Single man who works away from home! What do I do with two wood cookstove ovens??!!

I've got two wood cookstoves that I use for over an hour everyday to keep my home warm, but I also work and leave home so I cannot be around them all day. I want ideas for things I can do with the ovens that are constantly warm that would be a somewhat cheap way to make food! I have access to lots of potatoes, a root cellar an an obscene amount of turnips. I also have lots of chicken eggs, and hope to have some meat (maybe deer) before too long. I like ideas of making bread but I screwed around quite a lot with sourdough and it seemed like a huge time sink that really did not save any money at all! My bread was hard, and I had to keep walking away from it for hours before I could make a loaf, it was not conducive to the busy lifestyle I have, if you have any bread suggestions I would love to hear them! I would like healthy foods, but cheap I suppose is the main thing I'm looking for. Thanks!

I haven't used a wood cookstove, so I don't know how controllable they are, however, we make a no-knead sourdough rye bread which we mix up in the evening to rise overnight. As soon as I get up in the morning, I put the cast iron Dutch oven into my electric oven and set the temperature for 425F and the timer for 30 minutes. When the timer goes, I pull out the bottom section of the Dutch oven and push the dough into it, put the lid on and put it back in the oven for 30 minutes. Then I take the lid off for 5-10 minutes to crisp up the top.

We can reverse the timing - prepare the dry ingredients in the evening. Add the sourdough/water mix and stir it in the morning, let it rise and bake at dinner time. The mix is supposed to rise for 8 hours and tends to start to sag if left longer than 11 or 12 hours.

I can post the precise ingredients if you think you want to try it. If you have a Cast Iron Dutch oven, it would be good to know what the dimensions are. We have two and have two variations of the recipe based on which we will use.

Jay Angler wrote:I haven't used a wood cookstove, so I don't know how controllable they are, however, we make a no-knead sourdough rye bread which we mix up in the evening to rise overnight. As soon as I get up in the morning, I put the cast iron Dutch oven into my electric oven and set the temperature for 425F and the timer for 30 minutes. When the timer goes, I pull out the bottom section of the Dutch oven and push the dough into it, put the lid on and put it back in the oven for 30 minutes. Then I take the lid off for 5-10 minutes to crisp up the top.

We can reverse the timing - prepare the dry ingredients in the evening. Add the sourdough/water mix and stir it in the morning, let it rise and bake at dinner time. The mix is supposed to rise for 8 hours and tends to start to sag if left longer than 11 or 12 hours.

I can post the precise ingredients if you think you want to try it. If you have a Cast Iron Dutch oven, it would be good to know what the dimensions are. We have two and have two variations of the recipe based on which we will use.

I have a wrought iron dutch oven, about 8 inch diameter and 6 inches deep. If I could just mix it and put it in the oven that would be nice, also a cheap flour would be ideal.. Had a bad experience with sourdough before, but I did make the starter on my own.

I started my bread making with a Turkish flat bread recipe.  A five pound bag of flour will make four batches for me.  It takes an hour and a half to two hours, depending on how fast one is in the kitchen.  The "blob" after mixing has to rise for an hour. Total cooking time is about three minutes per round with medium heat in a ten inch skillet.

You can find many ideas for flat bread on You Tube.  If you want I'll be glad to email you what I have written down.

Peace

I also have not been fortunate enough to have a wood stove.

So will the wood stove cook things slowly so it can be used like a slow cooker while you are at work? If so here are some recipes:

17 Cozy Slow Cooker Potato Recipes

https://www.tasteofhome.com/collection/slow-cooker-potato-recipes/

Here is one for turnips:

https://www.food.com/recipe/turnip-custard-crock-pot-117849

Anne Miller wrote:So will the wood stove cook things slowly so it can be used like a slow cooker while you are at work?

I suspect to get that effect, it would be safer to mix the wood stove with a hay box cooker.
https://permies.com/wiki/106017/pep-food-prep-preservation/Cook-Grain-Rocket-Stove-Haybox

Anne Miller wrote:I also have not been fortunate enough to have a wood stove.

So will the wood stove cook things slowly so it can be used like a slow cooker while you are at work? If so here are some recipes:

17 Cozy Slow Cooker Potato Recipes

https://www.tasteofhome.com/collection/slow-cooker-potato-recipes/

Here is one for turnips:

https://www.food.com/recipe/turnip-custard-crock-pot-117849

In my experience the main thing with the wood cookstove is the inability to find middle grounds, its either way way too hot, 400, 500 degrees, or its too cool... 200 degrees. That 350 is hard to maintain in my experience! Also the heat is unevenly distributed because its all coming from the firebox. It all has to do with the kind of fire in the fire box. This makes things in the oven kinda weird, because the left side is always more toasty. On the top of the stove you just move things to the left to make them hotter and to the right to make them cooler. If you did leave small hot coals and a really small fire all day a slow cooker idea would work, I usually toss in a log at a time, so that makes for an uneven heat, because fires burn hotter when a new piece is tossed in, and then steadily gets cooler. I appreciate the recipes!

Water moderates temperature.
A big pot of soup beans.
Way more water than you actually need, some fat or oil, onions,beans.
Maybe bone in beef or pork.
Let it cook while you are away.
Lid on, even with meat, it should be fine going from high temperature to room temperature.
I might space it off the stovetop, to prevent scorching, but if it does scorch, just leave the bottom layer, don't scrape it up or mix it in.
When you're back home, make fried pancake style corn cakes ,  and reheat the beans at the same time.

For turnips or potatoes I might try a steamer over a huge pot of water.
When you get home they should be ready to go.
Fry em , mash em, stick em in a stew!
Eggs are fast to cook, and not better for more cooking, in my opinion.
A fried egg with runny yolk is a glow up for so many things!
They are good for adding protein and fat, leavening baked goods and making patties and doughs stick together.


Add fatty pork, flour and onions, to what you already have and you will have lots of options.

William Bronson wrote:Water moderates temperature.
A big pot of soup beans.
Way more water than you actually need, some fat or oil, onions,beans.
Maybe bone in beef or pork.
Let it cook while you are away.
Lid on, even with meat, it should be fine going from high temperature to room temperature.
I might space it off the stovetop, to prevent scorching, but if it does scorch, just leave the bottom layer, don't scrape it up or mix it in.
When you're back home, make fried pancake style corn cakes ,  and reheat the beans at the same time.

For turnips or potatoes I might try a steamer over a huge pot of water.
When you get home they should be ready to go.
Fry em , mash em, stick em in a stew!
Eggs are fast to cook, and not better for more cooking, in my opinion.
A fried egg with runny yolk is a glow up for so many things!
They are good for adding protein and fat, leavening baked goods and making patties and doughs stick together.


Add fatty pork, flour and onions, to what you already have and you will have lots of options.

You are right there are so many options that are submerged or steamed that are so fantastic. I guess I have to not be so picky... Its just I open the oven and its so hot in there I get frustrated because i think "I could be baking something in there!" I guess in the regular life warming up the oven is a bit of a process, takes some planning and forethought, but when you are in a situation where its always being an oven it feels like a waste not to be doing something with it!

Jay Angler wrote:I haven't used a wood cookstove, so I don't know how controllable they are, however, we make a no-knead sourdough rye bread which we mix up in the evening to rise overnight. As soon as I get up in the morning, I put the cast iron Dutch oven into my electric oven and set the temperature for 425F and the timer for 30 minutes. When the timer goes, I pull out the bottom section of the Dutch oven and push the dough into it, put the lid on and put it back in the oven for 30 minutes. Then I take the lid off for 5-10 minutes to crisp up the top.

We can reverse the timing - prepare the dry ingredients in the evening. Add the sourdough/water mix and stir it in the morning, let it rise and bake at dinner time. The mix is supposed to rise for 8 hours and tends to start to sag if left longer than 11 or 12 hours.

I can post the precise ingredients if you think you want to try it. If you have a Cast Iron Dutch oven, it would be good to know what the dimensions are. We have two and have two variations of the recipe based on which we will use.

Waiting on that "no-knead sourdough rye bread which we mix up in the evening to rise overnight" recipe!

Found this recipe, really liking the bread pan idea! Wonder if you could just let it sit in the bread pan all night rather than the bowl?


Every night I put some chicken feed and hog feed into 2 five gallon buckets submerged in water to feed them the following day, I would like it if I could do that for bread too!

Bread with commercial yeast (which is still real yeast, just freeze dried) is a lot easier and will yield something that is way healthier than anything storebought. But I'm not sure how well it would do in a "put in the oven and leave for the rest of the day" situation.

I concur that your best bet is some form of bean soup/stew/pottage (which has been a staple food for most of humanity). My go-to versions are either French Canadian (split yellow peas, carrots, celery, garden herbs and bacon), Mexican (cumin, chili, tomatoes and black beans) or Indian (lentils with curcuma, finished with plenty of cumin, garlic and ginger).

A covered pot in an oven is even better than a pot on a stovetop, in my opinion.
As for bread, the famous New York Times no Knead bread recipe does great in a hot but cooling oven.
It's a very wet dough  that is baked in a closed container for a amazing crust.
I have a very old Chambers gas stove that is heavily insulate with a thick steel plate in the bottom.
I have often baked one last loaf in a session by  running up the heat(It gets hotter than 550), popping the closed lid container of bread in, closing the door  and shutting the whole thing off.
The next day I get a pretty nice loaf, to go with my other, very excellent loaves.
It's not like bread hot from the oven, but it still beats the brakes off of grocery store white bread.
A little less crusty from sitting in its own pot overnight, but still so very good toasted.
As a person with very little focus, I think No knead bread could work for your busy life.
I have baked hundreds of loaves, and even the over baked one were delicious.
It's also extremely cheap.

While I'm thinking about it, that kind of continuous heat could also be great for distilling water .
No idea if that would be useful.

William Bronson wrote: A covered pot in an oven is even better than a pot on a stovetop, in my opinion.
As for bread, the famous New York Times no Knead bread recipe does great in a hot but cooling oven.
It's a very wet dough  that is baked in a closed container for a amazing crust.
I have a very old Chambers gas stove that is heavily insulate with a thick steel plate in the bottom.
I have often baked one last loaf in a session by  running up the heat(It gets hotter than 550), popping the closed lid container of bread in, closing the door  and shutting the whole thing off.
The next day I get a pretty nice loaf, to go with my other, very excellent loaves.
It's not like bread hot from the oven, but it still beats the brakes off of grocery store white bread.
A little less crusty from sitting in its own pot overnight, but still so very good toasted.
As a person with very little focus, I think No knead bread could work for your busy life.
I have baked hundreds of loaves, and even the over baked one were delicious.
It's also extremely cheap.

While I'm thinking about it, that kind of continuous heat could also be great for distilling water .
No idea if that would be useful.

THanks for that! i like the idea of using yeast from the store for an easy bit instead of sourdough, I love sourdough bread, but need some really good starter... I made some myself in the past and it never did rise much  Sourdough is healthier than store yeast they say.. so maybe some time i will just bite the bullet and dive back into it! i wish i could find a person who has some sour dough.

As far as distillation goes I have a plan for that already! i want to use a pressure cooker or two and fit copper pipes on the top, need a good way to connect the piper to the outlet fitting..I hate the idea of using rubber because i fear it will melt and get in my distilled water X_X but i also hate the idea of taking apart the pressure cooker lid and spending over $100 on a proper copper fitting and high pressure seal to make it work in a super reliable way...