Cookin' With Coal

 
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Bob500
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Location: Newington, CT
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Coal Chubby
Coal Size/Type: Anthracite nut
Other Heating: gas steam

Post by Bob500 » Sun. Oct. 21, 2018 6:05 pm

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First coal fire of the season. Cooking up the wife's favorite roast.


 
charlesosborne2002
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Hand Fed Coal Stove: Vigilant II 2310
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Post by charlesosborne2002 » Sun. Oct. 21, 2018 6:09 pm

I have stainless steel and I have cast iron pots and pans, and both are good. But the best slow cookers are clay because, once hot, they hold heat evenly, more so than iron, which is very hot where the flame is, but not so hot on the sides and top. Two slow cookers come to mind. One is Visions ceramic glassware, and the other is space-shuttle ceramic. Either can go on a hot coal stove to stew or boil things, but has anybody used them as crock pot cookers (with trivet under, and maybe also a flame-tamer--to reduce the heat for slow)? My theory is that I could use a Visions roaster on the stove top and it would be evenly hot as if it is in an oven, for baking or roasting. Same with hi-temp ceramic clay--I have a Spiceberry bean pot that would make a good crock pot. Both might want a trivet or rack inside to prevent sticking.

The iron Dutch oven is fine at stewing temps, but for even temperature baking or crock, you are supposed to put hot coals on top as well as under it. This is not ideal using anthracite in the living room.

I have seen ovens (online) that sit on the kitchen stove top (gas or electric)--they use one burner, and bake anything. These sound ideal for a parlor stove too, but I think the bottoms are not as thick as I would want for that. The bottom might warp or buckle. You could put a skillet on a trivet on the stove top, then set a big roaster pan upside down over it to make an oven to roast a chicken or make cornbread, etc.

 
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Photog200
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Location: Fulton, NY
Baseburners & Antiques: Colonial Clarion cook stove, Kineo #15 base burner & 2 Geneva Oak Andes #517's
Coal Size/Type: Blaschak Chestnut
Other Heating: Electric Baseboard

Post by Photog200 » Sun. Oct. 28, 2018 6:46 am

:o Switched over to coal from wood a week ago, was kind of forced into it. A week ago Monday we had a brief power outage and I think my freezer was running when it happened. The freezer did not re-start and two days later I went to get something out for dinner and discovered almost everything had thawed. Thankfully, I caught it before spoilage happened because I have been stocking up on meat for winter. Long story short, I canned meat for 4 days and dehydrated vegetables for two. With burning coal instead of wood, I was able to keep the stove dehydrator going all night. Crisis averted thanks to cooking with coal! Got 48 pints of meat and 21 quarts of homemade soup canned. (pantry looks like I am feeding a family of 4)

Sorry, did not take any photos :o
Randy

 
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Sunny Boy
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Location: Central NY
Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Anthracite Industrial, domestic hot water heater
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Coal Size/Type: Nuts !
Other Heating: Oil &electric plenum furnace

Post by Sunny Boy » Sun. Oct. 28, 2018 2:44 pm

Wow, Randy, that's a lot of canning, but glad you were able to save it all !!!

Whenever we're canning for a few hours and I start to get tired, I think about how much you do by yourself. Then I don't feel so tired. :D

Melissa just did a purge of a lot of old stuff in the freezer chest. I can't remember the last time I saw the bottom of it. :oops:

Now it's mostly empty - just the top lift-out baskets are full. I'm concerned that if we have a power outage there won't be much frozen stuff in it to keep it cold as long, so I've been freezing gallon plastic milk jugs to fill up the bottom. I can take them out as I need space.

After seeing your setup, I bought a large pressure cooker for Melissa last year. It's kinda too big to heat all that aluminum up on the gas stove, but with the coal range having so much hot area over the firebox, I'm gonna try using it to can meat.....if I have better luck during deer season than last year. :roll:

How deep do you fill it with water when your canning meats ?

Paul

 
charlesosborne2002
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Hand Fed Coal Stove: Vigilant II 2310
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Post by charlesosborne2002 » Sun. Oct. 28, 2018 5:39 pm

In a pressure cooker, isn't the steam above the water hotter than the water? That is why a pressure cooker cooks faster than a pot of boiling water...
Sunny Boy wrote:
Sun. Oct. 28, 2018 2:44 pm
Wow, Randy, that's a lot of canning, but glad you were able to save it all !!!

Whenever we're canning for a few hours and I start to get tired, I think about how much you do by yourself. Then I don't feel so tired. :D

Melissa just did a purge of a lot of old stuff in the freezer chest. I can't remember the last time I saw the bottom of it. :oops:

Now it's mostly empty - just the top lift-out baskets are full. I'm concerned that if we have a power outage there won't be much frozen stuff in it to keep it cold as long, so I've been freezing gallon plastic milk jugs to fill up the bottom. I can take them out as I need space.

After seeing your setup, I bought a large pressure cooker for Melissa last year. It's kinda too big to heat all that aluminum up on the gas stove, but with the coal range having so much hot area over the firebox, I'm gonna try using it to can meat.....if I have better luck during deer season than last year. :roll:

How deep do you fill it with water when your canning meats ?

Paul

 
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Photog200
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Location: Fulton, NY
Baseburners & Antiques: Colonial Clarion cook stove, Kineo #15 base burner & 2 Geneva Oak Andes #517's
Coal Size/Type: Blaschak Chestnut
Other Heating: Electric Baseboard

Post by Photog200 » Sun. Oct. 28, 2018 9:10 pm

[quote="Sunny Boy" post_id=680875 time=1540752272 user_id=19594


How deep do you fill it with water when your canning meats ?

Paul
[/quote]

I actually bought a cheap canner last week so I could have two going at once. When canning meat, you have get it up to the pressure for your altitude and then let it go for 75 min for pints and 90 min for quarts. The All American canner says to put 3" of water in the bottom but the Presto one I just bought says to put 3 quarts of water in the bottom. I love the All American canner best but the Presto one really baled me out.

Randy

 
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Sunny Boy
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Location: Central NY
Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Anthracite Industrial, domestic hot water heater
Baseburners & Antiques: Glenwood range 208, # 6 base heater, 2 Modern Oak 118.
Coal Size/Type: Nuts !
Other Heating: Oil &electric plenum furnace

Post by Sunny Boy » Mon. Oct. 29, 2018 10:37 am

Thanks Randy.

I found the little instruction/recipe book for our Presto and read the part about only needing 3 quarts of water. And where it shows that there's also a water fill line pressed right into the inside of the canner. :oops:

Before I read the book, I had wondered if like with canning the jellies in a non-pressurized pot, if they had to be completely submerged. But I see now that the pressure raising the steam to higher temps does that.

Last year, we had tried using the Presto just like a regular pot to boil the jars, but when filled deep enough to cover a full load of pint jars, the aluminum dissipated the heat too well and never reached a boiling point. Plus we weren't using stove coal so we weren't getting as high temps.

Since then, Melissa found a large like-new enameled steel canning pot, with lid and jar lifting rack, for a couple of dollars at tag sale. We used that this year and it works better for canning jellies than the lobster pot we were using that was barely tall enough.

The tag sale canning pot is plenty tall enough to submerge the jars and not have water boiling over onto the cooktop, but not so tall that it won't fit on the rear of the cooktop, with it's lid on, and still clear under the mantel shelf.

Now that I know using the Lehigh stove coal will easily get the cooktop hotter, I think I'll try the Presto with the recommended 3 quarts of water, and see if it will build up the 11 PSI it says it needs to can meat, before I try loading it up with jars of meat.

Paul


 
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Photog200
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Posts: 2063
Joined: Tue. Feb. 05, 2013 7:11 pm
Location: Fulton, NY
Baseburners & Antiques: Colonial Clarion cook stove, Kineo #15 base burner & 2 Geneva Oak Andes #517's
Coal Size/Type: Blaschak Chestnut
Other Heating: Electric Baseboard

Post by Photog200 » Tue. Oct. 30, 2018 5:34 am

Sunny Boy wrote:
Mon. Oct. 29, 2018 10:37 am
Thanks Randy.

I found the little instruction/recipe book for our Presto and read the part about only needing 3 quarts of water. And where it shows that there's also a water fill line pressed right into the inside of the canner. :oops:

Before I read the book, I had wondered if like with canning the jellies in a non-pressurized pot, if they had to be completely submerged. But I see now that the pressure raising the steam to higher temps does that.

Last year, we had tried using the Presto just like a regular pot to boil the jars, but when filled deep enough to cover a full load of pint jars, the aluminum dissipated the heat too well and never reached a boiling point. Plus we weren't using stove coal so we weren't getting as high temps.

Since then, Melissa found a large like-new enameled steel canning pot, with lid and jar lifting rack, for a couple of dollars at tag sale. We used that this year and it works better for canning jellies than the lobster pot we were using that was barely tall enough.

The tag sale canning pot is plenty tall enough to submerge the jars and not have water boiling over onto the cooktop, but not so tall that it won't fit on the rear of the cooktop, with it's lid on, and still clear under the mantel shelf.

Now that I know using the Lehigh stove coal will easily get the cooktop hotter, I think I'll try the Presto with the recommended 3 quarts of water, and see if it will build up the 11 PSI it says it needs to can meat, before I try loading it up with jars of meat.

Paul
Good morning Paul,
Usually durning canning season I burn wood in the range and have not had any problems using a huge water bath canner coming to a boil. Last year I bought an Amish made canner ( see photo below) and it will hold 15 quarts or 36 pints at one time. Really speeds up the process when canning my tomato sauce. You can get these at Lehman's but I bought mine at a Mennonite store for half the price.

I am not sure what size Presto canner you have or how old it is. The older Presto canners still used the "jiggler" on the lid that helps to control the amount of pressure in the canner. With this new one I just bought, the jiggler does not jiggle, you have to control the pressure by watching the pressure gage by controlling the heat source. To use this on the range, I would have had to keep moving the canner to different parts of the stove for the right amount of heat. With a full canner of 16 pints of meat and the water, it is very heavy to move it. (at 62 I am not as strong as I use to be) I decided to use my propane camp stove where it is easier to control the heat and I had to closely monitor the gage and turn the stove up or down to keep it in the correct pressure range. My All American brand of canner still uses the jiggler so I can use that one on the range with no problems. Thought I would mention that before you tried the range and found out the hard way. :D
Randy

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Sunny Boy
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Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Anthracite Industrial, domestic hot water heater
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Coal Size/Type: Nuts !
Other Heating: Oil &electric plenum furnace

Post by Sunny Boy » Tue. Oct. 30, 2018 7:22 am

Thanks Randy. Yeah. I can see where that large canner would be difficult to use on the range. Using the large canning pot that Melissa got at a tag sale needed two hands just to slide it across the cooktop.

The canner we have is a 16 quart Presto that I bought for Melissa for Christmas two years ago. Holds 10 pint Ball jars.

Unlike the older Presto models that have removable rings to add weight to the "wobbler" to get different pressures, this one has a one piece, 15 psi weight. Book says that once it's steaming put that weight on and adjust gauge pressure readings by changing the heat input.

Neither of us have used a pressure cooker before. When Melissa was growing up her mother used one of the large, antique galvanized "water boilers" that are made to cover both round covers of a range or laundry stove firebox. And it's deep enough to boil quart jars, but still clear under the mantel shelf of a range. We were offered it, but Melissa let her sister take it for decoration because the bottom is full of rust pin holes. Just as well because while it fit on her mother's Acorn range, it's kinda too big for my small-sized range.

We haven't used this Presto to pressure cook, yet. Just tried it as a large pot full of water to boil the jars. When it's near full of water to cover the jars, and with so much thick aluminum, I was having trouble getting it hot enough to reach a boil with just nut coal. If we were using wood, I'm sure it could get hot enough to reach boiling temps. Now that I have the bagged stove coal I can easily get higher temps when need be. And not needing to heat so much water makes it easier still.

Paul

 
lzaharis
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Post by lzaharis » Wed. Oct. 31, 2018 10:24 am

Are any of you using the big rectagular US Stove Wonderlux Stoves for heating and cooking?

 
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Merc300d
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Post by Merc300d » Mon. Nov. 19, 2018 7:06 am

Just finished a 508E for a nice gentleman that bought it from me an had me do the restoration.
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freetown fred
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Post by freetown fred » Mon. Nov. 19, 2018 7:37 am

Looks real good M. Well done-- :)

 
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Sunny Boy
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Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Anthracite Industrial, domestic hot water heater
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Coal Size/Type: Nuts !
Other Heating: Oil &electric plenum furnace

Post by Sunny Boy » Mon. Nov. 19, 2018 7:38 am

It looks fantastic, Kevin !!!!!! Almost too nice to use,..... almost. :D

Congrats on a wonderful job bringing another great stove back to life - I'm sure he's going to really enjoy it. And I hope you informed him about all the coal stove operating info available on this website. :yes:

Paul

 
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Sunny Boy
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Joined: Mon. Nov. 11, 2013 1:40 pm
Location: Central NY
Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Anthracite Industrial, domestic hot water heater
Baseburners & Antiques: Glenwood range 208, # 6 base heater, 2 Modern Oak 118.
Coal Size/Type: Nuts !
Other Heating: Oil &electric plenum furnace

Post by Sunny Boy » Mon. Nov. 19, 2018 7:48 am

Well, thanks to a big doe showing up early opening day,.... and a big thanks to my venison-loving daughter who did all the butchering for me, I'll be making slow-cooked venison stew this week. And Melissa baked a nice venison roast in the Glenwood last night.

I might even get brave and finally tryout our pressure cooker to can some of it.

Paul

 
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Merc300d
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Post by Merc300d » Mon. Nov. 19, 2018 7:51 am

Thanks Fred , Paul. Unfortunately I set it up for wood burning. He’s not there yet. Maybe he ll convert at some point


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