Cooking With Wood: Winter Recipes for the Woodstove

By Deborah Dunn
Published on January 1, 1984
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PHOTO: MOTHER EARTH NEWS STAFF
Three different and delicious woodstove recipes.

Over the past several winters, I’ve come up with quite a number of homegrown recipes designed especially for cooking with wood. Three of them have become family favorites, and I’d like to share this trio of woodburner meal maps–one for each of the day’s three repasts–with you. (Mind you, I prepare these dishes on my trusty old wood cookstove, but they can also be done up on the top of any well-fired box-type wood-heating stove . . . if you’re willing to experiment until you hit upon the correct time-and-temperature combinations.)

These through-the-day meals are sure to delight the hungry mouths around your house, too. So slide that simmering teapot to the back of the stove, grab your ingredients, and let’s get cooking!

Frosty-Morning Pancakes

1 1/2 cups of whole wheat or unbleached flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoons of baking soda
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 1/2 cups of milk or fruit juice
3 tablespoons of honey
2 eggs
1/4 cup of cooking oil
1 apple, peeled and chopped
3 tablespoons of sunflower seeds

In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon. Blend the milk or juice, honey, eggs, and oil in a separate container. Stir the wet and dry mixtures together, and add the chopped apple and the sunflower seeds.

Now, set a heavy skillet or griddle on a medium-hot stove top. When a drop of water will dance on the heated surface and then evaporate quickly, you’re ready to start cooking. Coat the bottom of the pan or griddle with cooking oil, and pour in a large spoonful of your mix. Fry each cake until its edges are slightly dry and its top bubbles, then flip it over to cook the other side. (For best results, use a large spatula and turn the cakes only once.)

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