How to Cook on a Wood Stove

Written and lived by Stephanie Dayle - this is an article that I originally wrote over at the American Preppers Network published March 2013 - I have now have brought it over to my own site.

Wood stove cooking is a great self-reliant skill to learn so if the power ever goes out you can seamlessly transition to it. Wood stove cooking saves money on power, and makes some of the most wonderful home cooked meals!

Wood stove cooking is something we did when I was a kid. I grew up 15 miles outside of a small rural town, the power lines were old, pre-World War II, I was told. The power would go out during storms in the winter and during storms in the summer, sometimes for seemingly no reason at all. The longest outage I can recall was over two weeks, but it was never an 'emergency,' and life went on. This may sound backwards to some people, but to us it was normal. During these times I helped my mother cook soups, stews, casseroles, French toast and pancakes all on our wood stove.

As an adult living in a rural area, it was really important to us that we have wood heat. It's an ideal source of back-up heat and it provides an element of self-reliance that was a must for us. Since few newer homes come with wood heat anymore it was necessary to install a wood stove when we purchased our property.

I happen to prefer the performance and versatility of a standalone wood stove (see picture on left) and they are usually very easy to cook on so that is what we got, but you can cook on some insert wood stoves too (an insert wood stove is different from a fireplace, see photo on the right). My mother did all her cooking during power outages on the top of an insert wood stove; you just need a somewhat wide flat surface on top.

If you are fortunate enough to have wood stove heat, here is how you can get started cooking on your own stove.

Cookware
Start with some cast iron cookware. I recommend everyone having a couple of cast iron frying pans and at least one flat bottom dutch oven (also known as a kitchen oven - click here for an article on choosing and seasoning a dutch oven). Cast iron has a better heat tolerance and is kinder on heat distribution than other cookware, but if stainless is all you have you can cook with stainless steel frying pans and pots on your wood stove too. Another option is enamel cookware. Enamel cookware has a good heat tolerance, a great reputation for easy campfire cooking and cleaning. The only cookware I would avoid completely would be thin aluminum pans or Teflon. A trivet is a great tool to have to help regulate the cooking temperatures, however in a pinch, a stone tile can also be used for this purpose. Trivets are also used inside the Dutch oven to keep the food from baking to the bottom of the oven.

Stove
We have a two-step Englander free-standing wood stove. This gives me two different temperature surfaces. The top surface works better for slower cooking and the bottom surface works better for things that require more heat such as frying, boiling water, or cooking popcorn. It is a very large wood stove rated to heat 3200 square feet, it often drives us to open windows in the in the middle of the winter. As you can see in the picture we have outfitted the flue with a magnetic temperature gauge, now this not as handy as an oven thermometer, but it's better than nothing and requires no electricity. It tells me what the temperature on the outside of the pipe is.

The Fire

Wood stove cooking is best done on a wood stove when there is an established fire in the fire-box. When a fire is newly lit initially the stove will be too cold for cooking and then can heat up and become too hot very quickly, therefore a slower more controlled fire is usually best. To maintain a nice fire for cooking add a piece of wood or two every so often throughout the day instead of letting it burn down, and then filling the fire-box full of wood again. I have found that the ideal flue temperature for cooking is around 200-250 degrees F for our stove. Depending on the stove design and fuel being burned, each stove will be different on how it will

cook. Keep in mind the actual temperature on the inside of the flue is higher and the thermometer only reads the outside temp.

TIP: You can use a magnetic flue temperature gauge to monitor the temperature of your dutch oven - see below. Just stick it on the outside of your dutch oven and keep a close eye on it if you are wary about how hot it is getting. 

Here is an easy recipe to try on your wood stove. Other easy things you can try on a wood stove include stews, beans, pancakes, French toast, soups, and popping popcorn!

Wood Stove Dutch Oven Beef Roast (serves 4)

• I use a 5 quart flat bottom dutch oven for my wood stove slow cooking.
• 4-5lb Beef Roast (we used a chuck roast), the size of your dutch oven will dictate the size of roast you can use.
• Your favorite dry rub spices (seasoning salt, pepper, garlic powder, etc...)
• 1 TBS of olive oil
• 1 Small onion
• 2 - 3 Dashes of Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 Can of beer
• 1/2 Cup of beef stock
• 1/2 Package of bacon (or whatever is left in the fridge)

Instructions

Take a beef roast out of the freezer the day before you actually want to cook the roast and allow it to thaw. Do not thaw it in the microwave.

An hour before cooking apply the dry rub (spices) to the entire surface area of the roast, then let it rest prior to cooking. Brown the roast with a large cast iron skillet on the stove top using a tablespoon or two of rendered lard, tallow, or your favorite cooking oil. This will improve flavor and seal in the juices. Grease will splatter on your stove; this will not hurt your stove, it is not the end of the world, and may burn off later. It gives your stove character.

In the bottom of the oven place the trivet, onion, olive oil, beer, Worcestershire sauce, and beef stock.

Place the beef roast in your oven sitting in those liquids on top of the trivet. Top the roast with chunks of raw bacon. Add the Dutch oven lid and closely monitor how the roast begins to cook. If it seems a little too hot add a trivet or stone tile under the Dutch oven, if it's too cold remove the stone tile or trivet, if it is still too cold, move the oven to the lower cooking surface if you have one.

Only after all the easy options have been exhausted do you tinker with the stove, closing the dampers down to lower the temperature output and opening them up to increase the temperature output. Remember wood stoves are not instant so if you open the dampers up to increase the cooking temperature, it will take some time for the temperature to actually go up, so do it gradually.

Slow cook the beef roast on the stove for 6-8 hours. Think 'crock-pot' cooking. Occasionally rotate your Dutch oven to insure even cooking, try to avoid removing the lid too much. Using a meat thermometer check the temperature of the roast before declaring it done, it should read between 150-160 degrees F. Remove the roast and put it on a plate for serving.

Serve your wood stove beef roast with some homemade mashed potatoes, canned peas (which you can also cook on your wood stove) and maybe the rest of that beer! Enjoy! If you are wondering where you can get that cast iron tea kettle (click here), we use it as a humidifier while the stove is going during the winter.

Low Tech Jerky for Food Storage and a Recipe

A few years back, I saw this segment of “Good Eats” (a Food Channel show) on jerky.  I quickly copied his recipe and logged it in my mind.  Someone asked me a question on jerky last month that made me go searching for this video.  When I found it and watched it again, I was amazed.  They made a ‘preparedness food’ episode and didn’t even know it! I wrote and article about it on American Preppers Network and now I am bringing a version of it here to my own blog.

This will show you exactly how to make your own jerky for storage without a fancy dehydrator or smoker out of a household box fan and some furnace filters (unused of course).  It will EVEN show you how to make your own 'homemade liquid smoke'!  All you need is some spare time to give the video a look, the guy hosting (Alton Brown) is a goofball but his information is good.

For grins I tried it (of COURSE I tried it) and it turned out great.  A little on the crunchy fibrous side but good, I figure if meat is like veggies the snap factor indicates near complete dehydration – and appropriateness for longer term storage.  Alton Brown from “Good Eats” on this episode claims it will last at least 4 years in a jar.  Watch and enjoy!

Here is part one of the jerky episode.

The full episode is now only available to view online if  purchase it - $1.99 by clicking here. I am not making any money by linking to it and am highly unimpressed with Food Network's decision to charge for a 2005 educational video that up until two weeks ago was available completely for free on youtube. But if you do want to see the whole episode I wanted to provide the means. I suppose it's cheaper than a DVD.

Jerky Maranide Recipe

• 1 1/2 to 2 pounds flank steak
  2/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
  2/3 cup soy sauce
  1 tablespoon honey
  2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
  2 teaspoons onion powder
  1 teaspoon liquid smoke
  1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  Special Equipment:  1 box fan, 4 paper air-conditioning filters, and 2 bungee cords

What you will see in the second half of that Good Eats Episode is how Alton Brown dehydrates his marinated jerky using some clean furnace filters set on top of a simple box fan. Evenly distribute the strips of meat onto 3 of the air filters, laying them in the grooves and then stacking the filters on top of one another. Top these with 1 empty filter. Next, lay the box fan on its side and lay the filters on top of it. Strap the filters to the fan with 2 bungee cords. Stand the fan upright, plug in and set to medium. Allow the meat dry for 8 to 12 hours.

If you don’t want pay to watch the episode and would like more detail on this technique click here. When asked recently during a Q&A session at a public speaking engagement if the jerk recipe and technique was safe he said that it was and otherwise he would not have been allowed by his lawyers or by Food Network to produce it - but he does acknowledge it is not "USDA approved."  

At the very end of the episode he makes a jerky soup / tomato sauce, which would make the perfect food storage recipe.

Click Here for the jerky soup / tomato sauce recipe. Or watch the video below.

A word on safety:  According to the USDA, the risk in dehydrating meat without first cooking it to a safe temperature is that the appliance (the box fan) will not heat the meat to 160 °F  — the temperature at which bacteria are destroyed in beef —before it dries.  If the bacteria survives the salty acidic marinade, IF these surviving bacteria are pathogenic (BIG IF), they can cause food borne illness to those consuming the jerky.  In all fairness, many consumer model food dehydrators will only heat homemade jerky up to 130-140°F while drying, which is not technically adequate heat for killing all bacteria either.  If you want to make jerky at home, you should at least review USDAs guidelines to making homemade jerky before you begin.

Other Food Borne Illnesses Risks we Take:

• Raw eggs found in homemade ice cream (BRING IT)

• Rare steaks (The only way to fly – in my never humble opinion)

• Slightly undercooked or dare I even say pink hamburger!!!

• Raw cookie dough (Ummm….I think I ate too much cookie dough…)

• Soft chewy bacon (According to my still living Dad, the rubberier, the better)

There are also other special considerations to take when making homemade jerky from venison or other wild game.  Wild game meat is not regulated by the USDA prior to processing.  Venison can also, if not killed or handled properly (this is usually in direct proportion to the hunters skill and knowledge), be contaminated with fecal bacteria.  While fresh beef is usually rapidly chilled and/or frozen, deer carcasses are typically held at ambient temperatures (whatever the temperature is outside at the time of the kill and/or aging), potentially allowing bacteria multiplication. 

So what type of “insurance” do you require for your homemade jerky adventures?  It really is up to you.

Homemade Seasoned Tomato Sauce To The Rescue!

By Stephanie Dayle via The American Preppers Network 

Here's What You Can Do With All Those Tomatoes!

No, its not spaghetti sauce, but it is real close to spaghetti sauce! Not real chunky but very versatile in what you can do with it. One night it can be a soup stock, the other night it can be spaghetti sauce, the next you can use to to flavor your sloppy joes or meat loaf. Best of all, if you have bags and bags of tomatoes from the garden sitting in your kitchen - it will very quickly use up a ton of tomatoes! 

The recipe I used was from the Ball Blue Book . If you don't already have a copy of that inexpensive but incredibly useful book, I highly recommend picking one up. It's a hundred years worth of time proven and safe food preserving recipes. If you look at this recipe, and are put off by the fact that it is not your favorite family recipe of chunky tomatoes, peppers, and mushrooms - but merely a 'tomato sauce' there is a reason for that, bare with me. 


Anything canned in a boiling water bath canner needs to be high acid (for the science buffs, this means that it has to have a pH of 4.5 or below). This is because botulism cannot grow in high acid environments. However, tomatoes are in the grey zone of acidity, typically having a pH right around 4.5. Since they are, you need to add acid to tomatoes when you can them, so that the levels are pushed into the safe zone and the pH becomes something lower than 4.5. That’s why all good proven recipes you'll find for water bath canning tomatoes includes two tablespoons of bottled lemon juice per quart jar (you can also use citric acid, or red wine vinegar).

Which brings us to the approved homemade seasoned tomato sauce recipe that is found in the Ball Blue Book. Sound too bland and unexciting? FEAR NOT! This tomato sauce is NOT bland! Far from it. It has all the flavor one could want for an excellent pot of spaghetti. Personally I LOVE it. You would only need to add a few ingredients from your food storage to turn it into a pot of spaghetti sauce and no one could tell that this wasn't the original family recipe. Look for these tips at the bottom of the article. 

Ball Blue Book: Seasoned Tomato Sauce Recipe
Yield - 7 Quart Jars

• 45 pounds tomatoes (see, I told ya - LOTS of tomatoes but this process is so time intensive - I figure why bother doing it if you are not going to get at least 7 quarts out of it?)
• 6 cups chopped onions
• 12 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2 tablespoons oregano
• 2 tablespoons fresh chopped basil (we added this because we grow it - not part of original recipe)
• 6 piece bay leaves (I skipped these, just a taste preference).
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar (I doubled this after tasting)
• 1/4 cup salt
• 2 teaspoons crushed red pepper optional (I left it out)
• Bottled lemon juice (TIP: lemon juice is used in a lot of food preservation recipes for what you will spend on it at the grocery store - you can get two jumbo bottles of it at Costco or Cash and Carry, it also stores well and has many other uses so don't be shy buying it)

Set aside TWO days to do this.

Day 1: Gather the tomatoes from your garden and go grocery shopping for all the prep work. Wash toma­toes; drain. Remove core and blossom ends. Cut into quar­ters; set aside.Sauté onions and gar­lic in olive oil in a large stock ­pot (I used a 20 qt stainless steel, because they are an easy to clean stock ­pot ,and it was too small and had to add the smaller 12 qt — go bigger!).  Add toma­toes, oregano, basil, bay leaves, black pep­per and sugar. Stir in salt and crushed red pep­per, if desired. Sim­mer 20 min­utes, stir­ring, it may take up to an hour for your tomatoes to reach a simmering temperature (don't get impatient and crank the heat up, you'll just burn them to the bottom). Remove bay leaves.

Pureé toma­toes using a food mill. (I used an old fashioned food mill with a wooden pestle - because I like using that kind of stuff, but if you wanted to speed this process up use the Food Mill attachment on your Kitchen Aid mixer). Strain puree to remove peels and seeds (the mill I used automatically does this, but if you use your kitchen aid you can just run the results through a mesh strainer or a strainer bag that you would use for jelly). 

Day 2: Cook pulp in a large, uncovered stock pot over medium-high heat until sauce thick­ens, stir­ring to pre­vent stick­ing. Reduce vol­ume by one-half (it starts out more like tomato water than pulp, and what the book doesn't say is that it may take 8 hours to reduce it by half - if you want to make this lower maintenance USE A CROCK POT on high, it shouldn't burn if you stir it every now and then). 

Then get ready to can the sauce with a 21 QT water bath canner with jar rack, jar lifter, canning funnel, a magnetic lid lifter, and at least 7 lids and rings. 

This is a hot pack so your sauce will be boiling, your jars will be hot and the water in the canner will also be hot.  Add 1 tbsp bot­tled lemon juice to each pint jar, 2 tbsp to each quart jar. Ladle hot sauce into hot ster­il­ized jars, leav­ing 1/2" head­space. Adjust two-piece caps. Process pints 35 min­, quarts 40 min­*, in a water bath canner.

* When canning you need to increase the boiling times for high altitude. P=Pint, Q=Quart 0-1000 ft. P 35 min.; Q 40 min. 1001-3000 ft. P 40 min.; Q 45 min. 3001-6000 ft. P 45 min.; Q 50 min. over 6000 ft. P 50 min.; Q 55 min.                 

 Spaghetti Sauce From Food Storage

• Start with one quart of Seasoned Tomato Sauce
• Add one pint of drained canned hamburger or you can also go meatless
• One 14oz can of diced tomatoes will give you the chunks you want
• One small can of mushrooms will give you the mushrooms (or a handful of dehydrated ones, no additional water)
• Two teaspoons of dehydrated onion will soak up the excess moisture and rehydrate into tasty onions
• And one teaspoon of crushed red pepper or red pepper flakes will give you the pepper that you want
• Add more granulated garlic and salt and pepper to taste

Cook on a stove top on low or in a dutch oven (keeping a close eye on your heat) for 30-45 minutes. The longer you let it simmer, the more your dehydrated elements will absorb the moisture and thicken the sauce). Add to precooked noodles of any shape!

Note for the frugal: It is not cost effective to buy all the ingredients to make this. Now, if you have a garden full of tomatoes, onions, and garlic - it is very cost effective and way more healthy for you to boot. If you don't have a garden up and running yet, your best option for stocking up spaghetti sauce is picking up the canned stuff when it is on sale. I have seen the Del Monte brand as low as .68 a can, when it drops this low I buy three or more cases of it. But it is always more healthy to make things yourself and it might be good practice to make this once or twice just so you know you could if you had to. If you have made your own sauce and have some tips, please share them in the comments below. I find the experiences of others to be priceless when preserving food. With garden season wrapping up, I will have more frugal and tasty articles soon!

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Cream Potatoes and Peas

Cream Potatoes and Peas
Photo by Stephanie Dayle ©2013

The ultimate combination of potatoes, peas and cream (a white sauce). This recipe is rural living at it's best!

Cream potatoes and peas (or sometimes called Creamed Peas and Potatoes) were a staple in my family when I was growing up, as an adult I still make it occasionally every now and then, but it is not as well liked by my hubby. I am not sure what the origins of this dish are - if I had to guess though, I would say that it came out of the Great Depression. It has all of the hallmarks of something that is really inexpensive and easy to cook - and I have noticed a lot of dishes that involve a white sauce base (flour, butter, and milk) can be traced back to the Great Depression.

It's really easy to make and is best with garden fresh peas, and red potatoes (click here for a great article on how to grow your own peas).  Depending on how much you'd like to make you can tinker with the ingredients to your hearts content. Like more peas? Add more peas! Like more potatoes? Add more of those! This is also a great recipe to use on your kids to get them used to eating peas. Worked like a charm for me!

Ingredients (for Gluten Free read below)

• 1-2 Cups of Garden Fresh Peas
• 5-6 Whole Potatoes - cut into chunks (if using red potatoes, leave the skin on).

Standard White Sauce

• 1 TBS (real) Butter
• 1 TBS Flour (All purpose flour, Hard Red Whole Wheat Flour will also work if you want to stick to whole grains)
• 1 C Milk - Real milk from a cow, if you have half and half that works even better!

Instructions: 
Boil potatoes in a big stock pot, you want them done, but not falling apart. Test with a fork, the chunks of potato should stay on the fork when poked. Boil peas in water in a separate sauce pan - do not over cook them, check for tenderness. While these two are cooking, get to work on your white sauce. This is how I make a white sauce: Melt the butter in a sauce pan of med low heat. Sprinkle in the flour and cook until it just starts to brown. Add a little bit of the milk and whisk until you have a thick slurry. Add a little more milk, maintaining the thickness of the sauce. If you add too much milk it will take FOREVER for it to thicken back up again. Add some salt and pepper to the sauce to taste, then add the rest of the milk. You are shooting for a sauce that is thick - kind of like a thinner gravy.

Drain the peas and the potatoes.

Then combine all three - cook it for a few minutes and let it set up. Serve as a side dish or as a main dish. Enjoy.

Gluten Free Option (same as above - only use this White Sauce)

• 1 TBS (real) Butter
• 1-2 TBS Sorghum Flour
• 1 C Milk - Real milk from a cow, if you have half and half that works even better!

Sub in 1-2 TBS of sorghum flour for the wheat flour in the white sauce. You will notice this doesn't thicken up as nice - no problem. Do not kill yourself trying to cook it down. Add in 1-3 TSP of corn starch to the white sauce and whisk away the lumps. You will not notice a difference in taste between this gluten free white sauce and wheat flour based one. Sorghum Flour is my secrete weapon in gluten free cooking.

All the food in The Home Front General Store is clearly marked whether its gluten free or not. When you see that "Gluten Free" bullet off to the side - rest assured the product is certified gluten free and is safe for celiacs or those with an intolerance to eat. 

Can I make this with food storage? YES! And the finished product will not look or taste much different! Here's what you need:

• Rehydrate Dried Diced Potatoes and sub in those for fresh potato chunks.
• Rehydrate Dried Garden Peas  and use those in place of fresh peas.

Make the white sauce using:

• Stored Whole Wheat Flour or grind your own flour with stored Wheat Berries.
• Reconstituted Freeze Dried Milk. 
• And Butter Powder in place of fresh butter.

Photo by Stephanie Dayle ©2013

Please note: There are many recipes out there on the internet, this recipe came from my mom, she got it from my grandmother, beyond that I don't know, any similarities to other recipes are merely a coincidence.

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