What a Hybrid Wood Fire Looks Like!

Woodstock introduced the first hybrid wood stove
in the USA in 2011

The pictures of a Progress Hybrid below just came in last week from a new customer in Pennsylvania.  The pictures show one thing that many of our customers like about our hybrid stoves - there’s a lot of flame activity, especially at the top of the firebox where secondary combustion occurs.  The flame activity can be quite mesmerizing, and can also be adjusted by changing the amount of air feeding the fire.

Hybrid Secondary Combustion Flames:  they occur at the top of the firebox, where we introduce combustion air to ignite exhaust gasses.

A Visit to the Factory

A recent visitor to our factory graced our facebook page with a beautiful collage of pictures taken during a tour.  You can view the page here. We are thrilled our visitors shared their pictures.  We thought we would take a moment to share them with you, and hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

If you are in the area, we invite you to stop in and visit our showroom, explore the stoves we have on display, and take a tour of our factory.  Our showroom/factory hours are 9:00 to 5:00, Monday thru Saturday.  No appointment is needed.  Our fabricators, welders, and other employees are busy in the factory until 3:30, Monday thru Friday, but they do not mind a visit from you. 

Ideal Steel Hybrid with Maple Leaf Design

When you first enter our factory area, you may come across an Ideal Steel Hybrid stove (or two, three or more) that are in the inspection phase.  Before your stove is shipped, it gets thoroughly inspected to make sure everything is working as it should.  This particular stove has the maple leaf design (NAT006) on it. 

Front of Ideal Steel Hybrid

Looks like these folks are getting a close up view of the front of the Ideal Steel and the ash pan.

Absolute Steel in Black with Metallic Mahogany, Prairie Wheat Pattern

Sitting near the Ideal Steel Stoves, waiting for inspection, is our newest stove, the Absolute Steel Hybrid.  This one is black, and has the Prairie Wheat pattern in Metallic Mahogany.  We have been building Absolute Steel beta stoves for test purposes.  We should have comments and results regarding UL clearance and other information for our new Absolute Steel Stoves posted soon.

Ideal Steel Andirons

As you walk towards the rear of our factory, you will go through the area where our Fireview, Keystone and Palladian stoves are made.   This picture shows some of our Ideal Steel Andirons which are lined up, waiting to be installed into a stove or shipped to a customer.

Fireview ready for shipment

Moving along through the Fireview section, we find a Fireview stove which is complete, waiting to be crated for shipment.

Section of our Factory

Section of our Factory

For over 38 years we have been building stoves and warming homes. From cast iron, soapstone, tubular steel, flat sheets of metal, designer art work, with fewer emissions and greater fuel efficiency, our engineers and employees never stop creating and designing.  We all work hard to bring the best product we can to our customers.

We enjoy having folks come to our showroom, and to see first hand what we do and how we do it. We are open 9-5 Monday thru Saturday.  You may have a factory tour any time we are open, with no special arrangements needed ahead of time.  Keep in mind that the shop is active until 3:30 in the afternoon, Monday thru Friday.  We hope to see you soon!

What's Cooking?

When there is a major storm in the forecast, it means many of us may loose our electricity.  This is when it is very, very nice to have a Woodstock Soapstone Stove.  Water can be heated on a wood stove, but I can also cook dinner on my wood stove.  This is a wonderful thing, especially when the power is out.

We have heard from some of our amazing customers about how fabulous it is to be able to create meals on their Woodstock Soapstone Stoves, and we thought we would share two of our recipes and a few quotes from our customers. 

Keep in mind there may be times it will be necessary to elevate your Dutch oven to protect the contents from becoming too hot, or to allow the contents to cook evenly, such as when baking/cooking bread.  A metal or cast iron trivet works well for this, just make sure you do not have rubber or plastic feet on anything you place on top of a hot wood stove.

Starting with soup; we have a recipe for Homemade Vegetable Soup.

Homemade Vegetable Soup

Homemade 
Vegetable Soup

• Vegetables (turnips, squash, zucchini, tomatoes, mushrooms, onion, beans, peas, corn, etc.), cut into pieces or chunks
• 2 stalks celery
• 6 or more baby carrots, cut into chunks or pieces
• 1 large onion, cut into small pieces
• 1 small can whole kernel corn (fresh is even better)
• 3 medium potatoes, cut into small pieces
• 5 cups water
• Meat, (beef, chicken or pork – optional)
• 1⁄2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 4 teaspoons or 4 cubes vegetable bouillon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1 can stewed or diced tomatoes with juice
• Leftover rice, noodles, broccoli or whatever’s in the fridge 

Place all of the vegetables in large pot and add the bouillon and water. If adding meat, cooked is better, but if it is raw, brown in butter first, then add to pot.

Add remaining ingredients, and simmer for at least 3 hours.  We usually cook our soups 4 to 5 hours. Check liquid level every now and then.  Otherwise, let it simmer.  I usually put it toward the back of the wood stove as well, where it’s hotter.  If it seems to be getting too hot, move it to the front.

Serve with fresh bread for an unbelievably good meal and just the right thing for a cold winter night. Yields 3 to 4 servings.

Now for the bread.  To bake bread on the top of a wood stove, you need to heat up a cast iron or heavy metal dutch oven.  One that has a tightly sealing lid.  You need to keep the heat and the moisture in the container with the dough.  Grease your cooking pot with some Crisco or butter and get it nice and hot, about 15 minutes on the top of a hot stove.  I like to make Beer Bread.  This is a very dense, hearty type of bread.  The Beer provides the yeast and the ingredient list is short.  If you’re using self-rising flour, you only need three ingredients.  If you’re using flour that is not self-rising, simply add one teaspoon of salt and 3 teaspoons of baking powder.  I recommend using a beer that has not been overly pasteurized, too much pasteurization of the beer kills the yeast

Beer Bread

• 1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle beer
• 3 cups self-rising flour
• 3 tablespoons white sugar
If you're using regular flour - add one teaspoon of salt and 3 teaspoons of baking powder to the flower before adding the beer and sugar to the flour.

In a large bowl, mix together the sugar and flour.  Add beer and continue to mix. Batter will be sticky. When all of the ingredients are throughly combined, put into a 9 x 5 inch greased loaf pan.

Bake at 350 degrees F (use your on-the-stove thermometer) for 50 for 60 minutes.  The top will be crunchy, and the insides will be soft. Serve topped with butter or cheese spread.

We hope you enjoy these two recipes for cooking on your wood stove.   We would love to hear about your experiences with your Woodstock Soapstone Wood Stoves.  Check out our facebook page here.  We invite you to post your pictures, and your stories of how you survive without power. 

Here are a few comments we have received about cooking on your Woodstock Soapstone Stove:

“…During the ice storm of this year- my Keystone kept the house quite warm- and…kept our bellies full! I made stove- top pizzas right on the Keystone! Everything was defrosting in my freezer- so out came the dough and a few essentials- onto the stove for 20 minutes and voila pizza for everyone!...” Wilmot, NH

“… we were without power for 12 days. While our neighbors ate cold meals and survived freezing temps, (and pipes), ….we stayed reasonably warm and enjoyed pot roast, beef stew, baked potatoes and hot soups thanks to our Fireview.” Jaffrey, NH

If you want to read more about cooking on our stoves, click here.

Customer Letter: Stove Feedback

Greetings Folks, 

My wife and I bought a Progress Hybrid from Woodstock last fall and as we close in on the end of our first full season using this stove, I wanted to contact you with some feedback.