How To Recycle and Bake With a Wood-Burning Cook Stove

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The used wood burning cook stoves you find might look a little worse for wear.
The used wood burning cook stoves you find might look a little worse for wear.
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If a used stove hasn't been warped by heat or suffered other structural damage, you should be able to clean it right up and use it again.
If a used stove hasn't been warped by heat or suffered other structural damage, you should be able to clean it right up and use it again.

So you’ve finally moved to your homestead and have acquired that indispensable item which was Great-Grandmother’s pride and joy: a wood burning cook stove. Unless you grew up in a very rural area and have used such a device before, you’ll probably approach cooking on it–and especially baking–with trepidation.

Well, relax. There’s no mystery involved, only common sense. True, you won’t find any magic dial that brings the oven to exactly 375° F and keeps it there until you shut it off, but a little experimentation will get the temperature within 25° of the desired figure, and for a start that’s all you need.

If you buy a used cook stove (and you probably will, since new ones cost anywhere from $400 up) you should keep a few points in mind when you hunt.

In particular, beware of stoves with warped top surfaces. The distorted metal will leak smoke, and is often a sign that coal has been burned to produce a very hot fire. Usually this also means that the walls and grates in the firebox are damaged. (These are among the first things to go on any old stove.)

Fire walls, if not too badly damaged, can be repaired with special fire-wall cement (obtainable at your local general store). Grates are a harder problem. If you have a model made by a company that’s still in business, you can get replacements. If the manufacturer has folded, however, you may have to search until you find another old stove you can cannibalize.

  • Published on Nov 1, 1974
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