Guys I'd like to see what mods you have done to your forge and how you cook on it or boil a Billy for tea or coffee.

shows us the pics

 

Well I would imagine cooking over coal isn't the best idea, but I am sure some guys have done it. I know some guys keep their coffee warm on the overhang part of their forges hood. 

Right now I do it all on the wood stove next to the forge.  

Greetings XS,

I built a special tube 3in in diameter 12 in long . Stainless inside than a copper insert pressed into a steel tube. One end is capped with a guide hole so you can slide in a 1/8 stainless rod with a hot dog attached. I constructed a special stand to set it on next to the forge.. Just pop it in the forge until dull red, remove, put in on the stand , slide in a squired hot dog and in less than a Minute.  Lunch. Also I welded a hoop on top so the tube could be moved easily .  One heat is good for 4 hotdogs . Tons of fun at a demo and lots of customers.. The main reason for this is to teach how radiant heat can be used. Sorry no Picts at this time stored away in a snow blocked building. 

Forge on and make beautiful things

Jim

 

As I've said before we had a string of Harness Race horses we campaigned through fairs in our area and we always had a rivet forge that traveled with us to cook our steaks on.  Used charcoal and the blower was great getting the charcoal started and burned down to cook on.  We never used it for shoeing as we used Alum. racing plates.  No photos never thought of taking pictures back then just day to day life thought it would never end, it did!  Had a rack from somewhere the steaks set on and would throw bricks under the rack if it was too hot.  Wish I had the forge today.

I use a trivet on the barrel stove.

I've cooked skirt steak directly on charcoal without a grill or a pan. Makes a fantastic fajita.

back in the real old days the blacksmith would give the small pieces that fall out of the forge when they were very hot to bread makers to heat the bread they were baking 

Nick; can we have more info on that?  "Real old days" Roman times? Earlier?  I've never heard that one and would like to track it down to add to my store of smithing trivia.  

2 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

Nick; can we have more info on that?  "Real old days" Roman times? Earlier?  I've never heard that one and would like to track it down to add to my store of smithing trivia.  

I've never heard that either, and to be honest, it doesn't sound right. Bakers don't need little bits of heat; they need long, slow, steady heat. That's one reason that traditional ovens would be masses of masonry (often communally owned) that would be heated with a large fire in the morning and used throughout the day. Roman bakeries were huge affairs; practically no members of the general public had their own ovens.

Now I was wondering about an old style salamander used to brown the tops of things; the oldest ones I know of were a disk of iron with a long handle that was heated red hot and held over the item to be browned.  Of course down hearth cooking gave you easy access to a bunch of hot coals and a bellows was a typical kitchen tool at that time as well; so no forge access needed...

Same thing goes for mulling irons, which could be heated in the fireplace.

 

shall we be at loggerheads?   I was reading "Wind in the Willows" to the grandkids recently and I was struck by Ratty and Mole serving mulled ale to the mice kids who came caroling; how society has changed.!

Anybody tried frying things in their quench oil?

Before it was in the quench tank yes...

I don't recall which pizza center city has a tradition of coal fired pizza ovens. I wouldn't be surprised at brad ovens fired by coal but gleaning bits of hot coal from the blacksmith sounds kind of not so. Maybe the smith's wife, all shed have to do is send one of the little ones for a bucket of burning coal and skip the whole building a fire thing.

Sean and I twisted up "Roman" I think he said, grilling irons. Basically coiled the hard way flat stock with a handle. We tried them out in the barrel stove, worked a treat.

Frosty The Lucky.

I've had pizza from coal-fired ovens in NYC -- it's pretty amazing.

Seen (and made) viking grilling iron done they way you described (As shown in the prune people Viking book)l Can you ask Sean about the roman example?  I really want to grab that and run and unfortunately most of my cooking implement books are medieval and renaissance (and later).  Now I have cooked steaks and kielbasa in the exhaust of an iron smelter before---if you keep them in the reducing gases they can't burn!

JHCC that might have been Lombardi's, the first pizzeria in America. I am old enough to remember coal fired ovens, our neighborhood bakery had one.

8 minutes ago, Bud in PA said:

JHCC that might have been Lombardi's, the first pizzeria in America. I am old enough to remember coal fired ovens, our neighborhood bakery had one.

John's on Bleeker Street, founded in 1929 by John Sasso, who had worked at Lombardi's.

I have to admit, I've cooked a lot of meals over the forge - from steaks over hot coals after working for the day, fresh pizza, to whole lobster in the gas forge (after it stopped showing color) and even making grilled cheese on a hot bar of steel fresh from the forge before my demos..Today Nick Oh joined Crazy Ivan and I at the shop and this was the goulash simmering away while we worked. 

J

G'day Flying XS. Where in Australia are you? Big country.

As for cooking on the forge, we sometimes chuck a pie in Alfoil and warm it up. Also, the billy sits next to my forge all the time and it doesn't take long to boil at smoko time each day. Visitors like to see a cup of tea made on the forge.

It's also handy to demonstrate how my bull's head billy lifters work!

J.W.S.  that the sort of thing I wanted to SEE,  no photos then it didn't happen.

 

 

Ausfire, I'm down south in VIC.

 

 

Any issues with cooking with "Coke"  not the liquid or white powder.

Great photo, JWS. That's a real cosy set up you have there.

21 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

Nick; can we have more info on that?  "Real old days" Roman times? Earlier?  I've never heard that one and would like to track it down to add to my store of smithing trivia.  

I will try I to find it back read this back in September for school work had to write a research paper on what ever we wanted so I went with blacksmithing and read this some were and I think it was in roman times