Do you cook on your fireplace?

[Josephhgoins]

Does anyone cook on their firplace? If so what do you use? I have a couple of dutch ovens I will put to work for breads and things. I have a trivit I can use with my Stainless Steel pots to make soup and what not.

What do you use? I would thinking about getting a Cast iron "soup pot" but am not sure it would be that much better than my SS pots or worth the money.

Anything you use that was really helpful that I should consider buying?

I plan to heat primarily with it during the day, so why not cook my meals while I am at it.

[peanut]

No we don't. Wood is a high priced commodity here. We live on the prairies. We have the occasional fire for entertainment, but that's it. Plus it gets too cold for fires here. If we start one it throws the thermostat wonky and the rest of the house gets so cold the pipes can freeze. So no, we don't have fires often or for long.

[Ceashels]

I used to have a wood burning stove that I cooked with when I lived in the country but one of my homesteading dreams is to have an open hearth that I can cook in. *sigh*

I'll be checking this thread to see what others have.

[Josephhgoins]

I used to have a wood burning stove that I cooked with when I lived in the country but one of my homesteading dreams is to have an open hearth that I can cook in. *sigh*

I'll be checking this thread to see what others have.

me too and mine too!! When I saw this fireplace I was sold, it is set up perfectly for cooking.

I had a small granny stove that I got years ago in my moms basement. I cooked on it all the time, everything from biscuits and gravy to soup and stews. I do miss that stove something fierce.

I keep thinking a big iron soup pot would be awesome, but the cleaning and everything might make it more trouble than it is worth, especially when I have some good quality SS pots and pans that would do as well when used on a Trivit.

[peanut]

Now you've got me thinking about the bannock Dad used to cook in the cast iron fry pan on the campfire. I'm sure I could do that here!

[heartofmine]

I don't have a fireplace but I have cooked on my wood stove many times...full meals. My mom has an old wood cook stove in an out building and she uses it in the summer time to can on. Keeps the house from getting so hot. She cooks meals on it sometimes too.

[shoiji]

Growing up I remember meals being cooked on a wood stove.

[BobbyDee]

Cooking in the fireplace?? Never heard of it, and I agree with the previous posters that firewood is probably going to be more expensive (if bought in the store, and you're not chopping your own firewood like Paul Bunyan) than cooking on a stove top.

[Josephhgoins]

Firewood will be free, so the cost of that is not an issue.

fireplace cooking predates wood cookstoves. Most log cabins had a fireplace in them for heat and cooking.

[Spirit Deer]

I have a swing grill set up in my fireplace, but haven't used it yet. I was all gung ho on the idea until I realized where all the cooking grease was going to end up. I'm not wild about the idea of a chimney fire and I'm unclear about how much of a hazard that would be. Of course that would depend on how much I used it and how greasy things were. I'll use it sometime. I didn't last winter because we had new cabinets piled in front of our fireplace the first half of last winter, and old cabinets piled in front of it during the second half, so no real opportunity. I just put the swing grill in last year.

I wouldn't use good SS cookware over a wood fire. It will ruin the looks of it, as it'll end up with scorch marks and soot baked on. Ditto for cast aluminum. That won't affect how it cooks, of course, but if you want it to stay looking nice, I wouldn't. I have a $110 cast aluminum camp Dutch oven with scorch marks on the lid thanks to red-hot coals. I wish it still looked new, but it's doing what it was made to do, and there's no way to avoid the marks. My kitchen DOs which have been converted for camp cooking have the same marks, only more prominent because the metal is not anodized.

Cast iron is a good choice, but the pots will get sooty so be sure you have a good way to clean gritty, sooty pots.

If the coals are too hot, it will burn the seasoning right off the pot. No biggie but an inconvenience to re-season, especially in winter.

You can't really cook over flames very efficiently. A good bed of coals will work better, and it takes a long time to get that if you're using hardwood. If you're not using hardwood, then you'll get a fast, hot fire that burns down quickly and may not leave nice coals.

It's true that an open fireplace is very inefficient for heating, as it sucks all the air out the chimney. So it may not be cost effective to use the fireplace because anything you save by not using a propane or electric stove to cook with is going to be offset by the cost of your heating fuel being used up faster to reheat the air that replaces the warm air sucked up the chimney. So if you do cook over the fire, then it would probably be best to cook things that aren't slow-cooked for hours at a time. Or keep the doors closed on the fireplace.

IMO, it would be hard to cook in a fireplace if you don't have some way to adjust the distance from the coals to the bottom of the pot, such as a tripod with an adjustable chain. Otherwise, it will be harder to control the heat. Not impossible, of course, but there will be a learning curve. You won't be able to have the fire hot enough to heat the house and still be able to control the heat in the pot very well, unless the fireplace is large enough that the pot can be off to one side, away from the main fire.

Certain woods can't be used for cooking with an open pot or frying pan without a lid, as they will give really icky flavors to foods. For that type of cooking, hardwoods are great. For closed pots, I'd say you could use most any wood that gives the heat you want.

I do a lot of Dutch oven cooking outside using charcoal, and about the first thing I did was make myself a Dutch oven table. I just hate cooking on the ground. Fireplace cooking is going to be the same thing, with the added annoyance of not only being too low, but having to handle hot pots and lids by moving them in and out of the firebox, rather than being able to lift straight up.

I'd say it's worth a try if you want to. I don't think it'll save any money, but it would be fun and unique. I want to use the swing grill in my fireplace because we love stuff like fire-roasted veggies, and we have a very short summer season here.

As for what you'll need, you'll need similar supplies to what I use for Dutch oven camp cooking:
~welding gloves for handling hot pots and putting your hands and wrists over hot coals/fire
~a lid lifter if you have coals on the lid, which you will if you're baking rather than roasting. Slip-joint pliers will do, if you don't want to buy a lifter. If you do, I wouldn't recommend a Mair lid lifter. (Never thought I'd ever type THOSE words!) The new shorter Mair might work though, depending how high the firebox is in your fireplace.
~long tongs and/or a coal scoop for moving live coals.
~an ash brush is nice to have, though not essential. Don't get one with plastic bristles. A silicone basting brush will work.
~if you do not have a camp oven which will have a rim around the lid to hold the coals on, you'll need some way to keep the coals on the top. A 'rope' of aluminum foil will work, but if you're going to cook that way very often, you'll need to be on the lookout for something better. I came across the base for a wok and that works great on one of my converted DOs.
~a non-flammable utensil table of some sort is very handy. You'll have utensils, gloves, and other items you'll need a place to set down. I keep a small, old-fashioned, tin top TV tray in my camper to use as a side table, and I also sometimes use a vintage Coleman camp stove table that folds, with an old wire shelf from a fridge for a top. These are in addition to the tables the DOs actually sit on.
~lid stands, so you have a place to set a hot lid. Especially if it has hot coals on it. I use various things for lid stands. For domed lids, certain pillar candle holders are tall enough to handle the high domes without letting the lid touch whatever is under it.

You said you have a trivet for the pot to sit on. It will need to be at least a couple inches high, so you can place coals under the pot.

If you're looking for only one item to use for fireplace cooking, I would recommend starting with a Combo Cooker made by Lodge. It's so versatile you can do pretty much everything with it. It can be used like a camp DO because the top (whichever pan you're using as the top one) is flat, so will hold coals easily. It can be a stew pot, frying pan, chicken fryer, etc. It's reasonably priced. It has large helper handles on the sides opposite the main handles, so it's easy to move securely with bulky gloves on. Amazon carries them for about $35 with free shipping. Lodge also makes a DO stand that would add legs to the Combo Cooker, allowing it to be used as a spider.

Let us know if you give this a try.

[Ceashels]

A Taste of History This was on our local PBS channel not too long ago. It was marvelous to watch and Chef Staib had many useful tools of the trade from the colonial kitchens he used.

[peanut]

Cool show Ceashels! thanks!