Cast Iron Wood Cookstove?

[Name Redacted]

Anyone have any experience with these antique cast iron cookstoves? Having just bought a house that has one, I'm trying to decide whether we will use it enough to warrant keeping it, or to remove it as takes up some space that we could install a pantry.

I've used on of these a few times at a cabin our family owns and can definitely see the use, but in our house, I just don't see us using it that much to cook on. The house already has an iron gas stove, electric baseboard, passive solar, and radiant, so heating with wood would be nice, but not necessary. We also have a gas range to cook on so thankfully we won't need it for cooking.

So does anyone else have one? I guess it'll make a nice conversation piece, and would be nice to fire up on a cold winter morning, but other than that, it's kinda in the way. This thing would be sick in a backcountry hut.

Convince me otherwise...

[XXX-er]

This thing would be sick in a backcountry hut.

there is a big wood cook stove ( someone said it was amish?) in Burnie hut where I have skied 3 times and worked once and IME you need wood so since there was none handy it has to be cut down at Burnie lake and lined in with a jet ranger, split stacked dryed in the wood shed, and brought in twice daily, there is a sled/skimmer in there now but for 8 of 10 yrs that was some very expensive fire wood

to get 11 guests out the door by 8am the cook has to get up at 5:30 am to start/stoke the fire, get breaky made, after the guests leave they take all day cooking prepping food, its more of a lifestyle just like back in the day of big families on the farm when mom cooked all day and a wood stove was the only way to cook

It is a right of passage for a new cook to ALWAYS burn a batch of something in the process of coming to terms with the stove, if I went in there right now I could cook on the stove top after a couple of hrs once the stove was up to speed BUT I couldn't just use the oven

Having said that the big wood stove keeps the lodge toasty warm besides cooking all the food, the water coil does heat up water at the same time and it is a cool piece of iron but slinging in a 100lb cylinder of propane and a stove from sears that takes up 1/2 the room might be easier/cheaper/faster ... and the cook might get out skiing more

[Rip'nStick]

I grew up with one and it came in very handy on the North Coast of California because during storms the power was always out. We cooked on it and it kept the place warms. Sounds like you don't have the same situation but wood heat is the best. You can come in soaking wet and be dry in minutes with the dry heat.

[~mikey b]

Keep it. Use it.

Or give it to me.

[Harry Tuttle]

I guess it'll make a nice conversation piece, and would be nice to fire up on a cold winter morning, but other than that, it's kinda in the way.

You've got it right there. I have one on my porch that I took out of the house to make room for something more useful.

[Hugh Conway]

do you want to cook your own wood-fired foods, or babble on the internet to dickbags about what dickbags sold you as wood fired?

[DasBlunt]

I like the process of making a fire in a stove like that. If you have kids, even more cool, they get to learn that process too.

If it really is in the way, keep it for your eventual cabin somewhere. With all the new laws for wood burning in certain areas, I imagine the demand for stoves like that has kept prices high.

[rather ripped]

The one we had was huge. Took it out, but still heat with wood - oil back-up. We just couldn't give up that much space.

We also had a gas stove with a wood stove built in. Nice in that it kept the kitchen warm during the cold mornings. It was a summer home. Wish we still had it.

[mtngirl79]

I made pizza in the one in the backcountry ranger cabin at Olympus Guard Station once.. they are really good for making pizza.

[Alaskan Rover]

I've dealt with a few different type of wood cookstoves, from small two burner-plate units to great big lumber camp/farmhouse style 4 burner-plate units like the one below.

They are a great heat source and fine for making some foods, but will burn the heck out of others unless well-tended.

I love woodstoves in general, and am nostalgic for them in the same way as steam engines, sailing ships and biplanes...but they take getting used to for cooking...as they won't heat the cook-plates nearly as efficiently as a gas range...some places will be too hot, others sections too cool. I find they tend to burn bread if you have the range type...although they're great for a slow roast if the thing banks well....not all do!

All that said....NOTHING is quite as fantastic as getting an old cookstove fired up and burning well..grease the griddle and it's eggs, Canadian bacon, and pancakes for everyone....with 'cowboy coffee' brewing on the back burner-plate. Those are some fond memories. I don't know why, maybe it was just the camaraderie, but I've never had pancakes, eggs and bacon taste quite as good as when fried up on an old 4-burner wood cookstove.

If you already have a supply of wood....use the woodstove, it's an old art that is being lost. If not, well then...it's your call.

I always feel like Lil' Abner when cookin' on a woodstove.


This be stylin'!!


--

[XXX-er]

http://www.antiquestoves.com/Pioneer...ioneermaid.htm

this is the stove at Burnie , with all the options they are 2500$, it was taken out of a house up on the high road but I think Cristof to payed < that for it

BUT lining it in by chopper cost the $$$!

[Name Redacted]

It looks sorta similar to the pic AKRover posted. The house is a log home and it kinda goes with it. I think we'll keep it for a winter and see how much we use it.