Has anyone tried cooking in your coal stove?

I was reading an article about Hearth cooking in a magazine today and wondered if anyone has tried cooking in your coal stove. Obviously, not talking about the large kitchen stoves, but like a stoker or hand fired. Maybe a cast iron dutch oven would work? What do you think

Only my hand,ouch. RichB

Good luck, the temps are pretty high, most people cook ON the stove, not IN the stove. Then trying to keep the door open while loading/unloading it and all the fumes......

A few years (probably 10-12) back an ice storm knocked out power for a couple days and we cooked on it then. We weren't doing any Martha Stewart dinner parties, but we made it work for simple things like stew, boiled water, eggs, etc.

I cooked my bare foot with my hot ash slicer once

After reading this thread a couple of days ago I decided to cook a nice juicy steak IN my AA-130. Once I figured out how to get the steak in and out of the veiw port without burning my fingers I figured I'd give it a shot. I sat down and had my crispy black steak. Uummmm...lets just say I'll go back to cooking on my webber grill. Well thats it,..... I should be getting out of the hospital soon...... Looking forward to more interesting threads.

I don't cook food in my boiler, but I do use it to melt down lead to pour into molds to make fishing weights. I also use it like a blacksmith forge, stick the steel rod in there until it's cherry red, then pound it into a shepherds hook or plant hanger or whatever.

Yes.... had no power for 4 days due to the ice storm here in Massachusetts. I ran my Channing III DV plus one 25 watt bulb for a little light off of an 800 watt inverter. I ended up taking off the cast top and turn off the convection motor to get some good temps. Believe it or not my wife did a great job..shes a good cook regardless. She ended up cooking eggs and bacon , spaghetti and meatballs , pizza and even made banana muffins. It will work in a pinch ..Glad to say we finally have power and look forward to watching my wife cook on our regular stove...haha

ashburnham55 wrote:Yes.... had no power for 4 days due to the ice storm here in Massachusetts.

Hey Bob we just got our power back on today a little before 4. (lost it about 9:45 Thursday night) I did cook some potatoes the other night but I wrapped them in foil and set them on a rack on the top (had the lid lifted open Kodiak has a 'false top' that works with the blower) of the stove.

I tried to hook up an inverter to my plenum fans but I'm mo electrician and I think I overloaded and fried the inverter.

I am actually very happy with the decision to get a hand fired. Met many people at the watering hole (we have a famous fresh water spring in town) that went the pellet stove route that were useless once the power went out, my buddy just got done installing an outdoor wood furnace that was useless until he borrowed a generator. My house never got below 64 even though it was about 15 out one of the nights (I think it was Friday night bit the days are all a blur of stokin the stove and fillin water buckets)
Another benefit of having the power out, I got to spend some quality time getting to know my stove. Since there was no tv or I couldn't read posts on the forum, I spent several quite evenings sipping fresh spring water and watching the blue ladies dance. I told my wife that you could see faces in the coal and she told me I was sitting too close, the fumes were affecting me.

I do have to say, I never could have done it without the advice and help of the many great people on this forum, from advice on what type of stove to buy, how to move the heat upstairs and how to get the darned thing running without putting it out every time I went to fill it.
Thanks to you My family survived the ice storm of 08 in central MA

I don't want to editorialize here but the storm was a beautiful dichotomy, the sun prisiming through the ice clad branches contrasted to the utter devastation. All the tops of the trees are snapped off, all of them except the pines. The pop,crack and tinkel as the branch broke off the tree and the ice came crashing down. We were outside Friday for about an hour or so and this never stopped, as soon as one limb settled another would break off. I'm saddened by what happened, in awe of the power of mother nature and happy my kids got to experience a once (or twice I remember being a kid for the blizzard of 78) in a lifetime weather event.

Wanna see the pictures?

Ray

ray in ma wrote:Wanna see the pictures?

Ray

Absolutely

ray in ma wrote:
Wanna see the pictures?

Ray

Yes.
Also, how long would you run the inverter before running/driving the car?

I couldn't agree with you more about the hand feed stoves. When the electricity goes off here, it just gets darker, not colder.

TSB

Over the years we have cooked many times on top of our Crane when the power has gone out - most recently during the last week’s ice storm. The trick to not having to deal with a cooking surface (stove top) that is too hot is to have a collection of metal trivets of varying heights. This allows lower temperatures needed for stewing or simmering. Of course a quick boil can be had by placing your pot directly on the stove top BUT do be mindful that not all pots, pans, and especially handles can tolerate a 500°+ heating surface. Don’t ask me how I learned this.

Made a good-size pot of turkey barbecue last winter on the stove, just to see if it could be done. Took all day, but that was the plan.

Otherwise, I keep a water kettle on all winter. It steams, but never quite boils...

I love using my stove to cook things on my stove. It's one of the reasons we got it. A nice heavy cast iron skillet can make a lot of great foods. Next on the list is a dutch oven. My cookstove has an oven compartment as well. With the ice storm season upon us, and the chance we'll lose power at least once or twice, a hand fired stove is a nice buffer.