As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
I was Inspired, with a capital I, and I know it was in caps as it turned out, but you know I have this barrel stove we made, and I have been figuring out how this living creature breathes fire, as she is a creature of nuance, when the idea in 15 below days, struck me, "Why not grill inside the stove, rather than lighting charcoal and trying to heat up the North Pole.
So without a great deal of thought or preparation, I fired up the stove around 4 one afternoon when we arrived home, and got things burning, and burned down, and seeing fire and coals, I figured now was the time to put in a Chinaman cast iron pan we had, with olive oil in it and beast stake.
I honestly was a bit surprised as I sat there, that sounds started coming out, and those sounds were the pan heating up and the steak was fying, baking, grilling.
A little bit of life coals goes a long ways in heating, as I went upstairs to start some fries and by the time I got back, it was time to get back. I flipped the steaks, and with all the heat, I knew the residence of the oven was not the place to leave meat, so I sat them on top of the barrel which was hot and dinked around putting in some more small logs, and went upstairs with my mitt on and the steak was still frying.
It had the faintest hint of smoke, was pleasant. I would like to put some kind of wire girll rack in there as I think that would be better. Thing is I was getting lots of steam smoke out of those pieces of meat, so that part surprised me, but I suppose the fire will dry things out, as it is not like I'm cooking elephant.
I see great possibilities for this stove. most days I light it after chores around 10 AM, and then have three burns in it, to get the house balmy, and by 4 PM I'm shutting things down for the night, in closing outside vents and damper, to retain the coals heat and not let cold air back in. I think this would be a better grilling or cooking fire, as it is still a high heat, but not as intense as what I dealt with in the first try.
I'm more than pleased that this is a food producer now too. Some wise ass could build a metal saddle for it, to retain more heat, but to have a flst surface to cook on, and or course an oven to bake in too. I suppose I could put metal tanks on it for hot water. Yeah me with no money for investment, but I bet I could make a pretty good amount of money manufacturing these saddles for these stoves.
I already lined it with chimney brick and only had one crack, so it retains more heat and you do not just have to have the barrel.
If I had room, I would put on the top barrel to help with heat dissipation. I think that is where the bricks with high temp cement would work, but it would be a heavy mother, and you would have to not have the bottom barrel collapse.
I was watching Wild Wild West the other night, and they had those little coal pot belly stoves. Hell you can't put enough fuel into those things to get the BTU's I like. I need a 55 gallon barrel to get things roomy so the fire burns. I know those rocket stoves are chutes and rammed air, but this barrel is different as the combustion chamber has to be big, and the fact is, you can't make steak in a rocket stove, and burn little sticks to high heat too and it burns clean.
That 15 foot of stove pipe is what is my second barrel, but the horizontal gives me trouble in it jacks the pipe out of the barrel stove, due to it expanding. Not a problem but something I have to watch as I never leave the house with a fire burning. Is one of the quirks of this thing.
So anyway, it is time for me to go shut down the barrel stove for the night so it bleeds heat in keeping things warm. Tonight it fed us and kept us warm. Thank God for Inspiration.
Nuff Said
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