How can you make an oven on top of a wood burning stove?

-- Wanda Starks (wstarksatp@aol.com), December 16, 1999

Answers

The Coleman Co. makes them for their camp stoves. I read about them on the MrsSurvival forum and found them on the net. I ordered one but haven't used it yet. There is some information for using them on that forum. The Coleman Co. had an 800 number so I called to order and was told that they work on woodstoves, gas ranges and camp stoves. They aren't very expensive. If you need more info let me know.

-- Peggy Carr (wclpc@cookeville.com), December 17, 1999.

I have use a well seasoned (greased) cast iron Dutch Oven, which is a large pot with a lid to fit. It has short "feet" on the bottom which keeps it raised above the stove's surface. Grease the inside well, then lay your biscuits inside with sides touching till the inside bottom is covered in biscuits. Place lid on top. Stove should have only hot coals to bake evenly. About 25 mins later, you'll have baked bread. Pass the butter and honey!

This process can also be done in the camp fire outside. Wait till generous fire has burned down to a bed of glowing coals. Prepare Dutch oven same as above & put lid on. Rake coals out to a level, even bed; set dutch oven on them. Shovel hot coals onto the lid of the dutch oven, which has a raised "lip" around the outside edge of the lid to keep the coals from rolling off. This will bake great peach cobbler or about anything. Pass the cream!

-- Eve (gen3eve@aol.com), December 17, 1999.

Sorry I didn't correct the email address on first post. I have use a well seasoned (greased) cast iron Dutch Oven, which is a large pot with a lid to fit. It has short "feet" on the bottom which keeps it raised above the stove's surface. Grease the inside well, then lay your biscuits inside with sides touching till the inside bottom is covered in biscuits. Place lid on top. Stove should have only hot coals to bake evenly. About 25 mins later, you'll have baked bread. Pass the butter and honey!

This process can also be done in the camp fire outside. Wait till generous fire has burned down to a bed of glowing coals. Prepare Dutch oven same as above & put lid on. Rake coals out to a level, even bed; set dutch oven on them. Shovel hot coals onto the lid of the dutch oven, which has a raised "lip" around the outside edge of the lid to keep the coals from rolling off. This will bake great peach cobbler or about anything. Pass the cream!

-- Eve (gen2eve@aol.com), December 17, 1999.

In a pinch, you can use darn near any cooking vessel with a lid to hold in heat. If you don't have a dutch oven, you can use a roaster like the kind you roast a turkey in. Even a large metal saucepan will work. You'll probably have to experiment a bit, as each cooking vessel will have it's own temperment as far as how fast it heats, how hot it gets and how well it holds the heat. You can experiment by making a small batch of biscuits, cook one or two in your make shift oven, see how they do, try again as needed using different positions on the stove and different cooking vessels.

Hope this helps, Kim KountryLife.com

-- KP (kountry@kountrylife.com), December 17, 1999.

You might also scout antique shops for "camp" ovens." I located one for $14. I haven't purchased it yet, still deciding if I would bake with it if I had it.

-- greenbeanman (greenbeanman@ourtownusa.net), December 17, 1999.

I have a friend who is a recluse, has a mining claim way back in the mountains, I take supplies in to him now and then. He has an oil drum stove and uses an old metal bread box for an oven to make his biscuts and such.

-- Bob Henderson (redgate@echoweb.net), December 18, 1999.

Virtually anything that'll hold heat in long enough to bake something can be used as an oven.

Your first question to answer, though, is how hot does your stovetop get? I've seen some that you could just set an oven on top and bake but I've seen many more that wouldn't get the stove top hot enough to boil water. Put an oven thermometer on the stove and see what you get.

If you can get 300 degrees Fahrenheit or better you're in business.

Pretty much any metal container that can be closed enough to prevent air circulation will work. The Coleman camp ovens are just folding metal boxes with doors and an oven thermometer set into the side. If you don't want to buy one you can fabricate something fairly easily. If you're going to just use it at home it needn't be foldable.

As another poster suggested a Dutch Oven will work fine as well. For stove top use I'd get the kind without the feet. I generally put the bread in a pan and set the pan in the Dutch Oven to bake. I get more even heating and it's easier to get the bread back out.

If you don't have a Dutch Oven pretty much any large pot will work. It should be heavy bottomed and have a snug lid.

You might want to take a look the this Scouting site. Their food and cooking section has a lot of good info in it for this kind of thing.

http://www.macscouter.com

.........Alan.

The Prudent Food Storage FAQ, v3.5

http://www.providenceco-op.com

-- A.T. Hagan (athagan@sprintmail.com), December 20, 1999.

I read on another site of a lady successfully baking in her fireplace with a large, overturned stainless steel bowl.. If you have one of these bowls (good for all kinds of stuff), I would try on your stove top. Perhaps set you pan of food on several bricks, to provide a bit of heat flow. I have a stove top oven that I rescued from my folk's barn sale. You might check out flea markets and antique stores; occassionally I find them at very reasonable prices. Make sure the door closes fairly snugly, and use an oven thermometer (they have them in the kitchen goods section of Walmart). The best banana bread that I have ever eaten was baked in one of these old oven over an OPEN fire at the Old Northwest Primitive Rendevous several years. It won first place in the cooking contest, too!

-- Leann Banta (thelionandlamb@hotmail.com), December 22, 1999.

We used to heat with wood heat and I loved trying to use the stove for as many things as possible. I am not blessed with alot of castiron cookware, so I used an aluminum roaster pan - the cheap ones you get for about $2.00. I placed 2-3 canning rings (or as many as you need to keep your pans stable) on top of the stove and placed my cake pans on top of these. I then covered the whole thing with the aluminum pan. I think the secret is to have the stove nice and hot before you start and try to keep the kids from running through the house - which can cause too much vibration and a fallen cake. My cakes actually raised higher than if in the oven and averaged only 5 minutes longer baking time. I hope to return to this type of heat soon. There is much gratification in making a cake this way. Good luck.

-- Diana Burns (burns4@zoomnet.net), January 08, 2000.

i have had a coleman folding oven for about 25 years i originally got it for my camp stove, but found that it worked great on my wood stove, both the elgin cookstove and my kodiak heating stove. it just needs a flat surface to sit on and a good hot fire. mine has a temperature guage on the front that is really close to being correct but just for safety sake i use a hanging guage inside the oven. of all the things i gave up when we moved to mo. my coleman oven wasn't one of them, and with any luck we will very soon get back to country living and i will put my oven back to work.

to all of you who are self-sufficent i envy you and can't wait until i can rejoin your ranks.

sally mallardhen67@hotmail.com

-- sally stanton (mallardhen67@hotmail.com), February 17, 2000.

Hi Wanda,

I saw somewhere that you could use a metal (no paint on it) mail box on top of the woodstove. I have not tried this, but it might work. You can put a temperature gauge in one and see if it heats enough. I have seen some fairly large ones, that you could put some jar rings inside to hold a pan off the direct heat. If you try this let me know it it works.

Smiles :>)

Beth (NC)

-- Beth (NC) (craig@icu2.net), February 17, 2000.

I know this is late but maybe still useful. If you check out the "Little House on the Prairie" books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I have been re-reading them just for the recipes and ideas. They describe the oven Ma used on top of the woodstove. But be careful! It is habit-forming. I got so many neat cooking ideas it was unbearable for my family as I keep trying to duplicate them.

-- Susie*Ks (goodartfarm@msn.com), April 28, 2000.