Posted 9 years ago
hotairfan
(385 items)
This is a reflector oven or tin kitchen as it was often called. They were used in the 18th and 19th Century for cooking meals in front of the fireplace. A goose or chicken was placed on the spit and rotated periodically to cook . The window in the backside was to baste the meat as it dripped onto the base of the oven which has a catch basin and a spout so you could pour the drippings into a pot to make gravy.
Once a year, my wife and I would invite two couples over on New Years Eve to have a Colonial meal. We used this oven to prepare the chicken. (the tin coating was long worn away, so, we lined the rear of the oven with aluminum foil to reflect the heat). My wife also made a beef stew in a Dutch Oven and also baked bread. All made in front of the fireplace. No electricity, only candles for lighting, and maybe some colonial music in the background. It was always a great hit with our guests.
Sorry to say, because of the rising cost of fuel oil, we had to resort to a wood stove in front of our fireplace. I miss our Colonial New Year Eve.
You have a fine example of a tin kitchen and I hope you find a way to continue to use it. I have one myself, and have used it for roasting meats and for baking some breads. These were quite efficient modern devices in their time and deserve to be experienced by folks today who were raised in the microwave era.
Thank you or your comments castironkitchens. I was not aware that you could bake bread in the reflector oven. I would love to try that.
My most successful bread baking experiences with reflector ovens have been with baking powder or baking soda recipes as the yeast recipes tend to over rise before the yeast in the dough has been killed by the temperature of the oven. Biscuit recipes, hoe cakes and bannocks seem to do well...good luck and bon appetit!
ive been looking for one of these myself for some time. They do not come come around too often and are quite pricey. Well done!
I can't use my reflector oven in front of the fireplace anymore as I stated in my description. This year I have been using a beehive oven (modern make) on our patio. We started by making bread and than pizza. As I was making pizza, I discovered that if I let the door panel off, I got a lot of reflective heat that escapes through the doorway. I am going to fabricate a plate that will hold my reflector oven in front of this doorway. I think maybe, we will be cooking a chicken in our reflector oven soon.
hotairfan, if you have some time I would like you to take a look at something I just came upon. If you have the time of course. I will post it later tonight. I value your opinion, I have a feeling it could be something local to your area. Take care!
Hotairfan- just a thought regarding using your reflector oven in fron of the bee-hive oven. I also have a bee-hive oven (adobe horno) and roasted a chicken on the hearth with my reflector oven. My reflector oven is a modern copy with some soldered joints, which began to melt from the intense heat of the horno. Be careful to monitor the temperature and you will do fine.
Very cool. J Townsend has great video where they cook a turkey in a tin kitchen.
thanks castironkitchens. I'll watch the temp carefully, happy cooking
I'll watch for your post BH
Yep same feet as the crane. I bet the chicken was delicious :)
How long was cook time ?