Cooking on a wood stove requires a touch of persistence from the start. However, the tasty results make the learning procedure well justified, despite all the trouble. Having a wood stove will permit you to warm your home and prepare food even when there is a power outage. The process is somewhat unique compared to a gas or electric oven, however, it isn’t as difficult as some would have you assume. Present-day wood stoves are anything but difficult to get hot, and exceptionally proficient with their fuel.
Here are some woodstove cooking tips if you’re going to be handling one for the first time:
Create a decent fire
About an hour before utilizing it for cooking, get your wood stove fire hot. Start with a lot of old newspapers, and a few extremely dry sticks stacked atop one small firewood.
Make sure to use dry seasoned wood
In general, hardwoods burn for a long time at high temperatures, but they are difficult to set on fire in the first place. On the other hand, softwoods don’t burn hot but can be set ablaze quickly. As such, it is ideal to utilize a blend of the two, softwoods to get the fire ready for action and hardwoods to get it suitably hot for cooking.
Free the air inlets
Open up the air inlets of your wood stove entirely to make sure the fire burns brightly. Also, clear out excess ash from the ashtray and keep the damper open towards the chimney, so that the heat circulating the oven is ejected out effectively.
Run it for some time
When you have a decent fire going in your wood stove, run it for at least thirty minutes or so with the damper sending the warmth around the broiler. When it is at the temperature you are targeting for, turn your air dampers directly down and replenish fuel when you need to.
Permit time
When cooking on the woodstove, permit 30 to 50 percent extra time for food preparation. If it takes half an hour to cook using an electric oven, it might take 45 minutes on the woodstove depending on the temperature at which the stove is running.
Watch the temperature
When you have something in the broiler of the woodstove, re-check the temperature after every 15-20 minutes. On the off chance that it is dropping, stir the fire, and if it is climbing you can turn the damper to send the warmth up the chimney for some time.
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