You can cook (or bake) anything with a wood stove that you would prepare with any other kind of stove. Every wood stove is different. (Some are crankier than others, LOL.)

It isn't the recipe. It's learning to manage your particular stove. That includes maintaining the fire, determining where on the surface it's hotter or less hot (think French top), how to maintain a consistent heat in the oven.

Other than that, there are no "special recipes."

Carol

Thanks for your response, Carol. I should have been more clear in my OP... I'm not looking for lessons or fussy recipes. I just think that there are folks out there that perhaps have a favorite treat they make while enjoying the heat from their stove, simple and fun.

I usually do simple, one pot dishes like soup or chili.
My stove is small and the cooking area even smaller!
I can fit 2 dutch ovens on there and that's it!
Since it sits in the living room and there's carpet, I don't do anything greasy/splattery like frying, but I could!
I've done fry bread.

Hadn't even thought about baked potatoes, we'll have to do that!

Deanna

I used to do wood stove cooking/baking demos back in the day. It's definately easier to cook a stewy roasty type dish than bake. Baking is the holy grail of woodstove cooking. The tough part is the oven doesn't heat evenly. The side close to the fire box gets hotter than the other side, so need to turn halfway through baking. It is also difficult to maintain steady heat. You want med. sized HARD wood logs for baking. Actually not the hardest. Can't quite remember what's good for what, I do know ELM is best for baking, but elm wood is hard to come by. Can't remember for sure the others. Maple for frying. You don't want a super big log for baking either, that will get too hot. You can get an oven thermometer to test the temp., or use the hand method. I can't quite remember how long you're supposed to try holding your hand in the oven to test it but it isn't very long. Look online you can probably find old timey tips for judging oven temps. I can't remember them off the top of my head. I just waited until I had a nice, even, med. sized fire going. You can't judge the baking times by what is printed in a modern recipe, you have to keep a closer eye on the baking things, and like I said, turn halfway. But you can't be opening the oven all the time either, that messes up the heat too. So it's a balancing act. The more you do it the more you get a feel for how your oven works in tandem with the fire box and the type of fire you have going.

Cakes are really difficult. Something like a cobbler or crisp works well. Fruit bars with a crumb topping and short or crumby crust were good too. My best dessert was maple pecan bars. Cookies are OK, so are pies. Potroast is great. Cheesey liquidy casseroles good too, something like scalloped potatoes, etc. Really, the only thing that was really, really hard was a nice light well risen cake. It can be done but I never quite managed to finesse that one. But then I hardly ever can manage a cake in a modern oven. I did bannana maple oatmeal quick bread too, that was OK.

I have a fireplace insert and I have baked and cooked on it. To bake, have nice hot coals and push them to the back of the insert. I put an oven rack inside, resting on some extra fire brick. Then you can bake inside of the insert. I have baked a chickn, pies, and bread in mine. On the top, anything you can fix on the top of your range I would think you could fix on your wood burning stove, pancakes, eggs, soup, you name it.

Sue

Carol: I second that !!!

Piegirl: I not familiar with your Stove but
I know a little about the old Wood Cook Stoves.

My Grandfather had one at the Farmhouse in Atco, NJ.
These are Collectables now.
On the left side, that's the top they cooked on and
baked in the oven on the right.

Here is a Photo from the Internet . It is similar.

Like Carol, I've cooked on wood stoves and actually like them, but there is a talent to baking.

Find the "hot spots" on your own particular stove, so you can use them to the best advantage.

Easier things to do on a woodstove cooktop are "baked" beans in a dutch oven, chili, soups of all kinds. Grandma used to keep a kettle of water to make tea on demand and to help "humidify" the house.

Have fun, I love a woodstove....

Annie

I pushed the Submit button too soon . Here is the rest of the Thread above

I built a large addition on a farmhouse for a friend.
It was for a 24' by 32' kitchen and Dining area.
In a small section, I installed a Wood Cook Stove and

Enclosed it with a brick wall on each side w. a Brick Arch
across the top to form a Hood.

He had taken the Woodstove completely apart and
Glass beaded the whole thing and refinished black.
The Chrome parts were all rechromed.

This was used for Heat and Cooking, Baking.
Build a small fire, then turn a lever to let the heat go around the oven.
The original Thermometer wasn't true, so they used a new one in the oven .
We also installed a complete new Kitchen ?
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IÂve used my Woodstove to cook on and make Coffee during Power outages.
Now I bring the Barbecue into the front mudroom and open the Miami windows.

You can buy Ovens for the top of Woodstoves.

Small soft woods ( kindling )are good for starting the fire eg. Hemlock, Pine.
but it's not good to burn it too long. ( Creosote buildup )

You need Hardwoods about 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 inches round or split, to keep the fire going.
Smaller for starting the fire.
Good plentiful Hardwoods are Oak, Maple, Cherry, Beech and
Birch.

That's all the story telling for tonight.
Lou

My stove's not nearly as pretty as Lou's grandfather's, but we have an old, beat up, 30's-ish cookstove that sits right between my microwave and my electric range. No favorite treats, I cook on it fall, winter and spring...it cooks the best food, helps heat the house, and if DH will ever get it plumbed, it'll heat our water before it goes into the electric water heater. It's like having a giant cast iron burner with infinite control, hot on one side to warm on the other. Baking is very different, but I like the heat coming from the side instead of the bottom . I stick a piece of aluminum foil upright between my food and the firebox and it bakes more evenly. You do have to pay more attention, though.

We don't have a lot of hardwoods here...a little birch and vine maple, but DH has a shop full oak, maple and hickory scraps. Between that and seasoned buckskin tamarack, we can maintain a pretty even heat.

Years back when we had a wood stove(now replaced with a gas stove) for heating our house, we had a bad week of weather than knocked out the power. I was just after or before Christmas, so I had leftover ham. We ate a lot of ham and eggs and toast, cooked on and in that thing. And soups..LOL

For toasting the toast, I did as suggested already, pushed the coals back, and propped up a small metal cookie cooling rack...It worked great!

Terri:
Speaking of toast !!!
Do any of you older " Young " ladies remember the wire Toast Racks,
they were attached to a Tin Plate, that had holes in it.

It was set over a Gas Range Burner and you laid the bread on it, standing on an angle.

If you remember this, you are old as dirt.
I am !!!
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I had a Cast Iron Skillet at one time, that measured about 18 inches or more. Maybe a Griswold !

It was hanging on a pole on the outside of our Collectible Booth.
My wife said a guy ran all the way, from one end of the hallway and grabbed it.
He said " I don't care about the price, It's mine "

Talk about heavy !!! He did a lot of Camping, and loved the size, to use on the Cooking Fire.
Lou

Wow, thanks for your great responses! Lou, the black and chrome stove and the 18" skillet sound outrageous! What's not to love?

I'm inspired to make baked beans and boiled cider. I'm also dreaming about tiny flatbreads.

My woodburner has two levels on top. One can be used for keeping things warm and the other for actual cooking. I did a lot of research before we built our house to find a stove that would provide warmth, light and a place to cook in case of power outages, which we had often. In addition to the other ways I use it, in the morning I put a quart canning jar with the makings for my yogurt on a small cooling rack on the warming level and have my yogurt by that evening or in the morning if I put it on at night.