Product Review: An Ash Vacuum

I used some of my Christmas money this year to buy an ash vacuum from Tractor Supply Company.  Anyone who has a woodburning stove knows that ashes have a habit of landing in places that you don't want them, and a vacuum is the easiest, quickest, and most thorough method of cleaning them up.  

We've got quite a history with vacuums used for ash removal in this house.  When we first moved in when I was six years old, we exchanged houses with my grandparents who lived next door here on the farm.  My grandmother left her Hoover 2201 here, and we used it to vacuum up ashes around the Washington Stoveworks parlor stove that was in the enclosed south porch.  

A Hoover 2201 identical to the one Granny
left here in 1981.  Photo courtesy of Pinterest.

We used this vacuum for perhaps two or three years until I accidentally sucked up a live ember.  The air rushing through the vacuum cleaner's system quickly fanned the ember into flames, and the machine was ruined. 

After that, we brought up the Airway Sanitizer Vacuum that had been our basement vacuum cleaner even when we lived in the little house.  I think this one belonged to my great-grandparents on my dad's side.  It was just like the one in the picture below, only we still had the original cloth hose.

An old Airway Sanitizer Vacuum like 
the one we had.  Photo from Pinterest.

I'm not sure what happened to end this vacuum cleaner's career.  I suspicion that in the days before the almighty internet, we were no longer able to find bags for it.  I cannot say for sure, though.  At any rate, it served as the vacuum for the heating stove in the south porch for at least a decade, which coincided with the time that we had an Englander heating stove.

The next vacuum that was used regularly was my Kirby Generation 3.  Around the time that Nancy and I started dating, however, I vacuumed up a wood chip that ruined the fan.  Thus, on one of Nancy's and my earliest dates, we had to deliver my vacuum cleaner to the Kirby repairman in Council Bluffs.

We hadn't been married long when we went to an auction in rural Shelby County, Iowa.  At that auction, Nancy was excited to find a Eureka Mighty Mite just like the one her mother has.  We purchased it for a whopping $7.00 and have considered it a blessing ever since.  Its arrival occurred near the time we replaced the Englander with a Jøtul.

The Mighty Mite was doing a fantastic job of ash removal for us, but its bags are quite small, and with some recent store closures in our area, we are only able to purchase the bags online.  Cleaning up ashes seems to fill vacuum bags more quickly than plain dirt removal.  Further, the memory of what happened to the Hoover 2201 is still strong in my mind, and I don't want a repeat performance!  Thus, I've been looking at ash vacuums half-heartedly for a while and finally decided to take the plunge and buy one.

Our local Tractor Supply store carries a brand called REDºStone, which is priced at less than $50.  Designed to be similar to a shop vac, it has no bag.  Instead, whatever is vacuumed up travels through a flexible aluminum hose to a metal base.  The motor and filter assembly clamp to the top of the metal base.  While the instructions caution the operator not to vacuum up live coals, with both a metal hose and metal dust bin if a burning ember does inadvertently make it into the machine, the risk of fire is greatly reduced.

The Margin Gem is equipped with small shelves to catch ashes when you open the front firebox door and the ash removal door.  They do their job very well until they are full, and then the ashes fall on the floor.  

The ash vacuum is the perfect tool to clean up all of this.

The suction that this machine has is really quite impressive--much stronger than what I think is usual for a regular household vacuum cleaner.

The feature of this vacuum that most surprised and pleased me has to do with the air filter.  First, when I unboxed it, I found that each vacuum is shipped with an extra air filter.  Secondly, the air filters are washable!  I consider this a fantastic feature.  In the picture below, I'm flushing the air filter clean under running water according to the directions provided.

You can see in the picture below that it cleaned up very well.  Twenty-four hours later, it had dried completely.  A quick turn of a wing-nut reattached it to the motor housing, and the vacuum was working as good as new.

Overall, I'm very pleased with this ash vacuum, and I would recommend the purchase of one to any serious woodburner.  

And now, just for record keeping purposes, I want to attach pictures of our outdoor thermometers this morning.  As you can see, it was a bit nippy in southwestern Iowa!

Through a frost, dirty porch window,
you can see that this thermometer read
-38ºF.

Our digital thermometer, whose outdoor sensor is
on the north side of the summer kitchen, always 
registers slightly warmer than the other.  Either
way, it was COLD here this morning.

So very glad to have a woodburning cookstove on mornings like this!

Economizing with Your Wood Cookstove

In the autumn of 2019, we didn't turn off our electric water heater and make the annual switch to wood heated water and daily firing of the Margin Gem until October 11.   Well, the fall of 2020 has been much cooler here, and with the economic uncertainties of the world today, it seemed prudent to make this transition much earlier.  Thus, we turned off our electric hot water heater on August 30 of this year, and with the exception of running it again for an hour and a quarter on Labor Day, which happened to be hot, all of our water has been heated by the Margin Gem since then.  And because the Margin Gem has been fired daily, the vast majority of our cooking has been done on it too.  This is the earliest we've ever made that transition, and the monetary savings has already been borne out in our most recent electric bill.

This got me to thinking about wood cookstove economics.  If you don't have to pay for your fuel, the wood cookstove can be an enormous money saver.  Yes, buying and installing a woodburning range is quite an investment, but as long as you can harvest and work up your own fuel, you begin to save money starting with the first fire you use in your range.  In the face of dire economic circumstances, I think a woodburning cookstove can be a tremendous tool for making a household as cost-efficient as possible.  Below you will find a list of some ways to take advantage of the money-savings a woodburning cookstove can provide.  Links are provided to posts which go into more detail.

A). Use a Wood Cookstove to Heat Domestic Hot Water

Shutting off our electric hot water heater shaves a minimum of $20 from our electric bill each month.  I figure that by the end of this calendar year, having our water heated by the Margin Gem will have saved us at least $1300 over the life of the system so far.  This means that the extra cost of the range boiler, the water jacket, and the specialized plumbing has paid for itself, and there are many years of continued service left in them.  If your water system and local codes will allow the installation of a range boiler system on your woodburning cookstove, I highly recommend it.

However, even if hot running water from your cookstove is not an option, heating water with your cookstove can be accomplished in a number of other ways.  Most cookstoves have a water reservoir option for heating water that is manually drawn from the stove.  In my experience, water heated in the range's reservoir is much hotter than the temperature at which most people would set their automatic water heaters.  Thus, a water reservoir that only holds five gallons actually provides far more hot water than its capacity because the super-heated hot water will have to be tempered with additional cold water before it can be used.

In addition to a reservoir, water can be heated in vessels on top of the stove.  The most commonly found is the old-fashioned teakettle; its spout makes using the water from it quite convenient, too.  You'd be surprised how many dishes can be washed and rinsed in a mere gallon of boiling water that has been diluted with cold water to a usable temperature.  You may find it impossible to turn off your automatic water heater, but you can still save a little money by supplementing it with a little hot water here and there from your wood cookstove.

B. Take Advantage of the Home Heating Capacity of Your Woodburning Range

The woodburning cookstove can be a powerful heater.  In fact, new ranges even come complete with BTU ratings and information about the number of square feet that they can heat.  I'm kind of amused by that because when you look at old cookstove advertisements, the heating capacity of the range is never mentioned.  Instead, they were always about the quality of the stove's construction, its fuel efficiency, and ALWAYS about its superior baking capabilities--even though history is replete with stories about cookstoves being the sole source of heat for many homes.  Nowadays, advertisements tout the cookstove's heating capacity, but they don't say much about how well a stove can bake.  Oh, the pendulum swings we see in life!

To maximize the heating capabilities of your woodburning range, keep the cooktop as free from extra kettles and miscellaneous as possible in order to let the heat radiate into the room.  Open that oven door, too!  The greater the surface area that is exposed, the greater the heat sent into the room.

Also, a strategically placed fan can move the heat through your house better, making you feel warmer when you are not standing right next to the stove.  You can see our wood stove fan to the right on the Qualified Range below.  For more details about getting the most heat from your wood cookstove, visit this post. 

C) Use Your Woodburning Range Instead of Your Small Kitchen Appliances

Conventional kitchen wisdom is that electric countertop appliances use less energy than utilizing your kitchen stove to accomplish the same cooking task.  This is the complete opposite of what happens when your kitchen stove is a woodburning range.  Here is a list of small electrics that can stay in the cupboard when the cookstove is in use:

The Electric Skillet

French Toast cooking on the wood cookstove.

The Toaster

For a very lengthy post about the many ways you can toast bread on a wood cookstove, visit here and here.

The Microwave

In the pictures below, you can see me using the warming ovens on both the Riverside Bakewell and the Margin Gem to soften or melt butter and to defrost homemade applesauce.  Susan Fenoff, in her video about using wood cookstoves, calls the warming oven her "Amish microwave."

The Waffle Iron

Waffles are delicious, but waffles cooked on a wood cookstove are a step above in my opinion.

The Slow Cooker or Crock Pot

There are actually many ways that you can use your cookstove as a slow cooker/crock pot, but the method discussed in this post creates the most similar heat by using your wood cookstove's oven with the door open.

The Electric Wok

I don't know anyone with an electric wok anymore, but I know they exist.  However, you don't need one because you can cook wonderful Oriental food in a stovetop wok on a wood cookstove.

The Insta-Pot

I am almost afraid to point this one out since I know many people are in love with their Insta-Pots, but you can use a pressure cooker on top of a wood cookstove quite easily.  Sure, it won't do all of the things that an Insta-Pot can do, but you can pick up a cheap used pressure cooker in second hand stores very easily, and the food possibilities are endless and fast.

My favorite thing to cook in a pressure cooker is tougher cuts of meat, but you can quickly cook vegetables, rice, and even hot cereals in them.

The Popcorn Popper

You'll need a very hot fire, but you can easily pop popcorn on top of a woodburning cookstove, and don't worry about having a fancy hand-cranked popper.  You can get popcorn that is every bit as delicious by shaking it in a plain old saucepan.

The Deep Fat Fryer

Of course you have to be careful, but the wood cookstove is great for deep fat frying.  Historically, wood cookstove cooks favored frying over baking because it is easier to control the temperature of the oil than the oven.  In the picture above, you see homemade chicken nuggets frying on the Margin Gem, and in the post I wrote about them, I discuss the details and cautions that are necessary to deep fat fry on a wood cookstove.

Some readers may look at the above points and note that specialized equipment is sometimes necessary.  For example, in order to bake waffles on your wood cookstove, a stovetop waffle iron is a requirement.  They are increasingly hard to come by in antique stores, and the price has risen exponentially in the last twenty years.  However, new stovetop waffle irons are still available from Lehman Hardware, and at anywhere between $30 - $60, they are competitively priced with new electric ones.  Stovetop waffle irons can be used on gas and electric coil-type modern ranges too, so they are not a bad investment when your countertop waffle iron gives up the ghost.

D. Use Your Wood Cookstove in Place of Other Non-Cooking Appliances

Your wood cookstove can do the jobs of other energy consuming appliances as well.  Here is a list of non-cooking appliances that you can unplug:

The Scentsy® Warmer

Wonderful aromas can be sent wafting through your home by simmering potpourri on top of your wood cookstove.  You'd be amazed how many things resting quietly in your spice rack can be put to use as perfumes for your house without having to spend a ton of money on a ceramic warmer and individually packaged lumps of colored soy oil.

Still, if the colored lumps are your preference, you can melt them in a pan on the cool end of the range just as well as in the expensive warmers.  The same can be said of candles in glass jars.  When we get down to the bottom of a candle which has a scent we really enjoy, instead of lighting the candle, we just put the glass jar as far away from the fire as possible.  The warmth of the stove still melts the wax so that it can emit the scent.  Eventually, the aroma wears away and the candle can move onto its next stage of usefulness, but we've taken all possible advantage of its perfume.  NOTE: Just be sure not to put any glass candle vessels where the heat of the fire is so intense that it could break the glass.  That could be a disastrous fire hazard!

The Clothes Iron

I know, I know.  Some of you are laughing because it's been years since you've ironed any clothes at all.  Well, more power to you.  But for those of us for whom ironing is still a very real chore, ironing can still be accomplished with a wood cookstove as your source of heat.  That's all I'll say about that here.

The Clothes Dryer

American households have to be the worst in the world about wasting energy to dry clothing.  Oops!  Sorry, I jumped up on one of my soapboxes there for a second.  Seriously, though, a clothes rack placed near the wood cookstove can speed along the drying process for freshly laundered clothes.  In the past, woodburning ranges were even equipped with rods for drying towels, mittens, and socks.  Cookstoves can still be used to cheaply and quickly dry clothes.  The double advantage in this is that your can also unplug your home humidifier if you are hanging your clothes to dry indoors.

E. Eat Leftovers

Reducing food waste is one of the easiest things a household manager can do to save money.  In the future, I hope to write a series of posts which give hints and recipes for making leftover foods into entirely new dishes.  I will admit that reheating leftovers is the primary function of our microwave oven, but there are many more tasty ways that leftovers can be reheated or re-made using the wood cookstove.  For example, instead of tossing mashed potatoes in the microwave and having them come out smelling unappetizing and looking no better, making mashed potato patties requires only a little extra effort, and the end product is three times as delicious.

Two posts that I already have which deal with leftovers include one about how to use leftover roast beef and gravy that is very good.  However, if you are really serious about stretching your grocery dollar, the most economical food discussed on this blog is definitely pot-au-feu.

A bowl of Pot-a-Feu.

Literally translated from the French, pot-a-feu means "pot on the fire."  It is as delicious as you want it to be, it is never the same twice, and it is only feasible on a wood cookstove.  

In short, to get the largest financial return from a wood cookstove, make it the energy center of the home.  This is most certainly the way our ancestors used their kitchen ranges, and if one of today's households is blessed with a working wood cookstove, it still has every capability of serving in that capacity.

So, dear readers, what have I missed?  Fill up the comments below with what you do, what you remember your ancestors doing, or what you have heard others did to save money with a wood cookstove.  I'm anxiously awaiting your feedback.

Using a Grill Roaster on a Wood Cookstove

Probably fifteen years ago, I purchased this blue enamel "Grill Roaster" at Cappel's Ace Hardware in Atlantic, Iowa.

What makes it a "grill roaster" is the fact that the bottom is perforated.

I bought it expressly for using on a wood cookstove because it looked like the round shape would fit perfectly in an eye over the firebox of the Qualified Range.  I think perhaps it is truly meant for roasting vegetables on the grill, but from the beginning I wanted to try cooking a beef roast in it. I don't know why, but I wasn't ready to try it right away when I bought it, so I relegated it to a shelf in the fruit room in the basement.  And there it sat until Friday when I brought it out, washed it, and finally got around to trying it.

The roaster does fit neatly over the eyes of the Qualified, the Hayes-Custer, and the Margin Gem.  Bingo!

For Friday night's supper, I seasoned a beef roast with seasoned salt and Mrs. Dash and put it in the grill roaster, the inside bottom of which I had coated with non-stick cooking spray.

My fire that night was fueled by a combination of mulberry, elm, and pear wood, and I didn't manage it any differently than I would have under ordinary circumstances--mostly because I was also cooking corn on the cob, fresh green beans, and frying angel hair nests.  (The fried angel hair nests sounded like a much better idea than they turned out to be.  Going to have to work on that one.)

I put the roaster over the rear opening above the firebox, removing the lid so that it was directly over the flames.

The juices that the meat dropped into the fire were burned immediately, and the summer kitchen (and the air outside the summer kitchen) smelled like I was grilling.  I could tell from the aroma early on that the roast was cooking pretty quickly, so I turned it not long after I had put it on to cook.

For the size roast it was, it didn't take long for it to cook at all.  I had to turn it frequently to make sure that neither side was burning, and it smelled awesome the whole time it was cooking.

The flavor of the roast was outstanding--exactly like grilled steak.  You would have thought I had used charcoal.  It was tough, however, but I do not attribute that to the cooking method or speed.  I knew from the start that the particular cut I had bought would never be tender.  It was not what I would ordinarily have bought for a beef roast, but it was cheap.  I'll do better next time, and there will be a next time.

Overall, I was very pleased with the way the grill roaster worked on the wood cookstove.  There was no noticeable difference in the firebox or ash pan due to the juices dropping into the fire, either.  We will certainly be trying other foods cooked in this manner.

Making Waffles on a Woodburning Cookstove

Nancy and I both enjoy a good waffle, and I enjoy waffles made from scratch a whole lot better than those made from a mix.  I still have and use the first electric waffle iron that my mother's side of the family owned.  It belonged to my great-great grandparents and then made it to my aunt Meme's possession.  It is a unique (and a bit scary) looking contraption, but it still turns out a good waffle.  I also have a 1950s waffle iron that I bought on a household auction several years ago, which makes waffles which are in the shape of a half oval.

Several Christmases ago, my sister and sister-in-law got into cahoots and purchased me a new Belgian waffle iron.  At the time, my wife was a bit dubious about this purchase because she knew that I was not about to give up my antique waffle irons, but I really like this new Belgian waffle iron, too.  It is constructed so that you pour the waffle batter in one side, shut it, and then flip it so that the waffle that you just poured is now baking upside down.  It makes a great waffle and is fun to use.

Now, of course, these waffle irons are all very well and good, but they are all electric, and I obviously like to have non-electric options when it comes to cooking.  Thus, I purchased an antique stovetop waffle iron several years ago when I was in college.  I tried it out on the Qualified range a few times, but I could never get it to work right.  The problem that I had was that no matter what I did, the waffle would be undercooked between the pegs.  Finally, after several failures, I examined the waffle iron more closely and noticed that the pegs seemed to be farther apart on this waffle iron than on others.  I sold that waffle iron and began the hunt for a replacement with pegs which were a more standard distance apart.

I finally found one at Carstens Farm Days in September of this year, but it wasn't until last month that I finally was able to take the time to re-season it and begin experimenting.  I'm pleased to report that a successful waffle was no real trouble once I got the hang of things.

The first thing that one must do to bake a waffle on a woodburning cookstove is to build a hot fire.  I find that the fire has to be very hot.  Below, you can see a picture of one of the blazing fires that I used to make waffles.

You can see that I like to use small pieces of wood in order to make a really hot fire.  I find that doing so affords more control.  This is perhaps a bit difficult to explain, but here goes.  When you build a hot fire with large logs or split pieces, it takes a long time to reach the fire's peak heat; furthermore, you don't have much control over the temperature at that point until the wood burns down quite a bit.  When using small pieces to create a very hot fire, you can increase the heat by adding even more small pieces.  If you get the fire too hot, though, it won't take as long for the small pieces to burn away and thus cool the fire.

Notice also in the above picture that in the middle of the right-hand wall of the firebox is a perforated metal bar that extends vertically from below the grate.  These are part of the Margin Gem's air-jet re-burn design.  The reason that I mention these is because the air-jets on the middle right side of the firebox are the ones that seem to get the most air--and consequently create the most heat--so the hottest part of the Margin Gem's cooktop is usually in the area indicated by the red circle in the photograph below.

I usually place the waffle iron there, as seen in the picture below.

The waffle iron in place.
Poor Marjorie!  Every time she gets her picture
taken, she's so full of splatters.  In this case, it
was because Nancy had just finished frying
bacon to go with our waffles.

I also have had success removing a stove lid over the fire, putting the waffle iron over an open "eye" above the firebox like so.

You can kind of see the fire through the gap
between the irons and their base.

Each placement of the waffle iron has its advantages and disadvantages.  In the case of putting the waffle iron on the closed cooktop, it heats more evenly because cold room air is not rushing through the gap between the irons and their base to get to the fire.  However, if you fill the waffle iron too full, the batter will run out onto the cooktop and burn there, creating pretty acrid smoke.  Also, you have to lift the irons to turn them.

If you put the waffle iron over an open eye above the fire, the edges of the waffle do not brown as nicely as the center because of the air rushing by, but any extra batter that jumps out of the waffle iron merely lands in the fire, and the smoke which results is just carried out the chimney.  If the eye of your stove is large enough, you can simply rotate the irons without lifting them, since the edge makes an arc below the surface of the cooktop.

Anyway, once you put the waffle iron on to heat its first side, you need to start mixing your waffle batter.

The waffle recipe that I like to use belonged to my great-grandma Ruth.  I've mentioned her here on the blog before.  When I was home on Christmas break from Iowa State University some twenty years ago, I decided to copy all of the recipes from my mom's and grandmothers' boxes that I figured I would want.  I didn't copy many recipes from Granny, my dad's mother, because she was very much a by-guess-and-by-golly cook--and, by golly, she was a good cook when she wasn't trying to substitute for ingredients that she didn't have.

Grandma Marian, my mom's mother, was a much more precise cook in her day, and she had two boxes worth of recipes for me to look over.  After I picked out the recipes that I wanted, she volunteered to copy them for me, and to tell the truth, that was one of the most meaningful things she could have ever done for me because they are in her handwriting and because she took the time to leave little notes on many of the recipes for me.  Some of the recipes have extra directions or advice, some have opinions, and some have memories attached.  On one recipe, she wrote "This is from the days when we milked," meaning that it was a recipe that was used when every Iowa farm still had at least one dairy cow.

Well, the 21st of this month will mark the fourteenth year that I have kept a dairy cow of my own, and so I feel that I have some understanding of how ample milk and cream can affect one's cooking.  Grandma Ruth's waffle recipe is one such recipe.

Here is what you need:

1 cup flour

1 egg

3/4 c. milk

1/2 c. cream

1/2 tsp. salt

3 tsp. baking powder

Note that the cream is the only fat in the recipe.

Put all of these ingredients into a small mixing bowl (I prefer to use my 8-cup Pyrex measuring cup as a batter bowl because of its handy pouring spout).  Whisk until smooth, but try not to beat.  Depending on the size of your egg and the thickness of your cream, you may need to add a little more flour.  I usually just put in a sprinkle of salt from the range shaker rather than a whole half teaspoon, and I scant the baking powder by at least a teaspoon too, but you can do what you want to.

Once one side of the waffle iron has heated, turn the irons so that the other side heats before putting any batter in.  Once both sides have been heated, I open the waffle iron and squirt some non-stick cooking spray on both sides of the waffle iron.  I don't know if I will always have to do this or not, but right now the waffle iron is not seasoned well enough to be a completely non-stick surface.  BE CAREFUL, however!  Most cooking spray cans warn you against spraying a hot surface because of the danger that the spray will ignite.

As soon as the waffle iron has been sprayed, I pour the waffle batter in.  If the waffle iron is as hot as it should be, the waffle batter will sizzle as soon as it makes contact.  Close the waffle iron and immediately flip it so that what was originally the top of the waffle is now on the bottom.

When the waffle has baked long enough, the waffle iron should easily open, and the waffle should be easily removed from the waffle iron.

To bake the next waffle, I spray the waffle iron again, pour in the batter, and then immediately turn the iron again.

These waffles served with our homemade syrup are wonderful, and I'm glad that in the event of a power outage, we'll still be able to have them on the menu.

Making Toast on a Wood Cookstove

I find it interesting to read the many articles about how to make toast on a wood stove (heating stove or cookstove) which appear all over the internet, and I've decided to put my two cents in with this post.

To be completely honest from the outset, we do not make toast very often on our wood cookstove.  Our early 1950s Toastmaster toaster is just too convenient.  However, I know that many of the people who read this blog are interested in homesteading, preparedness, or increased self-sufficiency.  Furthermore, many people who cook on woodburning cookstoves live an off-grid lifestyle, and a conventional toaster can be quite a drag on alternate power sources.  Thus, it seems pertinent to include information about toasting on a cookstove here.

One can make toast on a wood cookstove in five different ways.  I think some are better than others, though, so I'll warn you right now that I will be editorializing along the way.  You're not a bit surprised, are you?

To make an accurate comparison of the toasting methods, I used purchased bread so that each slice would be as nearly uniform in size and composition as possible.  No matter how I slice homemade bread, I cannot get it to be perfectly even, and I didn't want the bread to be a variable which affected the results of my experiments.

Method 1: Using a stovetop--or "camp"--toaster.  These can be purchased all over the internet in the style you see below or in what is sometimes called the pyramid style, where a louvered pyramid directs the heat of the stove toward the toast that is resting parallel to the sides of the pyramid.  Mine happens to have been purchased from Lehman Hardware, but I do not know whether they still carry it.

I consider the stovetop toaster method quite unsatisfactory for a woodburning cookstove.  I had asked for this toaster as a Christmas gift from my in-laws several years ago, thinking that it would be the perfect thing to add to my collection of wood cookstove accessories.  To make a long story short, I could never get it to work right on the Qualified range, but thought it must have just been me.  It went to the basement for several years, but I decided I would try it out on the Margin Gem.

 

The bread that you see in the picture rested on the toaster for 30 minutes and did nothing but dry out.  Thinking that I might just as well get rid of the thing (Nancy is constantly pointing out that we have too much stuff in our house), I decided to give it a try on the gas range.  Within four minutes of having the thing over a pretty high flame, I had very respectable toast.  Thus, this toaster went back to the basement in case I need toast in the middle of a summer power outage, but it will not be used on the Margin Gem again.

 

Method 2: Laying the toast directly on the cooktop.   Of course, you first want to make sure that your cooktop is very clean--free of fly ash, wood dust, and any spilled food which might have cooked on and then carbonized.  Lay the piece of bread wherever you feel that the heat is appropriate.  I put mine directly over the firebox, but I think that at the time I was conducting this experiment, that place was perhaps a little too hot.

 

When you feel that the bread is toasted to your liking on the first side, turn it to toast the other side.  Watch it carefully because this method goes quite quickly.

A lady who lives in our small town and is a friend of my mother's once told me that the only toast that she ever had growing up was made this way.  She shared this memory because for some reason she and my mom were talking about burnt toast and how it can be salvaged by scraping the burnt parts with a table knife until all of the blackened crumbs have been scraped off.  She grew up thinking that scraping the burnt part was just a necessary step in the way everyone made toast, so you can see that this method can easily result in burning your bread rather than toasting it.

The aspect of method two that I don't much care for is that the toast always leaves its autograph on the stovetop.  If you've been following this blog for any length of time, you've seen picture proof that I'm not as fussy about the look of my stovetop as I probably should be, but still.

Method 3: Toasting bread on aluminum foil on the cooktop.  I didn't think of this one myself.  I found this one online here at this "toast post" on the Paratus Familia Blog.

 

Clearly, this method works--quickly, too--and I've made good toast this way before, but in the pictures above, I had the foil over a part of the stovetop that was a little too hot for toasting.  My main complaint with this method is that after you've used your toast foil for a while, it will need to be replaced.  That is why this is not my preferred method.

Method 4: (my preferred method) Toasting on a cast iron griddle.  I asked for this 11 1/4" breakfast griddle as a Christmas gift when I was in either junior high or early high school.  It is extremely well seasoned from frying pancakes and French toast, so things don't stick to it.  I put it over the hottest part of the stove and lay the bread on it.

Watch carefully and turn the bread when it is toasted according to your preferences.

Bread toasted using my preferred method of using the
cast iron griddle.  You'd think that I could at least keep
the camera strap out of the picture, wouldn't you?

You can see that this method results in good looking toast.  I can't tell any difference between the flavor of this toast and that which comes out of the electric toaster.  This method doesn't take much time after the griddle is hot.

 

Method 5: Now, if you are going to spread a layer of real butter on your toast anyway, an extremely delectable treat is made using this method which is similar to the fourth one.

 

Using soft butter, spread an extremely thin layer of it on only one side of the bread.  Lay the buttered side down on the hot griddle.  Again, watch closely and turn as soon as it has reached the desired shade of brown.  Turn it over to toast the unbuttered side.

The toasted buttered side.

The toasted un-buttered side.

Method five results in toast with an amazing flavor, but since I usually spread light tub margarine over my toast, I don't do this often.  It is quite a treat, though, and the less butter you use, the better the flavor, in my opinion.  You just have to be sure that the thin layer of butter covers the entire side of the bread; otherwise, it browns very unevenly.

Toast made with Method 5 and spread with Nancy's grandma's
recipe for pineapple-rhubarb jam.  Yum!

I guess I should say that there is a sixth method.  It involves putting the pieces of bread in an extremely hot oven (500 degrees or more) until it has reached the desired shade of brown, but I'm not going to try that because I slightly warped the steel bottom of the oven on the Qualified Range by getting the oven that hot, so now I try to avoid firing the stoves in that manner.

As with any cooking done on a wood cookstove, there are as many methods as there are cooks.  Please utilize the comments section below to share yours!