The dilemma of a wood cooking stove versus a wood heating stove

       All what follows is from an email to my relatives.

       One of the advantages of getting older is that now I take the time up front to define my requirements.

            And I have a dilemma. Mostly these days using a wood cooking stove is a lost skill where I live. Like there is no one I know of to help advise me.

            And in fairness, it is so much easier with a modern electric or gas stove and oven in setting the temperatures to cook our food. That's our way of cooking these days.

            So most of my "skills" are based on what I read about wood and coal cooking stoves, and a little use of a made for Mexico wood cooking stove I already have.

            Also, one of my requirements to be able to use coal from a local high quality anthracite seam, if I have to. Earlier, some of our ancestors used this same coal to make moonshine, so I know it works.

            And right now I am not suffering. I have four wood heating stoves (over two cottages and one three sided shelter), and one Mexican style wood and coal cooking stove. Plus I have some extra grates for heating with coal. And I have two Coleman camping ovens to use to bake bread and other such things on top of my existing wood stoves.

            Yet I do have a dilemma. There's no book on the subject of any kind of wood stoves. Well, at least for what I want to know about. Mostly, what I can read it is kind of like getting married and learning one's spouse. Basically, one just has to figure it out over time.

            And so far, what little I know suggests the best way to adjust cooking temperatures reasonably quickly is to use small wood, in various amounts. And for heating stoves, the best wood is large wood with a thermostatic temperature control. So to use them for cooking with a camping oven will be more difficult in adjusting temperatures.

            And the "modern" wood cooking stove tries to do both, like keep us warm and also cook and bake. But so far, I think there's no free lunch, like the amount of wood or coal and the size of it all is a big factor in cooking in any kind of stove.

            So the dilemma is: what is more important?  Do I seek heat and being warm, or do I seek cooked food? I can't have it both ways, I think. And by that I mean with smaller wood I have to replenish it more often, and that means staying up or assigning people to do it 24/7.

            Of course this is a cold season problem. And I do have extra long johns to wear, too, if I have to. And during the warm season, I have another dilemma, like what to do with the heat in the room the wood or coal stove is in. While we don't want heat, we will want to eat cooked and baked food. And the last dilemma is pretty simple. Maybe I shouldn't even worry or anticipate this kind of dilemma.