Cooking on a wood burner?

[TankGirl97]

In our house the log burner is lit every day in the winter. What with the cost of electricity rising (we don't have mains gas here), I was musing about cooking on the top of the burner. I'm thinking a stew or soup sitting there for the evening rather than jacket potatoes in the ashes.
Does anyone do this? The closest I remember a friend doing was having a kettle of water on top , she used the water for washing up so I'm guessing it didn't reach boiling point.
I've had a browse online but would love to hear real experiences.

You definitely can.
There's people live in vans that have woodstoves for cooking on.
Heavy bottom pans I'd suggest and cast iron skillet for frying.

I have done toast, fried egg, fried mushrooms on one in a holiday cabin with no hob... it was fine but slow, are you prepared to spend 30min making fried egg on toast to save 10p in electricity (considering this particular meal would take 2min of hob time)??

I don't know about a regular stove, but we have one of these

chillipenguin.co.uk/chilli_products/fat-penguin/

It does boil a kettle but takes a while and we have cooked scones, pasties and baked potatoes in the top. We had it in case of power cuts. The oven is very small but functional.

I haven't tried this, but have seen people recommend putting pennies under the pan to regulate the heat....the bigger the gap the less intense the heat to the pan is.

if you set the pennies at the points of an imaginary triangle the pan will remain very stable.

Yes. Used to live on a boat and used the wood burner to cook. Best for stews etc that can sit for 4+ hours, rather than pasta etc.

I've done this in a power cut. Always have tinned stuff just in case. It'll boil water if it's a decent size stove. I just use a normal pan for heating up beans etc. A cast iron casserole dish for something slower cooked. I wouldn't do anything greasy as I'd worry about the mess.

Oh brilliant, thanks everyone.

I agree Motherofcrocodiles, I wouldn't bother just for a quick meal - probably not worth the mess let alone the money saving!

Its just since it's lit anyway, I may as well give it a go. I'll try a slow cooked meal and report back. Might be a while, I've got to get it swept yet, before we start lighting it.

I cook outdoors a lot, I've even cooked in bonfire ashes, so in theory it should be fine....

I don’t think mine would get hot enough but I want to give it a go now. Just had a huge order of kiln dried hard wood.

@garlicandsapphires

I don’t think mine would get hot enough but I want to give it a go now. Just had a huge order of kiln dried hard wood.

Let us know how you get on! Ours is quite big so it should be fine. It's really never crossed my mind to try before, I don't know why.

Watching with interest here. Made jacket potatoes and tried to roast nuts but they burnt.

Yes, I've cooked on several kinds of wood burning stove, with and without hot plates at home, and ones made from old calor gas cylinders on a protest site. One pot meals are easiest, obviously.
I used mainly cast iron at home and any pans that were available on site.

I have an ancient gallon kettle that is always on the current stove. They've been brilliant in power cuts, and on a couple of occasions when the power was off and the water pumps froze in Scotland, were good for melting snow.