# Recipes / Advice on Cooking on a Wood Cook Stove



## lilmissy0740 (Mar 7, 2011)

Just learning to cook on my Pioneer Princess  Would love some advice, recipes and tips. Tried to make coffee on it this morning using a perculator. Crap sakes, that took forever. I made it in the Mr Coffee pot . How long does this take? We cooked a steak over the flame. Found out a lid on top of a grate works much better than no lid. After we used it I wiped it down with bacon grease on the top. I am sure this isnt right. So COME ON and give some advice. :surrender:


----------



## cnsper (Sep 20, 2012)

Best thing is soups and stews but I cook bacon, eggs and even roasts on it. First thing that you need is the stove has to get hot enough. Second thing is cast iron pans. I cook a roast in the dutch oven with the lid on and about 3/4" of water and cook it all day. It is slower than electric or gas but I have the time and the stove. I use a porcelain coated coffee pot (percolator) Once the water starts to boil it is just a matter of minutes. I also throw in a little cold water when it is done to settle the grounds (always get some in the pot). Lids are going to be your friend to keep heat in.

I just made some soup out of the neck bones from a goat. Cooked all the meat off then added in potatoes, corn and green beans. I will be eating this for a week it seems. I don't really have recipes as I just cook what I feel like cooking. Most of my ingredients are by sight.


----------



## lilmissy0740 (Mar 7, 2011)

Where do you put your cold water at, in with the grounds or just in with the coffee? How often do you clean the top of the stove?


----------



## cnsper (Sep 20, 2012)

Pull the percolator filter out and put in just a little cold water. Personally I never clean the top of the stove. Then I only cook in the pans and not directly on the stove... LOL Yeah you spill some here and there, a little grease splatter, water spills. It all cooks off.


----------



## lilmissy0740 (Mar 7, 2011)

Thanks cnsper. I dont cook on the top either, just over the open flame or in skillets. Made burgers, french fries in the oven and pumpkin cookies tonight. Oh can I feel 40 lbs coming on over this winter.


----------



## cnsper (Sep 20, 2012)

I tell you, you won't. I have lost 4" in the waist since April eating my own cooking and it is good, if I do say so myself.

I forgot to mention that if I am in a rush to fry something, I will remove one of the plates and place the skillet there so it heats faster. Sometimes I am running late.


----------



## kappydell (Nov 27, 2011)

as you gain experience with the stove you will discover that there are hot spots and cooler ones on the cooking area. Move the pots around as needed to get the amount of simmer or boil you desire. Oven cooking is a little more complicated - you need a thermometer if you do not want to use the 'stick your hand in and count' method for estimating temperatures. Many baked goods can take cooler temps - they just take longer to bake - so if the fire dies down a bit while you are baking it is not super critical. Watch how much you stoke it though, as too much heat will (of course) burn things. An iron trivet under a pot on the cooktop works like a double boiler in that it helps to moderate the heat a bit so things don't stick to the pot (as much).


----------



## siletz (Aug 23, 2011)

About the coffee: I don't have a wood cookstove, but we've cooked over our woodstove over the winters here, and it has taken forever to get coffee from the coffee percolator. We purchased a french press coffee maker this summer and couldn't be happier. You just put hot water in it with the coffee grounds, wait 4 minutes and push the strainer down. It's a lot quicker to heat the water on the stove and pour into the french press than to wait for it to percolate.


----------



## lilmissy0740 (Mar 7, 2011)

kappydell, I baked cookies in it and that was what happened. Fire starting to die down on pan 4 and they 15 mins longer. Still good tho.
Siletz, always wondered about the french press. We only drink a few cups in the morning and then I am good until evening, but I want tea.


----------



## Startingout-Blair (Aug 28, 2012)

We always made what we called "hobo coffee" in the field when I was in the military. We would boil a 15 gal pot of water and add 5 lbs coffee. Wait about 15 minutes after taking it off the heat and then sprinkle the top of the hot water with cold water. The grains would sink to the bottom and you would CAREFULLY ladle out the coffee you wanted. Not the best coffee, but it was piping hot and very strong (could probably remove paint...lol) but the soldiers loved it at 4:30am!!!


----------



## siletz (Aug 23, 2011)

lilmissy0740 said:


> Siletz, always wondered about the french press. We only drink a few cups in the morning and then I am good until evening, but I want tea.


We bought ours to use during our summer camping trip since we were tired of waiting for the percolator over the fire. We need to make hot water anyway for all the cocoa drinkers in the group, so decided to give it a try. Ours makes 2-3 mugs worth at a time and cost $20. It was amazingly easy to use: just pour in the coffee grounds, hot water over the top and stir it together. Wait 4 minutes, then press the plunger strainer down to put all the grounds on the bottom of the container and pour the coffee out of the top. Our power goes out a lot over each winter, so this will be a big time saver when heating our water on the woodstove.


----------



## cnsper (Sep 20, 2012)

Sounds like some people need some fire building skills... lol

Small pieces of wood burn quicker and hotter. Use that to get your water boiling quickly. Now you are not going to get a 5 minute cup of coffee so drag your a$# out of bed sooner... LOL


----------



## NaeKid (Oct 17, 2008)

lilmissy0740 said:


> kappydell, I baked cookies in it and that was what happened. Fire starting to die down on pan 4 and they 15 mins longer. Still good tho.
> Siletz, always wondered about the french press. We only drink a few cups in the morning and then I am good until evening, but I want tea.


French-press, Bodum, Coffee-press all mean the same thing - very smooth coffee.

:google: for images

I make a "special" coffee in my coffee-press, some will know it by the name of KLAH.

I normally put 4 heaping teaspoons of coffee in the bottom of the press, sprinkle cinnamon and nutmeg over the top of the coffee grounds and then boil the water in a seperate container.

One the water is boiling, pour the water directly on the grounds, place the top on (with strainer), but, leave the plunger as high as possible. Wait for 5 to 7 minutes, check the color to see if it is dark enough for you. If so, push on the plunger very (VERY) slowly - should take about a count of 30 from top-to-bottom.

Spoon two heaping teaspoons of hot-chocolate into the mug, pour the coffee over top, stir and serve the best tasting thing you will ever put in your mouth ...


----------



## Woody (Nov 11, 2008)

Depending on your firebox it is possible to perc fast coffee. I could do a pot from a cold stove in about 10 minutes. I had an old ‘Household’, ‘Home’ model.

First, you need to get to know your wood. What does your wood pile look like? Do you have all one size or is there a good variety of sizes in separate piles? I used old wooden boxes to store wood in. If you don’t have the room for that you will need a chopping block and a hatchet. Make most of your pieces ‘overnighters’ or rectangular pieces just the right size to fill the firebox front to back and leaving a little room height wise for some coals underneath. You will be able to cut whatever size you need from them. You will discover what the perfect size of ‘regular’ wood is after using your stove for a spell. You can then make a majority this size for easy stoking. A box of small twigs and branches up to thumb size cut to firebox length is great tinder.

First thing you will need is a lid over the firebox that has 4 or 6 rings in it, don’t remember exactly how many mine had. Each one is just large enough to have a slot for the lid lifter. You want flames right to the bottom of your coffee maker not to have to heat the lid first. There are also cast iron grates for over the firebox, for grilling on. You take off both lids and the ‘H’ piece in the middle and they fit perfectly in the opening. Loved mine! Smoke was sucked out just like a Jenn Air grill.

Anyway. I had a regular little 8 cup metal percolator with the clear bubble on top, made great coffee. Fit your pot into a lid opening. My perking spot was in the back. Smooth out the ashes from last night and if needed empty some out. Crumple some paper and build a lose pile of small ¼” pieces of wood. Stack some ½” pieces over them and fill the rest of the box with ¾” to 1” pieces, stack it full now! Fire it up and open the damper to get a fast fire going. When about half the wood is lit tamp the wood a bit and stack more pieces on top. Might be small ones or the 1” ones depending on how well the fire is going. You want a TON of flames licking the bottom of the pot. Cut the damper back as the fire gets going remembering you want flames practically jumping up around the pot not just rushing up the flue. Play with the flue and firebox as needed to keep a fast hot fire roaring. It will take some practice but your perking times will get faster as you get to know your stove.

Just looked up the Pioneer Princess! Nice little unit, mine was a regular 6 burner cook stove from late 1800’s so the above may vary for yours. The theory is still the same though.

For baking there was a pretty stiff learning curve. Basics were get the stove hot as a bastard with a good bed of coals and let the temp fall to where I needed it. It was easier to maintain a steady temp after the whole thing was hot rather than try to heat to just the temp I needed. Maintain a steady fire rather than relying on coals or stoking to raise the temp when needed. This is where knowing your wood and firebox comes in handy. After a few miserable failures you will just know what size fire you need to maintain to maintain a steady temp. Example for one temp, three flaming pieces of 1” x 2” oak kept it pretty steady. Another temp needed only one piece flaming on the coals.

Someone mentioned stews and such. You betcha! There was almost always a pot of some kind of gruel on the right side of the stove. Not sure how we never got food poisoning but it would be there for days and we would add stuff as required to keep it on the ready.

As far as maintenance, only for the summer did I grease the top. We would use the summer stove outside for summer cooking. Winter cooking never had an issue as bacon grease and all kept the top in good shape. Cooked in cast iron never on the top itself.


----------



## Freyadog (Jan 27, 2010)

siletz said:


> About the coffee: I don't have a wood cookstove, but we've cooked over our woodstove over the winters here, and it has taken forever to get coffee from the coffee percolator. We purchased a french press coffee maker this summer and couldn't be happier. You just put hot water in it with the coffee grounds, wait 4 minutes and push the strainer down. It's a lot quicker to heat the water on the stove and pour into the french press than to wait for it to percolate.


anytime we want something fast we make sure that the side is touching the stove pipe on the woodstove. when cooking sstews and what have you the same goes. usually it is the top of the pot. but it works the same way as charcoals on the lid. heats all around with part of the pot touching the pipe.

we have put in a pellet stove, just now getting it hooked up. so don't know whether or not this will make a difference or not in winter cooking. just love rabbit and deer stew sitting all day on a slow cook.


----------

