Woodburners, how to make the most out of one.

[ChestnutsRoastingonaWitchesTit]

We hactually roasted chestnuts on a shovel in the embers last night!

Of course it kicks out a lovely friendly heat, better than a radiator.

We haven't had the central heating on at all for the past three days.

What else can we do with our lovely stove?

[XiaoxiongMerrilyOnHigh]

My mum has a metal bowl of water that sits on top of the woodburner - helps humidify the air and she puts nice smelling stuff in like orange and lemon peel, cinnamon sticks or vanilla pods.

You can dry out lemon halves on top too and then use as firelighters - that smells lovely.

You know about the wet paper towel trick to clean the black stuff off the glass right? Revolutionised our lives, I tell you.

[FishfingersAreOK]

Wet paper towel trick? Please share..

[DaisyBD]

Paper towel, white vinegar and wood ash is absolutely brilliant at getting the glass clean.

[XiaoxiongMerrilyOnHigh]

Wet a paper towel, dip it in the ashes in your burner (we use smokeless fuel so that works as well as wood ash) and rub onto the glass. Black stuff comes away like magic - I didn't believe it would work until I tried it myself!!

I've never used white vinegar but I'm sure that helps getting the glass truly sparkly.

[ChestnutsRoastingonaWitchesTit]

Ooh thanks for the tips. It's the best Xmas present I've had!

[chimchar]

DH knew about the ash cleaning the window trick..have no idea where he learned that!

has anyone cooked jacket potatoes in theirs? how did you do it?

love our new burner...also looking for things to do with it!!

[Pudden]

get yourself a cast iron pot- Aldi do good Le Creuset type ( on this sunday), Spuds cook wonderfully in them with crisp skins. Soups/stews also good. I cook poached eggs on it and dropped scones are fantastic cooked on a skillet or heavy bottom pan

Also get yerself a kettle- ours is an aga one. We originally had a Le Creuset one but the whistle on it was feeble so we swapped it

[Pudden]

pic of much loved kettle in my profile pic

[chimchar]

Thanks pud.

Stupid question...do you put the pot IN the fire bit of the stove, or ON top of the stove? And how long do you cook them for?

Your kettle looks lovely, as does the whole stove!

I'm fancying a little enamel bucket that I've seen with 'kindling' painted on the side.

I'm easily pleased!

[CaliforniaSucksSnowballs]

We cooked on ours when we had a power outage years ago, I used our old solid bottom pans, boiled water for tea, heated up the beans and made the toast. Perfect. Now I have a gas cooker so no need, but I'd like to put a kettle on top, constant hot water for tea or instant hot chocolate.

[Pudden]

sorry Chimchar- just seen your reply. I cook spuds etc on top of the stove- usually takes about an hour and they smell great when cooking

[PotteringAlong]

Love this thread! We had our fire fitted thus week - we can use it from Sunday and I am very excited!

[Pudden]

they are endless sources of conversation! I love ours like a third child :o) We had three flatbed loads of timber delivered wednesday after dh collared a tree surgeon we saw working in the village. You do NOT need go to a gym when you have wood delivered this way

[MmeLindor]

Do you need a certain type to cook/heat water on, or can you do it on all of them?

We are looking to get one this year, if we can afford it, and I never thought of that.

[bureni]

put a few bits of old copper wire in with the wood to get that nice blue and green flame effect.

[Pudden]

MmeLindor as long as the top gets hot enough then you can cook on it. I imagine the cast iron ones having the edge on steel ones as they retain the heat for much longer. Ours is a cast iron Morsø Panther and I am just about to make some dropped scones on it. ( I just use a ordinary frying pan)

[MissBeehivingUnderTheMistletoe]

I have a toasting fork for, er toast and marshmallows on ours but used one of [[http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/140864469767?var=lv

[Pudden]

I use a cooling tray on top of ours to make toast!

[MmeLindor]

oh, thanks all. Will come back to this thread if we ever get one.

[mrsmandm]

Don't leave the chestnuts for too long - burnt ours!

[emsyj]

We put a whistling kettle on ours to save electric - and DH uses it when doing a Sunday roast to keep the roasties warm whilst doing the Yorkshires in the oven.

[HeavenlyAmy]

Pudden, I love your hearth - is it sandstone? Your fireplace is a very similar style to mine although we were told we had to have angle irons fitted to stop the walls becoming damaged due to heat. What temperature does yours get to , to enable cooking spuds? Ours only ever gets up to about 20 and it takes ages to get to that!

[HeavenlyAmy]

oh, another question, is your shelf within a groove cut into the chimney breast?

[Pudden]

HeavenlyAmy hearth is sandstone and nice and easy to sweep/clean. I have no idea how hot the temp gets to as I don't have a thermometer but I cook spuds in a cast iron pot which acts like a little oven. They smell lovely when cooking as well and you get proper crispy skins

Shelf is floating and if I could go back in time I would have it the other way round and cut into the wall and then plastered in as its moved away from the wall about a cm. I think when it gets warmer (!) and we don't need the fire on I'll get our fitter back to do just that.

Which reminds me...I had a very erotic dream about our hetas fitter last night- could hardly look my dh in the eye this morning

[HeavenlyAmy]

Ooh you dirty mare. I get old blokes normally so don't have that problem.

I love the sandstone. Might change what we've got if I have a sudden windfall!