question about using a wood cook stove

[Alpo]

In SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF they have a scene taking place in the kitchen. The woman is making bread, and behind her the stove is heating up. One of the round things on the top - I don't know what they're called - has been removed and flame is coming out of the hole. This allows her to accidentally back up against it and set her dress on fire.

 

Here you can see the flame behind her by the coffee pot.

 

And a closer view.

 

Now my question is, if you're firing up one of them wood stoves, do you need to take the round thing off the top? Would that be required to get enough air in for a good combustion, or is this just a bit of Hollywood business so they can have her dress catch fire?

[Texas Joker]

Not required but the covers match size to pot and fry pan bottoms.  It's a thick piece of iron and pans were iron so took a while for conduction.

 

There are air vents and dampers to control the firebox

[Warden Callaway]

Iron cooking pots and skillets use to come with a ring around the bottom. They come in sizes that relate to lid sizes of stove.  The lids of the stove are set aside and pan or skillet sets in its place. Normally,  there is no flame under the cook top.  Heat passes under the top to the flue.  Usually the fire has burned down to coals. 

 

 

We had a wood cook stove when I was very small.  Grandma had one all her life, as I remember.   We got a small cook stove and used it in the winter to cook and add heat to the house.  I'd get up early and build a fire. Go back to bed. About a half hour later make biscuits and put in the oven. Then make sausage gravy.  Or fry bacon and eggs.  I'd have to rotate the biscuit pan 180 about half way through baking cycle to get even done. Oven was hotter on firebox side. 

[Pat Riot]

Thanks @Warden Callaway you taught me something today. 

 

I didn’t know about those rings on the bottom of the cast iron skillets and pots. 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Those round holes where you remove the steel /iron plates might be called eyes in some communities.  I saw that referenced a few places.

 

we used such a stove for a couple years. My mother never removed any plates to cook but I’d never accuse her of knowing how to cook anyway.

[Equanimous Phil]

Not sure, if it's what Warden Callaway already described, but the pictures below show the common design in Europe. You can remove each ring separately from the stove to adapt to the size of your conical pots and adjust how deep the pot is in the fire. And yes, when removing the lid the flames flare out of the stove. Alternatively, you can leave the lid and use every pot or pan you like. Usually, there is a container where's always hot water (like on the last picture).

I used such fire stoves a couple of times in mountain cottages. 

 

 

[Sedalia Dave]

47 minutes ago, Equanimous Phil said:

Not sure, if it's what Warden Callaway already described, but the pictures below show the common design in Europe. You can remove each ring separately from the stove to adapt to the size of your conical pots and adjust how deep the pot is in the fire. And yes, when removing the lid the flames flare out of the stove. Alternatively, you can leave the lid and use every pot or pan you like. Usually, there is a container where's always hot water (like on the last picture).

I used such fire stoves a couple of times in mountain cottages. 

 

 

 

Thanks

 

That is a really nice stove.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

10 hours ago, Equanimous Phil said:

Not sure, if it's what Warden Callaway already described, but the pictures below show the common design in Europe. You can remove each ring separately from the stove to adapt to the size of your conical pots and adjust how deep the pot is in the fire. And yes, when removing the lid the flames flare out of the stove. Alternatively, you can leave the lid and use every pot or pan you like. Usually, there is a container where's always hot water (like on the last picture).

I used such fire stoves a couple of times in mountain cottages. 

 

 

The stoves that I remember always had detents in the rings so that one could lift them out with a handle like here

 

 

[Sedalia Dave]

Finding & Using the Perfect Wood Burning Cook Stove

 

 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Another thing I remember is chimney fire.

[Sedalia Dave]

13 Tips to Keep a Wood Cook Stove Functioning at Peak Efficiency

[Sedalia Dave]

The Anatomy of the Hower House Museum’s Cast Iron Stove

 

[Sedalia Dave]

 

 

 

 

 

[Crooked River Pete, SASS 43485]

2 hours ago, Sedalia Dave said:

The Anatomy of the Hower House Museum’s Cast Iron Stove

 

2 interesting things about this. 1 stove is in and was made in Akron, Ohio where I live, 2 I have an almost identical stove at my cabin in Michigan. What you don't see is that there is usually a center piece between the 2 plates that comes out also. When you start a fire you remove all 3 pieces and that gives you access to the whole fire box. Put in some paper then kindling add match replace plates, some times you had to remove them again to add hard wood.

[Stump Water]

23 hours ago, Crooked River Pete, SASS 43485 said:

What you don't see is that there is usually a center piece between the 2 plates that comes out also. When you start a fire you remove all 3 pieces and that gives you access to the whole fire box. Put in some paper then kindling add match replace plates, some times you had to remove them again to add hard wood.

 

Exactly.  Until you got 'er goin' good you top load.

 

[Stump Water]

On 4/9/2024 at 8:39 AM, Sedalia Dave said:

 

 

That bit about closing the dampers to "hold a fire overnight" is a stretch.  Been around my share of old wood cook stoves and the thing they all had in common was you had to feed them constantly because the firebox was so small.  You couldn't get one to "hold a fire" for 3-4 hours much less overnight.

 

Modern wood cook stoves are a completely different animal.

[Bailey Creek,5759]

Had a Great Aunt that cooked on a wood stove.

She made the best pies.

[Crooked River Pete, SASS 43485]

2 hours ago, Bailey Creek,5759 said:

Had a Great Aunt that cooked on a wood stove.

She made the best pies.

Apples and blue berries were often in season when we went up. Mom made a lot of pies, and if dad caught a big enough lake trout she'd stuff it and bake it, good eating! The best time was early in the morning I'd hear those plates clanging, know dad was up, pretty soon I'd smell the coffee, than hear and smell the bacon than the eggs, had to get up no way to stay in bed with all that going on. Good God I had a charmed child hood.

[Alpo]

Stuff a trout? Like you would stuff a turkey? Cornbread and sage and celery and chestnuts and stuff like that?

[Warden Callaway]

4 hours ago, Bailey Creek,5759 said:

Had a Great Aunt that cooked on a wood stove.

She made the best pies.

Bet she used real lard in the pie crust. It makes a difference. 

[Crooked River Pete, SASS 43485]

5 hours ago, Alpo said:

Stuff a trout? Like you would stuff a turkey? Cornbread and sage and celery and chestnuts and stuff like that?

Yes.

 

3 hours ago, Warden Callaway said:

Bet she used real lard in the pie crust. It makes a difference. 

My mom did.

[watab kid]

ill admit we did not have wa wood stove as the main cooking surface as a kid nor did my grandparents ,  but we had a secondary wood stove in the basement that was used for heat and as a backup kitchen area when the family came for events , the cast iron surface was all hot - it was very hot , not one of my cousins ventured near it , thankfully - no one got burned , but a lot of great food came from it , and popcorn got made late in the day 

[Warden Callaway]

We have a Vermont Casting wood stove in our great room that provides our main heat. It could double for cooking but we haven't used it for that.  Only heated water on it. And barrels to brown.

 

[Alpo]

On 4/8/2024 at 7:46 PM, Pat Riot said:

Thanks @Warden Callaway you taught me something today. 

 

I didn’t know about those rings on the bottom of the cast iron skillets and pots. 

You and me both Pat.

 

I've got three iron skillets - an 8 inch, a 10 inch, and a 12 inch. And I just went and looked. All three of them have a ring around the bottom. I knew the two big ones did but I wasn't sure about the little one. But it's there.

 

Never knew why before.  Thought maybe it was like those guys guarding the bench. Tradition. BUT WE'VE ALWAYS MADE THEM THAT WAY.

[Warden Callaway]

This video is long and continues more info than you ever wanted to know about skillets.  But about 1940 they stopped putting the ring around the bottom.  One way of guessing the skillet's age. The skillet I'm using doesn't have a ring.

 

[Bailey Creek,5759]

Yes she did.

She lived in Arkansas. She also had coon skins for rugs.

Lived into her 90's.

[Jabez Cowboy,SASS # 50129]

Cooked over a wood stove many a time... And in line -shacks it was also the only source of heat...

 

Jabez Cowboy