Saturday 29 September 2012

Cooking with Fire

Now we're cooking with fire. There is something primal about preparing your food over an open flame. The wood cook stove is the somewhat modern equivalent of an open fire for cooking in your house. The previous owners of the Little Blue House said that they used the cook stove up until their last stay in the house, over 3 years ago.

As I've said in a previous post, these stoves were manufactured in the late 1800s by the Tinnerman Steel Range Company in Cleveland, Ohio. Check out the turn-of-the-century advertisement for the range below:



Our cook stove needed a new gasket, and a good cleaning. Also, the chimney was topped with - you guessed it - a bucket. I got a conical hat for the chimney, to replace the bucket. My dad and I got up there on the roof and installed it atop the chimney. The chimney itself looks to be in really good shape, as it was replaced about 7 years ago with a modern double-walled version.

A Conical Hat for our Chimney

Once we fixed the chimney, I replaced the gasket on the cook stove. See? I cleaned the stove and we lit her up! It was amazing how warm the little house became; my mum was really happy about that. She actually ditched her hat, gloves and puffy vest for a while.

New Gasket on Antique Cook Stove

I cooked part of our dinner that night on this cook stove, which was built in the late 1800s. It needs a little more work, but it is functional. Of the 6 burners atop the stove, 3 are cracked. I imagine that if I look around, I could find new ones to replace those that are broken.

Cooking with Fire

My initial experience with the cook stove was positive, and the next step will be cooking Thanksgiving dinner! I don't know about roasting the turkey in there, but I am definitely going to bake a pumpkin pie. Perhaps I will cook the potatoes and other veggies on the ancient stove, too. I will let you know how that goes. At least we will be warm!

1 comment:

  1. I have a wood cookstove and I cook on it and yes your turkey will turn out just beautiful I loved your stove mine is a plain one because it’s new well it’s probably 10 years old by now but it’s more of the newer ones but it works really nice and I love it and once you get used to yours he will love it to thank you for posting all those things I love the house I love it

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