Lets Cook – Log Burner Baked Potatoes!

If you’re already using your log burner for heating your home, then it will be worth using that heat for cooking food also. This will save on gas or electric and can produce some delicious results.

We’ve recently been experimenting with cooking a baked potato on our new Charnwood Aire Log Burner, and the results were amazing!

The ancient Incas were the first to cultivate the potato somewhere between 8,000 and 5,000 BC. Although the modern log burner was a long way off from being invented, the Incas would cook in makeshift ovens made from stone and earth. Having now tried cooking a potato in a log burner, we think the Incan methods for baking the grand old spud were probably the best, as well as the first.

Here’s how we cooked ours.

Ingredients

1 x Large baking potato

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp coarse ground black pepper

1 tbsp olive oil

1 x knob of salted butter

1 x sprig of rosemary

Log Burner Preparation

Get your log burner going. Kindling, firelighters, matches. Once the wood stove is hot enough, it’s time to add a good size log. 

Once this has reduced down to hot embers and ash, add another log while you are preparing the potato. 

Spud preparation

Make sure you poke plenty of holes in the potato so that it cooks through. Rub the potato with the olive oil and sprinkle your salt, pepper and rosemary over. Give the potato a good rub all around with the seasoning. Wrap the spud in plenty of thick tinfoil. 

The Cook

In we go. Place the potato in the hot ashes. If you have fireplace tools, then scoop some of the ashes and small embers from the bottom of the stove and cover the potato. 

Now we are cooking.

Leave the potato in the log burner for one hour. Check to see if the potato is cooked to your likeness, if not return and check every 10 minutes.

The Result!

Voila! Our potato is cooked through, piping hot with crispy skin and a soft centre. A knob of butter, some salt and pepper and you have a spud that even Sir Walter Raleigh would have been jealous of. 

We will be cooking a lot more dishes on and in our stoves so keep an eye out for our posts!

If this has inspired you to try this at home you can tag @ignitestoves on facebook or instagram.