Many people will swear that no matter what you're cooking, it will just taste better if it's cooked on a wood cook stove. Wood burning cook stoves are not necessarily easy to cook on. To really get the temperature you want and maintain that temperature throughout your cooking can be tricky. In fact, some people use a series of things called trivets, which lift pots and pans above the stove so that they won't get too hot and spoil a recipe. But for many people the challenges of using such a stove are part of the charm of the experience. And once you install such a stove in your home or your vacation home, you might find your family members have a new-found interest in preparing food; cooking meals together over wood burning cook stoves can be a special time spent together. And even if your family isn't involved in cooking on a wood stove, they'll no doubt enjoy eating the results! Wood burning cook stoves can be large. It's not uncommon to come across one that's over five feet tall and about four feet wide. If you shop around in antique stores, you might be able to find one that's one hundred and fifty or two hundred years old. (And using one of those really old stoves can really make you feel a bond with the generations of pioneers who came before us.) Standard parts of such a stove include the oven, the water reservoir, and of course the cooking surface, which can come with half a dozen lids. Not only can you cook on these devices, but you can also keep a fire burning inside of them to warm your home. In fact, an entire floor of a house can be heated by a wood cook stove! Of course, before you get carried away with romantic notions of cooking with a wood stove, you have to consider that these kinds of stoves can be a lot of work. You have to chop firewood and carry it into your home; you'll have to clean pout the ashes every so often, and you have to make sure that you're keeping the fire going at a steady pace. Starting a fire can be difficult, and you might not want smoke getting in your eyes first thing in the morning. Still, if you have a knack for starting and maintaining a fire, and you don't mind some hard work, you might get a real satisfaction out of this type of cooking.
