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Camping indoors is such fun!!!!
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Posted by elisamcs (My Page) on Mon, Feb 8, 10 at 19:29
| We live in suburban DC, and got hit by a massive snowstorm (with another 10 - 20 inches due tomorrow). We were without power since about 8 PM Friday evening and it just came back on about an hour ago. All in all, we didn't suffer much. We have a little generator, so that kept the fridge and the freezer going, and we have a wood stove that allows me to do some cooking on its flat surface. My question is how does one bake on this thing? Is it even possible? Our stove kinda looks like an oil can on its side with a bi-level flat surface on top. That's where I put my cast iron frying pan, the tea kettle, etc. The door to load the wood is on the side, and the temperature is minimally controlled by some dampers. Any ideas would be appreciated. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Camping indoors is such fun!!!!
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| You might be able to get a heavy Dutch oven to bake stuff on top sort of crudely. Or throw it into the fire and cook like a boyscout. |
RE: Camping indoors is such fun!!!!
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| I can bake anything in a cast iron dutch oven that I can bake in my regular oven, from chocolate chip cookies to apple pie. HOWEVER, those things require heat on the top of the lid as well as heat under the dutch oven. So, if you want to pile coals on top of the dutch oven, you can bake cinnamon rolls for breakfast. If not, I think you are stuck with stove top type dishes. Thank goodness you have a woodstove! Annie |
RE: Camping indoors is such fun!!!!
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| I have a girlfriend who once made country bisquits on top of the camp fire in just a cast iron skillet. You just have to turn them part way thru. As I remember it, (it's been about 10 years since I saw her do it!) she didn't cover the pan, either. Otherwise, I don't know of anything you could bake without doing as Annie said, putting hot coals on top of the lid. Someplace I have a chart telling how many hot coals on top make what temp with the bottom sitting in coals, but don't ask me where it is! I am glad you managed so well while the power was out. I hope you don't have to do it all over again in the next few days! Tami |
RE: Camping indoors is such fun!!!!
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| The Power was out here last year for 12 hours. The last thing I would be worried about is baking.
You have enough to do,just trying to keep warm and basics. When I hear of bad weather coming, I fill Pots with water and the gas tank in the Auto. I ran down to the Lake and brought back 5 Gallon buckets of water for flushing the Camode. Brought out the kerosene lamps, flash lights and candles. Put ice from the back deck in bags and packed the freezer. Gas heater on the wall and Gas Logs gave enough heat. I have bags of heat from a Camping Supply for heating canned foods, if needed. Put the Barbecue in the front Mud Room and opened the windows for cooking. I bought a Generator after that Ice Storm.
We haven't lost Power since.
Lou |
RE: Camping indoors is such fun!!!!
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| I've had biscuits cooked in a dutch oven. They were great. I didn't bake them, but if I remember correctly they were put in a cake pan and then into the hot dutch oven and covered with the lid. Sounds like you and your family made the best of a bad situation. Ann |
RE: Camping indoors is such fun!!!!
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I, too, have a flat top woodstove and I really don't want to put my dutch oven inside (it's pretty small in there).
It works nicely on top though (flat bottom style). So, things to make on top of the stove.
Tortillas
Pancakes (sweet or savory)
Fry bread
Potato patties (hashbrowns, latkes, etc.)
English muffins
Soup with dumplings Like Lou said, baking is the last thing I'm usually worried about, but if I were without power for an extended time, I'd be looking for entertainment...food entertainment!!! Way to prevent power outages, Lou!!! Buy a generator!
I know the feeling... we actually have a box wired into the house so I can run 4 110 circuits AND my hot water heater. We wired the water pump so we can wheel the generator out there and fill the pressure tank to have running water in the house....d'ya think we've needed it much? Nope!
Generator = Prevention! Deanna |
RE: Camping indoors is such fun!!!!
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| speaking of camping, are you familiar with that "thingy" that you can put directly over the coals that will make just about anything between two pieces of bread...such as fruit pies, eggs, for example. two long handles each connected to a concave disc and hinged at the end (a lame description, but we called them toasttites)the little fruit pies are delicious with some sugar and cinnamon...butter the bread on the outside before you close the handles...bz |
RE: Camping indoors is such fun!!!!
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| beezee, we call that a "hobo pie maker", available at all the camping supply places and my local True Value Hardware for somewhere around $10. My kids loved to put English muffins in one with pizza sauce and cheese, or make grilled ham and cheese. They also put pieces of cinnamon bread in them and filled with apple pie filling. That would probably work in the wood stove too. Annie |
RE: Camping indoors is such fun!!!!
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| My sister makes skillet fried biscuits - OMG they are good! I think her recipe is more like a dropped biscuit recipe and they are fried in several TBs of butter, turned over when brown on the under side. They don't rise a lot, but they're thick enough that you can split them and spread with butter and jam. |
RE: Camping indoors is such fun!!!!
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| We make bannock on a griddle when I don't feel like rolling out biscuits. Griddle bread is an old peasant staple dating back to the days when only the rich folks owned ovens. |
RE: Camping indoors is such fun!!!!
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| annie, all the kids had their own pie maker and would have cooking contests to see who made the best recipe but no one ever came up with the cinnamon bread apple filling combo..bet that would have won..they are all grown now but still use it on occassion and i will forward your "recipe" to them...thanks..bz |
RE: Camping indoors is such fun!!!!
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| I've had a lot of experience with woodstove cooking and dutch oven cooking and open fire cooking. Mastering baking with these techniques is really quite the art form. A lof of it is about managing the fire, you want certain kinds of fires for certain kinds of heat and certain kinds of woods too. For baking you want a lot of big, hot coals so you want hardwoods, but not too hard. Oak is good, so are ash and hickory. Elm is supposed to be the best but elm is hard to come by these days. And your logs need to be just the right size--not too big, not too small. With a stove like yours, you will have to either "bake" things by frying, like pancakes, english muffins (called "crumpets" over there), waffles, johnnycakes, etc. Also fried in oil dough things, like fry bread (yum) donuts, fried pies, hush puppies. Then there would be the dutch oven. I'm not sure about the size of your firebox for that, it would have to be big enough to collect a large pile of coals which you would pile all around and over the dutch oven. So you'd basically have to load up the stove like gangbusters with hardwoods, get a mass of coals, and then use them around the dutch oven. Might be hard to finagle in and out of your stove. Good tools are essential, you'll need a long hangled shovel to scoop the coals, a wood poker, one if those tong things to move logs, and something with a hook on it to move the dutch oven. There are even hoe like things for pushing coals around. And get some really good fireproof gloves and such. Frankly, when I camp cook I stick to pan fried, deep fried or even boiled doughs (like slump and dumplings). Baked stuff cooks up FAST in an oven too, unless you use a lot of warm, not hot coals, but to do that then you have to have another section of the fire going somewhere to create the coals that you then keep shifting over to the oven, because the warm coals cool off. This is where the term "Slaving over a hot stove" got started, lol! But it can be done. I've made edible biscuits and cinnamon rolls in a dutch oven. It is great for pies. I have never done yeast breads though. If I was going there, I would start with pizza dough. |
RE: Camping indoors is such fun!!!!
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| As Lpink pointed out, a lot of things can be fried with a wood stove, including hoe cakes, tortillas, donuts, fry bread, pancakes. I've made cinnamon rolls for breakfast in a dutch oven while camping. You have to occasionally turn the dutch oven and/or the lid to the dutch oven to keep the heat evenly distributed, it's easier with charcoal "coals" than with wood coals because I can count them and they're consistent, but it works with wood coals too. It takes practice, though, so if it's just in the interim until your power comes on, I wouldn't bother. I've also baked pie in a dutch oven and found that apples have to be finely chopped or grated or the crust is burned way before the raw apples are cooked. There is definitely a learning curve when baking in a dutch oven, I'd go with the donuts instead! Annie |
RE: Camping indoors is such fun!!!!
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| Come to think of it I think that pie I made was either a pandowdy pie (with no bottom crust) or I started with a can of apple pie filling. Can't quite remember, it's a 20+ year old memory. I think it was pandowdy. Cobbler is good in a dutch oven too, and you can make escalloped apples and then steam dumplings on top which is apple slump, which is yum too! And yes, as I was writing this I though, this is a heck of a lot eadier with charcoal or coal, which gives off a more even heat. Wood heats up fast, but cools down fast too, although the ashes can stay "warm" for hours, so they are good for slow cooking things like beanpots and pot roasts. |
RE: Camping indoors is such fun!!!!
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Thank you, everyone, for all your suggestions. I've been mastering the art of frying pan/griddle cooking and it hasn't been too bad. I never heard of fried biscuits, but they sure soung yummy, and I'm more than wiling to try them.
I have the LC Dutch oven, but not with the lid that acccepts coals, so I'll skip that idea.
It's snowing again - another 10-20 inches expected. And I'm trying to get outta her to go to Fl tomorrow to see my parents!!! I guess this is what they mean when they say life is what you get while you're busy making other plans. |
RE: Camping indoors is such fun!!!!
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| That dutch oven as is would be good for deep frying. Here's my favorite fry bread recipe: Fry Bread - from "American Indian Food and Lore" by Carolyn Niethammer
Yield: 12-14 bread puffs 4 cups flour (can use some whole wheat)
1 TBLSP baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 TBLSP sugar
1 1/2 tsp. cooking oil
water Mix the dlour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Add oil and enough water to make a soft dough. Knead with floured hand until the dough has some spring. Shape into balls about 3 inches in diameter. Pat each ball into a flat cake and keep patting and stretching the dough into a thin sheet, 10-12 inches in diameter (I actually do somewhat smaller globs, say maybe 8 inches tops. 10 is too much for clumsy me to handle) This takes some practice, and I am a very impatient person when it comes to shaping doughs! Fry each round of dough in a very hot fat, turning once, until puffy and golden. I haven't made these in a long time but I think I used corn oil to fry, but nowdays I would use soy or peanut oil. These must be served warm with honey!! Can add a pinch of cinnamon to the dough if you like. |
RE: Camping indoors is such fun!!!!
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| I agree, L, the fry bread is best served warm, with honey or else sprinkled with cinnamon/sugar when they are hot and fresh out of the oil so it sticks. However, I've been known to use the fry bread to make "Navajo tacos" which is just taco filling inside fry bread instead of tortillas. And that's why I don't make them, I just like them way too much. It's funny that you said you are too impatient with dough, because I am too. I'll fiddle with something for a certain amount of time then it either gets cooked the way it is or it becomes chicken food if I'm totally disgusted! Annie |
RE: Camping indoors is such fun!!!!
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| Dutch ovens made for baking in a wood fire have three short legs to lift the pot, allowing coals underneath, and a rim around the lid to hold a heap of coals on top. As L. says, you need tools for manipulating the coals. Jim |
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