Homemade Wood Cook Stoves
A wood cook stove is beneficial to achieve authentic slow-cooking, wood-fired flavor for meats and vegetables. Building a homemade cook stove outdoors is a manual labor that involves simple tools from your local hardware store. This wood cook stove constructed out of bricks is ideal for family gatherings or a backyard BBQ, or for experimenting with different meats and flavors. Easy to clean and semipermanent, a homemade wood cook stove can cook a variety of food. Building one together can be an enjoyable project for the whole family. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Shovel
- Bricks
- Lump charcoal
- Soaked hardwood chips and branches
- Grilling grate
- Nonstick cooking spray
Instructions
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Dig a hole in level ground that is 3-feet deep. It an be a circle or rectangle shape, but make sure it is at least 25 feet away from anything that could catch fire like hanging branches and leaves. Size the cook stove hole so it is about 3-feet-by-4 feet long and wide. Make it as uniform as possible.
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Lay a pair of bricks on each of the four sides of the hole, adding an extra in each corner if desired. Space them apart evenly, and stamp down on them to make sure they are sturdy in the dirt. These bricks are the support system for the cook stove's grate.
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3
Spread a 4-inch layer of lump charcoal on the bottom of the cook stove. Ignite the fire.
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4
Soak wood chips in water for about 15 hours (depending on the type of hardwood). Sprinkle a thick layer of chips over the fire. Layer the wood generously into the cook stove to make a hearty fire.
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Lay one side of the wood cook stove grate onto the brick supports, then carefully lower the other side onto the opposite brick supports over the fire. Position the grate so it is sturdy.
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6
Apply nonstick cooking spray generously to the cook stove grate before cooking.
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References
- Photo Credit vorfreude image by Stefan Lenz from Fotolia.com
