When we bought the place over 35 years ago, one of the first things that went into the house was a “Burning Log” brand open fire place, we were sleeping on a mattress on the floor but that didn’t matter, we had our own open fire! We love it and we have given it plenty of use since we’ve had it, but it is pretty damn inefficient and a lot of the heat goes up the chimney. I also suspect that it wouldn’t meet modern emission guidelines either, so we are planning on getting a more efficient wood burner that we can cook on and bake in.
Having said that, years ago we did make up a couple of fittings to allow us to cook on the fire and both worked fairly well, the first one is a steel frame I made to support a cooking pot over the fire and the second is a reflector oven.
Pot Support
The support is designed to go over the fire grate so that it is possible to have some wood burning underneath it to provide cooking fire, but this is obviously designed to fit my grate and I have no idea how standardised or otherwise fire grates are. Needless to say you may need to alter the dimensions of your pot support to reflect the size of your grate.
It is fairly simply made from 12mm square steel bar, the two bent sections that sit over the fire and on the fire grate are 420mm long with the two stringers joining then and providing the support for the pot being 150mm long. To make this you do need to have welding gear, or know someone who has it and can use it.
Mark off about one third in from each end of the longer sections with engineers chalk (soapstone). Apply heat to the marked area with an oxyacetylene set, when it is glowing red (make sure you have a thick pair of welders leather gauntlets so you don’t get burned) take hold of the end and bend it to about 130 to 135°included angle, then do the other end and then complete the process by bending the other long section.
Once the steel has cooled try it on your grate and make sure that there is enough overlap on each end to keep the pot stable and that the angles are right so that the flat top section will level when the pot support is in place. If things are not good you may need to re-heat and re-bend the bars until the fit and remain stable. Once you have got it where you want it, set it up with the bent legs in the air and the two longer sections separated in the middle by the two stringers, forming a box. Use your arc welder to run a bead along the join between the long sections and the stringers so that they are held reasonably firmly. Re-check again to make sure the post support will fit over the grate and if all is well, run another bead on what is now the top side to secure the steel bar together.
With a bit of luck it is now right to go, but before firing up the fire place and giving it a go, do a trial run with the pot you intend to use full of water and make sure that everything fits where it is supposed to and it is stable. A pot of boiling stew in your lap is not that great when you would rather be eating it!
It works quite well in practice but is certainly not a “set and forget” type of cooking. The area under the pot support limits the size of the logs you can place under it and a few smaller ones keep the fire hot enough to cook well, but burn down quicker so you do need to keep an eye on the fire and the food every so often. Although, if everyone is gathered around the fire and having a good time, this won’t be a problem. You also need to have good, thick cookware, cast iron is ideal, to distribute the heat and prevent the food being cooked scorching.
The reflector oven will be described in part 2
