Just think of what it would be like if you had to slave over this cast iron sucker. And generations of women did have to cook on such beauties until electric stoves arrived in the early 1900s. The small top door beside the oven is the firebox where you put your wood/coal into the stove. The bottom is an ash bin. Your wood burned on grates and the ashes fell into a metal drawer that you would have to empty regularly. Plus refill the firebox so the fire didn't go out before the food was done.
The burning wood heated up the iron stove, along with the cook, I'm sure. And the oven was protected by asbestos in some models.
You had six trivets on top so you could have six dishes cooking simultaneously. Plus the oven was small, the door extremely heavy, and you had to watch your fire so that you didn't overheat the stove and burn your food. The stove had to have a flue pipe to vent the smoke and the flue pipe on this stove also heated the bread warmers. Can you imagine cooking Thanksgiving dinner on this?
So the next time you face your modern stove with a self-cleaning oven and instant heat at the touch of a button, take a moment to be grateful. Then, you can pop a frozen dinner in the microwave. 😂
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