Selecting a Cook Stove

If you are considering the purchase of a wood cook stove, you may have one of several motivations. Many people consider the purchase of a wood stove with an oven and/or cooktop for the sake of security, ensuring the ability to cook during a power outage or some sort of disaster scenario. Others look to a wood cook stove as a way of using a renewable resource and reducing their usage of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas. The other motivation for many people's interest in wood cook stoves is “homesteading” or a desire to get “back to the land” and be more independent.

While all of these are good justifications for purchasing a wood cook stove, it is important to know what exactly you are getting if you do choose to make such a purchase. A wood cook stove does not operate in the same way as the electric or gas ranges that citizens of developed countries have become used to, but the differences are considerably less significant than one might expect. The largest difference between a wood cook stove and its gas or electric counterparts is its inability to simply increase or decrease the temperature at will. Since the heat is dictated by the wood burning inside of the stove as well as its arrangement therein, increases and decreases in temperature happen over spaces of several minutes to an hour, rather than instantaneously, like with a common household range. The fastest method of increasing or decreasing the heat that gets to your food is by moving the pot or pan around on the surface of the wood cookstove, sliding it to a cooler area to reduce to a simmer, or sliding to a location directly atop the wood stove to quickly boil.

Additionally, the round segments located on most wood cook stoves are not burners as they appear on household ranges. These are in fact lids which can be removed in order to feed wood to the fire, and they may not be the hottest part of the stove at all – the location of greatest heat is determined by the location of the firebox and the arrangement of wood fuel inside of it, as well as the air which reaches the fire, dictated by the “draft” knobs which are typically located on the side of the wood stove. Wood cook stoves may not suit everyone all of the time but, if you are interested in maintaining independence and heat in the event of a disaster or emergency, a wood cook stove is certainly a great way to do so.