ex got mad. She was not in favor of the flavor of fish in the air...

[sinnfein]

those spuds look SOOOOO good my mouth is watering

-dan-

[treydampier]

Thats cool. The house I spent most of my life in as a child had a fireplace. Since my sisters and I sold firewood every year from when I was about 4, we always had fires when it got below 40 degrees. My dad during the winter would take his grandmother's old dutch oven and make peach cobbler, biscuits, and on rare occasions chili. He used Jack Daniel's in it and I always loved it. We also raised hogs on my grandaddy's farm so outdoor BBQ all night was one of the few events I was allowed to stay up late for. We also used these large "witches pots"(I don't know their proper name, but my dad protects them like gold) to make Brunswick Stew after smoking a hog. I think its cool you used the stove. I am sure the spuds turned out great!
Beautiful dog by the way.