As The Workhouse Approaches....How To Do Everything To Avoid It, the Old Style Way

freudianslip

oldtractor wrote: »

over risen means its been left too long rising,it rises like a fluffy cloud,gets too big and then the protein strands break [think blowing a balloon up until it bursts],so when you cook it it cant rise much at all,you end up with a heavy brick-like loaf.

....... and that is just what I've pulled out of the oven Thanks at least I know now. How long would you recommend I leave it to rise for?

rhubarbcottage

I see loads of you are cosidering buying woodburning stoves for your fireplaces, we'd love one too,
but would you consider one for your kitchens?
Our old electric oven had to go and we're thinking of replacing it with a woodburning oven.
Rayburns are way beyond our means but we've seen these for £400

http://www.stoveworlduk.co.uk/woodburningstoves_detail.php?stoveid=62

Obviously, it'll cost extra to fit it.

What do you think?

My family think I'm mad but with a microwave and hob as backup I think it's the way to go.
Plus it would provide warmth for the kitchen which is the only unheated area of the house.
Last winter the fridge freezer had to live in the hallway because the kitchen got so cold.

Fuel prices are never going to go down, are they, so I think woodburning is the way to go.

I've loved reading all your posts - it's taken me a few days to get through them all but it was worth every minute.

Thanks.

Rhu.

dandy-candy

Funnily enough I was clearing out my old receipt jar today and found a Waitrose receipt from Feb 2010. I pulled out my one from yesterday to compare prices (I am a creature of habit when it comes to groceries) and I was really surprised to find nearly every thing was the same price! Butter is a lot more now (29p difference) but milk and squash are actually cheaper - and they weren't on an offer!

redlady_1

An interesting prospect rhubarb. That has the same output as my burner.

mardatha

l'm all for real fires etc but bear in mind that you can't get the exact heat of a thermnostat oven....some things can take a bit of practice

YORKSHIRELASS

Hi all

Just on the woodburner discussions - we have a large multi-fuel stove in our kitchen/diner. This is designed to burn coal as well as wood. Now I accept that our house is not very well insulated but these stoves really arent cheap to run, unless you can get free wood, and you need a lot. Ours is great for keeping the kitchen/diner warm but thats about as far as it goes, and it does go through some fuel if you are running it all day.

The cost of coal and wood has gone up like everything else over the past couple of years and you need decent seasoned logs to make it work properly.

Personally I would not spend a lot of money installing a woodburner as I am not sure that you will get the money back. For comfort and a lovely warm glow they are fantastic, just dont expect them to be able to heat the whole house.

redlady_1

My wood is going up by 30% for this coming season.

[Deleted User]

ooo

http://www.orionheating.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=99&Itemid=113

born_blonde

I had a cheap wood burner/multi fuel stove in the kitchen - it didn't last. Spares were difficult to source and expensive.
But if I could afford to do it properly I'd do it again. Yes fuel is expensive but it cooked well, kettle always hot on the top and boy was the kitchen warm!

oldtractor

rhubarb cottage I do have one in my kitchen,and one in the sitting room. in a previous property we had a rayburn and its what I cooked on, it also heated the hot water. it was great for most things but took an awful lot of fuel to get to a really high temperature for making bread or frying ,for example. great for long slow cooking of cheap meats,strews casseroles. and you have to plan, it takes time to get up to temperature, a pain in the summer though, all windows open and stove boiling away! so we installed an electric hob and cooked on that in the summer.