Use your wood burning fireplace to cook and bake inside the stove. Welcome to Shebang, your free information site.
Build a Rack to Cook On
This cooking rack was put together with some square chrome tubing
I had kicking around, any iron metal material will work.
Top and bottom view
The rack is 12 inches by 8 inches, with 1-1/2 inch legs.
Baking
Our first try at baking with hot coals. We used a bread pan (stainless steel) to place potatoes, onions, and carrots into. A bit of salad dressing (spice oil vinegar type) and water was added, along with salt and pepper. Parchment paper was used to cover the ingredients in the pan. The bread pan was then covered over with tin foil.
After the fire was reduced to glowing coals, the red coals were pushed to the back of the fire box. The metal rack was placed into the front of the fire box. The bread pan was placed onto the metal rack. The majority of the heat came from the back of the fire box, and heated air. The bread pan was left for one hour, when it was removed everything was cooked very well. An excellent result from our first try.
Tip
Use waterpump pliers to remove the hot metal rack from the fire box.
Baking Bread with Hot Coals
With the red hot coals pushed to the very back, the metal grate was placed into the fire box, towards the front of the stove. You must wait until there is no sign of any red before placing the bread inside, or it will be to hot. The infrared heat will burn the bread. If you think it is still too hot, cover the top of the bread with tin foil to reflect most of the heat. You do not want cook with the infrared heat, as it is too hot. Heated air is what we want, as this way of cooking is more predicable. The bread was left to cook for an hour and a half. The very top was a little burnt, but other than that, it looks ok.
I will work on a way to mount an oven thermometor to the side of the metal rack, this will take away any guess work. So next time things will be better.
Added oven thermometer
With the coals pushed back and let to darken the temperature was 425 degrees. The temperature slowly started to drop, by one hour the temp was down to 325 degrees. Interesting by closing the air wash the temp rose to 425 again. So it is determined, the temperature can be regulated by adjusting the air intake. A little air wash is good because it keeps the coal fumes away from the bread. I think a lot of fumes around the bread would not be good, it would cause the bread to have a Smokey taste. If you do not have an air wash system, to regulate the temperature, open the door once in a while, and stir up the coals, this will bring up the temperature. I was able to keep a consistent cooking temperature for two hours, by only regulating the air intake.
One other thing, I will move the oven thermometer to one side of the metal rack, so it will not be in the way, it will be easier to turn the bread pan around at half time.
Wood ashes are very fine and when they are disturbed, they tend to take flight, especially when hot. When removing ashes from a home wood burning stove or fireplace, you can reduce ash from spilling out into the room by following this method, let the ashes cool, modestly fill each scoop full, and slowly draw it out of the stove, tip the metal holding container, and slowly lower the shovelful of ashes into the container at the furthest corner.
Instead of dumping the ashes directly into the metal container, lower the shovel to the bottom at the far side of the container. Bring the handle of the scoop upward and draw the shovel back towards you, unloading the ashes n the same manner a dump truck unloads its load of dirt. Use a sliding motion, moving the shovel towards you as the ashes slide off the shovel. This procedure prevents air movement below the ashes during dumping. By allowing the ashes to cool first also helps prevent ashes from rising into the air.
Build An Ash Scoop, With a Door To Trap Ashes
Build your own ash scoop removing device, with a closeable lid. Use a metal olive oil tin to build your ash scoop. Remove the top with a can opener, and flatten the complete top outer edge of the container with a hammer, to prevent any sharp burrs.
Make a metal lid from piece of sheet metal, make it about a quarter of an inch larger than the top of the olive oil container, so that when the lid is closed it covers the entire opening of the can. If the tin your are making the lid out of is very thin, then fold the edges of the sheet metal lid about one eight of an inch around the complete outer edge, this makes it more sturdy, and helps to maintain its shape. Drill two matching holes for the wire hinges in the olive oil container, and lid, about three quarters of an inch in from the outside edge of the lid edge. Make your hinges from thin iron wire or paper clips, twist the ends of the wire inside the container. The loop should be large enough to allow the lid to swing easy, and yet not be to sloppy.
Ash Scoop
Wire hinges are circled in black
Ash Scoop Use Instructions
To use the ash scoop, open and fold the lid all the way back onto the top of the container, slide the scoop into the stove, scoop up the ashes until the ash scoop is just about full. Slide the scoop back a little towards yourself, reach into the stove, and flip the lid closed on the scoop, before removing. Shake off any ashes off the outside of the container while it is still in the stove, bring out the container upright, with the lid closed. Carry the full container of ashes to the outside of the house, and dump into a metal container for disposal. If the ashes are hot, use a pair of leather welding gloves or equivalent, to prevent burns to your hands. About four trips is all that is required to clean out the fireplace. When the ash removal is completed, look around and see how mess free the house is, you will appreciate the time and effort put into building this device.
