Dear Readers of Dr TLUD website.
I am now able to place items of interest onto this site, sort of like a
Blog, but not intending to be a Blog.
Today three writers on the Stoves Listserv made comments about how they
cook with TLUDs in western-style homes.
Good reading if you are into doing that.
Please NOTE and remember: There are no two-way commentaries or
discussions on the drtlud.com website. ALL dialog that I do is
via the three Listservs (Stoves, Biochar, Gasifier) where many people
can enter into the discussions. Other responses to Neil’s message are
already at the Stoves Listserv, and I will NOT be placing them at the
Dr TLUD website.
Thanks to Neil, Ray, and Mangolasi for their interesting messages below.
Dr TLUD
Doc / Dr TLUD / Prof. Paul S. Anderson, PhD
Email: psanders@ilstu.edu
Skype: paultlud Phone: +1-309-452-7072
Website: www.drtlud.com
On 1/14/2017 8:07 AM, neiltm@uwclub.net wrote:
Neil Taylor, in a sodden semi frozen England.
> Just had to share an almost comically successful breakfast cook this
> morning of porridge, done under an umbrella because of that immaculate
> timing of rain starting just as I’ve got the stove lit, coincidence that
> is only matched of course by rain starting the instant all the washing
> has been put on the line!
>
> I cooked oat porridge, which simply involves bringing the oats and
> milk/water to the boil and then simmering for 5 minutes while constantly
> stirring to prevent burning. (Burnt porridge is not nice.)
>
> What I wanted therefore was for the stove to bring the pan to the boil as
> quickly as possible and then turn itself down at that point and simmer on
> a lower flame for 5 minutes.
>
> The wood outside by now is sodden, when not actually frozen, but I still
> put a bottom covering layer of it in the Chinese wood gas camping stove,
> then progressively reduced the amount of wet wood in relation to
> perfectly dried wood from off the top of our boiler, finishing off the
> top third with dry wood only, for a good hot fire for the boiling stage.
> This I achieved to match in cooking time and performance what I would
> have achieved indoors on the gas stove, maybe even better. I’ve boiled a
> full kettle in 10 minutes in TLUD mode from striking the match with this
> stove – it doesn’t hang about getting going if the wood is dry.
>
> No sooner than the pan had boiled, the flames licking up the sides of the
> pan disappeared bang on cue to give me my simmering flame. Still a
> little more vigorous than I would have set on a gas stove just to begin
> with, but not a problem and it settled down very nicely for most of the
> simmer. I will have to see if I can achieve more abrupt transitions
> successfully.
>
> When I took the cooked porridge off the flame I could see that there was
> pyrolysis still going on right at the bottom, it was as if a flame from
> the bottom was working its way up through the glowing char above it, but
> the net result was a lovely simmer fire without the flare up at the end
> typical of a uniform loading of TLUDs.
>
> Now I’m only a dilletante with these stoves, a regular/occasional user
> when I feel like it, which is usually whenever the weather isn’t too
> horrible. But although I will be honest and allow a margin for luck,
> because I don’t always get it right, I did achieve what I set out to
> achieve for the cook. It was only relatively recent experience of having
> loaded stoves this way quite a few times by now that gave me this
> control, so it occurs to me that where a cook is using these stoves all
> or the majority of the time, no matter what their local conditions and
> found fuel available, they will clearly be able to apply accumulated
> experience of the stove, the variability in their available fuel and what
> they commonly cook, to knowing just how to get the fire they want when
> they want it, even out of a fixed air ratio configuration stove, in a
> variety of ways, not just involving varying moisture content but fuel
> type and sizing also.
>
> This is control that is potentially available with the simplest of easily
> fabricated tincanium stoves, requiring little more than a sharp point to
> make holes in tins. At that level it is also possible to make a variety
> of stoves more suited to some specific cooking tasks with commonly
> available fuel than others. Given the extent to which A TLUD stove is
> batch burn only, and the extent to which cooking tasks are repetitive, it
> is potentially easy to make these stoves optimally for such repetitive
> cooking tasks, and this I have done. The only down side of the chinese
> ebay stoves is that it is not usually possible to limit the primary air
> sufficiently to prevent soot on the pan, but on the plus side, TLUD mode
> can be just a really great start to an indefinitely sustainable burn
> through continuing feeding the fire, a stage which also brings new ways
> to control the level such as allowing ash build up to partially choke
> primary air, or simply putting more or less wood on the fire.
>
> I find pleasure and satisfaction in my own learning about woods and their
> preparation, and building the kinds of fire that I want, that I find hard
> to imagine is not potentially universal, even where there is no choice of
> fuel type for the cook. It is a satisfying learned skill. We are a
> perverse species in many ways. Where there is third world poverty forced
> to burn biomass there is aspiration for lpg and electricity. Where there
> is first world wealth there is status amongst the wealthy rural dwellers
> in the UK in their ‘Aga’ range combined cooker, oven and water heater
> burning wood. Plus there is a growing interest in outdoor cooking on
> wood, wood burning ovens for bread and piza, even amongst caterers at
> festivals etc where the novelty (and taste) of cooking on wood pulls in
> the punters. In other words there is nothing intrinsically inferior to
> cooking with biomass, the differing statuses assigned to doing so
> depending on choice or its lack.
>
> Poverty in the UK is a relative term to third world poverty, but the UK
> poor who experience ‘fuel poverty’ and therefore scarcity at the point of
> feeding pound coins they don’t have enough of into gas and electric
> meters do sometimes choose to install wood burning stoves for cooking,
> space and water heating where a chimney is available, because there is
> usually no shortage of free wood to be found whether in urban or rural
> areas. A second hand ‘Rayburn’ can sometimes be had for free, it being a
> cost in transportation and time to dismantle these heavy cast iron stoves
> where not wanted. This depite their continued availability and
> desirability brand new, and at a high price.
>
> Neil Taylor, in a sodden semi frozen England.
>
> *************************************
> From Ray Menke
> Neil, thanks for the report. The burn pot on that stove is about 9 CM
> or a bit less than 4 inches, correct? I usually select my fuel from my
> various boxes (stashed around inside the house) too, although I work
> real hard to keep it all dry. On the bottom, I sometimes use little
> charcoal brands, somewhat like torrefied wood, followed by slivers of
> mesquite or Huisache hardwood, and then red cedar on the very top as
> an ignitor. This gives me a good hot start that slows down as the
> flame front reaches the brands. Sometimes I have to add more because
> the pot is so small. Our local grocery store has some neat matches
> imported from Mexico. They are called “Maya”, (500 cost 70 cents) and
> are cactus quills tipped with some sort of very flammable coating (a
> small gob on the tip). Really good, and much cheaper than the regular
> wooden strike anywhere matches.
> www.heb.com/product-detail/maya-matches-10-pack/1202239 My
> serious cooking stove is much larger, with a 20 CM diameter pot about
> 1/2 Meter deep. If I plan to BBQ some meat, I run the stove through a
> batch of hardwood slivers cooking potatoes, rice, boiling eggs, and
> heating water which overall takes at least 45 minutes, then I dump the
> glowing char into a small wood forge, turn on the blower and set the
> speed with a PWM hooked to an old motorcycle battery. Then I set the
> grill in place, and once it is hot, load on the steaks. I can vary the
> heat with the speed control, and even add a few raw mesquite slivers
> for some smoke flavor. Dear wife says it makes the best BBQ ever! The
> forge is a home-made copy of the Whitlox wood-fired unit, which is
> basically some firebrick arranged in a Vee, with a slit at the bottom
> where an iron pipe with four holes can blow air upwards through the
> charcoal made in the TLUD stove. As soon as the food is done, I use a
> small shovel to recover the charcoal which I put into a large pan of
> water. After it is dry, I brush it over hardware cloth. The fines go
> into the garden compost pile, and the larger stuff gets tossed into my
> charcoal grinder with other charcoal, to be screened again (after
> grinding) and saved as fuel to be used in my charcoal gasification
> units that make electricity. Raining here too…
> — Ray Menke In Texas
*************************************
From Mangolasi (in Malasia)
> Hi Neil,
>
> I’ve also had success with making half-boiled eggs for breakfast using TLUDs Glad to hear of people using those stoves for real world cooking beyond the lab. My small tincanium stove boils water in about 10 minutes and the remaining heat from char is enough for another 10 minutes of quick frying. I try not to run it on char too often because it wrecks the housing.
>
> I’m using dried peanut and walnut shells, they’re light and make a roaring flame when packed in tightly. Any problems with smoke when using wet wood at the bottom of the pile?
>
> There’s a lot of optimization that can be done on these small stoves. I’ve never had a soot-free burn though. You could try adding a cross draft bar or a flame disk like on kgharris’ designs to better mix pyrolysis gasses and secondary air for cleaner burning.