Cookin' With Coal

The ranges are not like other stoves for their hearth clearances.

The actual "front" of the range is called the "hearth". That's the left, or firebox end, when viewed standing to the left of the range. That's the end you have to be concerned about being on a hearth and meeting code for clearances to combustibles.

And, with adding heat shields, you can reduce the rear clearance to combustibles by a lot. I could get my range even closer to the back wall and still meet code, but I want to be able to get behind the range for cleaning and to hang up cast iron cookware.

Paul

It was in the upper 40's this morning and going to stay cold, damp, and cloudy. Good day to try Rev. Larry's method of clean the stove and then coat it with a layer of creosote for the off season. Even if that's not all that long around here.

And it gave me a chance to use the butterfly cover lifter that Wilson gave me, that's been covered earlier in this thread. I highly recommend getting this tool for anyone with a range that plans on burning wood. It allows lifting all three cover pieces together to give quick and easy, one-handed access to the full length of the firebox. Great for quickly dropping in long lengths of wood from the top. Trying to completely fill the firebox from the front door isn't always as easy to do. You can get reproduction butterfly lifters from Bryants Stove on Maine.

And I found that putting mica windows in the secondary damper air openings made adding over-fire air impossible. Can't get as clean, nor as long a burn, without that secondary air and closing off the primary damper. If I was going to burn wood more often, I'd take them out so that the secondary slide damper functions again. Oh well, I wanted a smoky fire to coat the flues with creosote.

Enjoy.

Paul

So how dose the mica work with coal in the secondary damper?

Dana

D.lapan wrote:So how dose the mica work with coal in the secondary damper?

Dana

Actually quite well. I can look in and see if the fire needs tending rather than lifting the round covers. No big deal to do that either way,...... just nice to be able to watch the blue ladies dancing, too. Being rather bashful, they always run and hide if I lift a round cover to peek in.

Paul

Great idea I'm gonna have to steal it..

While vacationing in Maine this week I made the additional 2 hour drive to bryant stoves.
After digging for 3 hours I finally found 1 of the 2 last pieces for my grams stove still need to make a trip south to see the guys in mass but I don't know how I'm going to find the last piece unless I have one cast

Dana

Hope all you Cookin' with Coal types are having a good summer.

Going by past years, our heating season will be starting in a few weeks. Time to get the range ready.

There were some things I wanted to do while the stove was cold.

Took out the mica "windows" I had in the secondary damper door openings and cleaned them with white vinegar, then reinstalled. Those little windows worked out very well. Not only can I watch the blue ladies dance, they seal that damper openings better than the slide with it's heat-softened spring handle. Better sealing so that the secondary damper doesn't leak over-fire air and act like a check damper when I don't need one.

The two damper doors to the water reservoir never closed fully because one of the two axle screws at the bottom edge of each door are missing. Plus, over the years the doors became canted on the axle with crud/rust built up between the door and axle shaft, further pushing one side of the doors away. I took out the remaining screws, Dremel-tool ground the rust off and refastened them with new stove bolts and sharp-cornered square nuts I had saved. Now, when I don't want the water reservoir to extract heat and warm the kitchen in the shoulder months, the fully closing doors should help it act more like a heat shield. One of the damper door screw ears on the axle has a small, cracked piece. I bent a fender washer to cup and hold the little broken piece in place until the stove comes apart for a full restoration. Then I can get the axle out and weld it back on.

A trick I keep forgetting to try it. I took off the oven door inner panel and wrapped it in two layers of aluminum foil. The panel was originally tin plated to help reflect heat back into the oven. The aluminum foil should do the same. I first learned of it from Melissa, who told me her Mom did that with their coal range to help keep the oven temps up. Last year's project of insulating the heat shield box on the rear of the range with ceramic wool insulation worked out well. It raised the oven temps about 75 degrees and lowered the wall temp behind the range about 20-30 degrees. That being an outside wall, I see no benefit heating it anymore than I have to. If the oven gets too warm the old trick of prop the oven door open slightly and hold it in placed with a sad iron on the oven door shelf to hold it in place, works well.

I also ordered the 6 foot long probes for the Maverick BBQ thermometer (thanks again to that King of the stove gadgets, "Lightning" Lee ), so that I could move the gauge up where we can read it better. That unit, with it's pocket remote, worked out very well for not only being able to remotely monitor the oven temps for baking, with the oven always on (base heater mode), it also lets me know how the stove temps are doing by watching the oven temps.

One of the summer projects was making more stove tools for the Oak stoves, and nickel plating the small parts of the range. Most of the original nickel had worn and/or rusted off. At some point thereafter someone had painted them black. I bead blasted them clean to bare metal, then burnished the parts smoother on a wire wheel. Didn't want a highly polished surface, because where some of the plating remained it showed that it was not originally as finely polished as one would find on an antique car. The finish was more like what some old timers called "Butler nickel" finish. The shelf rails are too long for my present plating set up so they will have to wait until I can set to do them. But at least some of the smaller "stove bling", such as stove and tool handles are done.

Thanks to Wilson, I was able to get a correct size Glenwood towel rod with handle. I made a new stainless steel rod, slightly longer than the originals to keep the towel a little further away from the hot firebox for a bit more added safety. Plus, for safety, these towel rods should "droop" slightly when extended, so that the towel would slide away from the stove rather than risk any chance that it would slide accidently toward it.

I was happy to see that Rev Larry's rust prevention trick of burn wood to coat the inside of the stove with creosote, has worked well. And, no stink of creosote in the kitchen over the summer. There was none of the usual post-summer thin rust scale in some places inside the range. Just the old, fine rust layer it always has. Thank you Rev !

Bling pix below.

Paul

What kind of a playing set up do you have?

Dana

D.lapan wrote:What kind of a playing set up do you have?

Dana

Playing ? Almost...... I got the set up for my business.

About half of what's needed is a small, commercial set up. The rest is what I had to put together including piecing together a variable DC power supply. I got it to redo the plating on 1920's carburetors that I restore. Some of the carbs I work on are so rare that they are irreplaceable. With the parts being small, that puts them at too much risk of being lost by plating shops, or in transit.

The set up was expensive and it's not a complete "kit" ready to use. Plus, the plating operation needs a vented, dust-free work space that's safe to work with some strong acids. It was only worth it because I do a lot of small parts plating. For just one stove worth of small parts, it's cheaper to send the parts out to a plating shop.

Paul

With cold nights and cool days finally here, I started up the range yesterday.

Melissa made some loaves of pumpkin bread and then we made pizza. She found an easy no-yeast pizza dough recipe that looked good. Makes a thin crispy crust that bakes quickly. It worked out well because the crust cooks more quickly than a thick yeast dough crust. Much less risk of the toppings getting overcooked, or the dough undercooked to prevent not burning some of the toppings in a 450 degree oven.

Sorry folks, I only took pix of the bacon after it was done. I was so hungry that I forgot to take pix of the pizzas.

Anyway, the pizzas turned out great. The crusts were indeed thin and crispy.

I'll post up the recipe later today, for anyone who likes that type crust.

And it didn't take the cat long to remember how nice and warm it is under the range.
Plus, I'm back to being spoiled by having a kettle full of near boiling water waiting when I come downstairs.

Got a new "I" plate for over the middle of the firebox. Woodman's Parts in Maine has the "eye" and "tee" plates for Glenwood 208 sized models, of which my Sunny is one. It's a perfect fit and a nice job of casting. Only draw back is the black paint is not high temp and it took awhile with the back door open and putting up with the stink to burn off. The plate it replaced I had bought 10 years ago. Being over the hottest part of the fire the extreme heating and cooling causes it to grow larger. Larger to the point is was pushing against the other plates. The edges of the top plates are all beveled so that they ride up over each other if they swell too much. That way they don't butt against each other and crack. The center eye plate had grown so long that when it got hot it stuck up on the ends causing over-fire air leaks that made temp changes a bit sluggish like an open check damper, and over-fire air leaks also drop the high flue gas temps needed for high oven temps. With the new plate we had no problem reaching the 450 degrees needed to bake the pizza's last night.

And all the work I've put into new grates and sealing the stove seams is paying off in greater and faster control during temp changes while cooking/baking.

Another plus of that work is longer burn times from a full load of coal. When I came down stairs this morning, it was about 12 hours after I had topped off the firebox and dampered it down for the night. The kitchen was 70 degrees and the fire box was full of burning embers with no signs of ash build up from burned out coal. Looked like it could easily burn like that for another 3-4 hours. This is one of the smaller ranges Glenwood made in the late 1800-early 1900. I'd love to see how long the larger ranges could run with their bigger fireboxes.

To celebrate stove startup, I made French toast for breakfast. One of my favorite breakfasts, but one I don't do except on special occasions because keeping my weight down with a stove that's fun to cook on is tough enough.

Enjoy.

Paul

We camp upta camp Friday night, got here at about 9pm 48* inside 35* out. Camp being only about 750 sf so the hickory is overkill, so I loaded it up on cough cough "wood" and within 20 min it was 75 in here!, I know it's not coal but I figured I would add that we made banana bread last night in the gas glenwood and we too are making French toast and hash this morning. Oddly enough the oven on this range even being gas has a completely different taste to the food that is cooked in it.
When I get home tonight I will be firing up the Crawford with the last of my coal, gotta go to the feed store and pick up some more

Dana

Well, it's Friday,..... and for many that means pizza night.

I promised to post this pizza crust recipe that Melissa and I tried out last weekend. Sorry, but I can't remember where we got this recipe. However, it's easy and no yeast is needed, so it's much faster to make. Comes out thin, with crispy edges, for those who don't want to fill up on thick, doughy pizza crust.

Be advised. If your using an antique coal range oven, the firebox side is always a bit hotter. Following Randy's (Photog2000) example, I made a free-standing aluminum heat baffle for that side of my oven. It helped a lot but it still is a bit hotter on that side. We found that we had to turn the pizzas 180 degrees at about halfway through the baking time. They came out nicely done and as the recipe said, thin and crispy.

No-yeast pizza crust - quick, thin, and crispy.
Makes two 12 inch pies.

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tea spoon baking powder
3/4 tea spoon salt
3/4 cup water
3 table spoons of light olive oil

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

1. Combine dry ingredients.
2. Mix in wet ingredients
3. Kneed to a smooth ball on a lightly floured surface.
4. Divide into two balls, wrap each in plastic and let rest for 15 minutes in a warm place - such as the top back shelf of a coal range !
5. Sandwich each ball between two pieces of well oiled parchment paper and roll out into 12 inch circles
6. Remove top sheet and slide bottom sheet and pie crust onto a baking sheet.
7. Spread on about 1/3 cup of pizza sauce and 3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, than add whatever toppings you like.
8. Bake 10-15 minutes.

In an antique coal oven, about half way through the baking time, turn each pie 180 degrees to bake evenly.

Enjoy.

Paul

That recipe sounds good Paul, especially if you want to make a quick pizza. I made ziti with sausage and shrimp tonight on my stove tonight. I have not been around much this summer to use the stove so it was nice to use it again even if it was on wood.

I bought a book a couple of weeks ago on Italian recipes for pizza and bread. The recipes look great but have not had the time to try any of them yet. Will let you know how they work out.

Randy

Had the fairy going for about 2 weeks now, wife says she wanted a pumpkin pie, so I whipped up my grams 100 year recipe still cooking has a few more minutes...

Dana

Dana,
No pictures ?

Paul

Speaking of Granma's recipes.......

One of my sisters sent me a copy of my Grandmother's "Shoebox oatmeal cookies".

Every Summer my Mother's mother would come for a week long visit to help around the house and give Mom a break. She'd bring all kinds cakes, pies, and a shoebox lined with waxed paper, the lid tied on with string, and filled with her freshly made oatmeal/raisin cookies.

The unfortunate part of that is they never lasted long.

I've wanted to try a batch for many years, and what better way than in a stove similar to what she would have used when she first got married - about the same time my range was made. That lead to me asking my sister to dig through boxes of stuff she has from my Grandmother's house.

It's a simpler recipe than one I've used from the back of a Quarter Oats box, but still good. Not dry like some store-bought versions, these come out thick and chewy, like I remember the ones Granma made.

These also seem to have the same problem as Granma's had ....... they are not lasting long.

Enjoy.

Paul