Turkey Stock on the Wood Stove

Today my adventure is making stock on my wood stove. It is winter where I live, and winter means snow, snow, snow, and cold. So, we heat our home with wood. Tons and tons of wood.

The nice thing about a wood stove is that it is a multitasker. Wood stoves not only heat your home, they can dry your clothes if you have a rack to hang them on, they burn up trash like magazines, junk mail, egg cartons, and shipping boxes, they can act like a warm mist humidifier if you put a big pot of water on constantly, and last but not least, they can cook your food. Why use multiple appliances when only one is needed, and it doesn't even use electricity?

So today I am making turkey stock on my wood stove.

Yesterday we had roasted turkey with a yam pureé and green salad. Today I took the leftovers of the turkey, removed the roasting rack from the pan, poured a TON of water in over the turkey (along with all the spices and veggies I roasted with the turkey yesterday) and set it on the wood stove with the lid on. It's been boiling away all morning, and I simply add water as needed.

Let me give you a few pointers regarding cooking on a wood stove.

• Always have extra (cooking) water handy. While you are learning the whims of your stove, you may find that you are boiling dry faster than on your traditional cooktop. I keep mine in a tea kettle on or near the stove so I am not cooling my food down too much.
• Keep metal utensils at the wood stove and leave the silicone, plastic, and maybe even wooden ones behind. There will come a time when you accidentally set it down on the extremely hot cooktop without thinking. You can't just turn off the wood stove to get the plastic off.
• Keep tongs and oven mitts handy. 
• Keep a fire extinguisher very handy, just in case.
• Smaller, drier pieces of wood make a very hot fire, while full rounds and larger, greener wood burn cooler. Green wood isn't great - it burns dirty and you need to clean your chimney more often.
• Make sure your stove is airtight just in case a fire gets out of hand. You should be able to shut it down at the intake and at the chimney.

This morning, I had enough time to bake some cran-raisin muffins with flaxseed meal. Here they are, adorning my table.

And I thought you would all like to meet my new Soux Chef, Chef Gerrard Jr. He is my constant companion in the kitchen and best taste-tester I could ask for.