by Mark Zeiger

Created on: November 25, 2008   Last Updated: January 18, 2012

Cooking on a woodstove isn't difficult. Here are a few key tips that will hopefully improve your experience, especially if you don't have a real wood-fired cook stove. You can cook on the top of your wood stove if it has a flat surface large enough for a pot or skillet that heats directly from the stove. Virtually all wood stoves have a surface at least large enough to heat a kettle. If your stove doesn't, you can still use it as an oven.

Let's start with firewood, the key to your success. Use the driest wood you've got. If you know what kind of wood you have in your woodpile, that's a distinct advantage. Hopefully, through use, you'll have an idea of the burning qualities of each wood. It's likely there will be at least some soft wood (pines or coniferous) and hard wood (deciduous). By feel (sticky) and smell (piney) you can tell if some of the woods are more resinous than others. Generally, hard woods burn longer and cleaner; soft woods, especially the more resinous kinds, burn faster and hotter.

Cut your fuel small for wood cooking. Sticks of 3 inches or less in diameter make a brisk, hot fire. If you've been burning your stove for warmth before cooking, add smaller sticks on top of coals or larger warming chunks to boost the heat to cooking temperature.

Before you begin cooking, check your cookbooks. Even if you've been cooking for years, and know the temperatures needed to cook on a conventional stove, take time to review this information. Chances are you've developed a habit of cooking hotter than necessary, or even proper! You may not need as much heat as you thought. If that's true, you can cook on your wood stove sooner, in less time, expending less fuel and effort. Such conservation pays off over time. The hardest part of wood stove cooking is probably getting it hot enough, and then maintaining a uniform temperature. Stove thermometers help, but the best way to deal with this is to take a Zen approach. Forget gauging degrees. After all, most conventional stoves and ovens fluctuate in temperature above and below the marked setting.

Wood stove cooking essentially eliminates controls that point to a desired temperature. Dismiss knobs, thermometers and other gadgets, and trust your own senses. Use your sense of touch: focus on the feel of the heat. If you put your hand flat over the cooking surface, and find it's too hot to hold it there more than three seconds, it should be hot enough to cook.

Use your eyes: watch for heat rippling on the cooking surface.

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