Wrought Iron Range Company of St. Louis began making Home Comfort wood cook stoves in the late 1800s and continued the line until the 1940s. These cook stoves revolutionized the way women cooked, as homemakers no longer had to bend over a hearth to prepare the family meal. The stoves, made of cast iron and coated with enamel, also helped to heat the home and provide hot water. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
Lighting the Stove
1. Insert the lid lifter into the openings on the round cooking plates on the top of the stove, lift the lids and remove them from the holes.
2. Lift the rectangular stove plate into the upward position. This is located on the left side of the stove above the wood box.
3. Place several sheets of crumbled up newspaper into the fire box. Add two or three sticks of stove wood to the box and light the paper on fire using a match. Stove wood should be approximately 12 inches long and no more than 3 to 4 inches in diameter or width, if using split wood. Once the fire has caught, add more wood to fill the firebox. Hickory, maple or oak are good woods to burn.
4. Lower the stove plate back into position and return the cooking plates to their proper holes in the stovetop.
5. Allow the fire to burn, heating up the stove. Adjust the draft for the fire using the sliding rod on the draft door just below the firebox. Closing the draft slide helps to keep the heat inside the stove.
6. Fill the water reservoir on the far left of the oven with water for a steady supply of hot water. Not all models of the 1928 Home Comfort range included the reservoir.
Cooking on the Stove
7. Place food to be cooked in a heavy pot, pan or skillet.
8. Set the pot on the stove, matching the bottom of the pot to the stove rings on the stovetop.
9. Cook the food, much as you would on a gas or electric stove. Cooking times may vary quite a bit, as the heat from a wood cook stove is not always even.
10. Bake breads, cakes and other dishes in the oven by closing the damper on the stove so the hot air will circulate around the oven.
11. Keep foods warm by placing them in the warmer oven above the cook stove.
Tags: Home Comfort, 1928 Home, 1928 Home Comfort, cook stove, cook stoves, cooking plates, Cooking Stove
