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Cooking on a Morso Squirrel?

tomandsophie

By tomandsophie
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tomandsophie Rising Star

tomandsophie

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I am looking for which solid fuel stove to buy for our new boat. The most popular choice seems to be a Morso Squirrel. I have heard that it is possible to boil a kettle on the top of one of these stoves. Does anybody have any experiene of this? I guess if you can boil a kettle on top then you could also use it to boil potatoes, steam veggies, etc. ...

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Paul Evans Rising Star

Paul Evans

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I don't have direct experience - the cook in the family demands a "proper" cooker - but working boatmen and boatwomen had only solid fuel stoves on which to cook and boil water. As long as the top of your Squirrel gets hot enough, I'm sure you could emulate them - and what about long slow stewing?

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Oliver Collaborator

Oliver

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We have a wood burning stove at home (on land) and have succeeded in burning, rather than roasting, chestnuts which I put on the top.

 

Never tried cooking on it but I reckon you could cook fish wrapped in foil or other food stuffs which cook quickly.

 

(Wish I'd thought about using it to cook last Christmas - the central core of my Rayburn burst 3 days before Christmas - no heating, no cooking, no hot water and 8 people staying for 10 days, 16 for Boxing Day lunch. Ended up going to Midland Chandlers to buy the cooker we were going to put on the boat and rigging that up. Was over a month before the Rayburn was working again. Good job hubby and my Dad were around when it burst otherwise the ground floor would have been underwater by the time I got home from work)

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tomandsophie Rising Star

tomandsophie

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Ooh, sounds like it works then! Excellent. We have a Parkray stove at home at the moment but because of the way it is built into the wall it doesn't get hot on top, so I was just wondering if the Squirrel would do. I'll look forward to some stews and soups then... :(

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  • 2 weeks later...
Andy Woods Engager

Andy Woods

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I have a 'Le Creuset' casserole pot and often cook on the squirrel with it.

As my stove is near the hob i often use it as an extra way of keeping food simmering. Another trick is to keep a kettle of water on top at all times, handy for washing up etc and heated for free!

My Squirrel has a back boiler that feeds a double rad at the bedroom end of the boat using a domestic circulator. last weekend it was minus 1 outside, and I had to put a fan on in the bedroom to cool it down!

Regards

Andy.

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  • 1 year later...
DHutch Veteran II

DHutchDonate to Canal World

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I cooked a full blown curry on mine last night - fabulous! And a cuppa to keep me going in the meantime

That quite impressive stuff.

 

We've done a big pot a stew on ours before now, and then ete it over the next few days, keeping it on the baseplate in the engine room in between.

 

 

Daniel

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hnb2907 Explorer

hnb2907

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We've got a small puffin stove which we use for keeping the kettle hot (it will eventually boil if you chuck enough wood in it). Seems to slow cook stews (or our local Potter delicacy "Lobby") with no problems. It does seem to burn wood a lot better than those coal briquette things.

 

We were previously on a shared owner boat a few years back that had a Squirrel stove which we always seemed to put a *lot* of coal in, but never gave out the amount of heat we expected. It maybe would have helped if it had some fire bricks inside to fill it up a bit. The puffn seems to give a lot more heat for longer with way less coal in it.

 

There's my thoughts anyway....

 

 

Cheers,

Chris.

 

I am looking for which solid fuel stove to buy for our new boat. The most popular choice seems to be a Morso Squirrel. I have heard that it is possible to boil a kettle on the top of one of these stoves. Does anybody have any experiene of this? I guess if you can boil a kettle on top then you could also use it to boil potatoes, steam veggies, etc. ...

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TeeELL Proficient

TeeELL

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Tom and Sophie I can concure with Andy. I keep a kettle of water on my 'Squirrel' and it is perfect for making coffee/ washing-up etc. It takes a little while to reach 'just boiling' - how long I don't know. Havn't tried cooking on it but its certainly worth considering. My 'Squirrel' has a back boiler which runs the bathroom underfloor heating, a couple or rads towards the rear of the boat and water heating via calorifier. I've also got one of those magic fans sitting on top of it.

 

Happy cooking

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tomandsophie Rising Star

tomandsophie

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Quite funny to see this post resurrected over a year after I started it! Now we live on our boat with our Squirrel going 24/7 and we have cooked many a fine soup/stew/curry/etc. on it! It runs three rads, and just recently we became the proud owners of an Ecofan - magic!

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  • 4 weeks later...
Clarissa Engager

Clarissa

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Glad the thread is resurrected, I'm a wood stove nerd!

The Morso Squirrel always has the top reputation. I started with fitting a Torgem in a Dawncraft 27. Then a Nelson charcoal burner in a Halcyon 23 (sailing yacht). Next I put into a Folkdancer 27 (sailing boat) a French antique, circa 1920's iron stove, low, flat topped cylindrical with three concentric rings on top. The rings could be removed and a wok full of curry/stew etc placed on top would boil in about five minutes.

I always liked the Boatman because it is a simple design and the door opens wide to sit in front poking logs and gazing, or what's known as "swallowing your eyes", in the picture stories of the flames.

I gave the last stove away in Portugal due to an excess of hot sun and the twenty kilos of weight it represented. I found a steel decorative vase floating in Puerto de La Luz, Las palmas and bolted it to the still in situ chimney, with a letterbox style slot in front. This winter solstice I burned some cork oak bark just for the pleasure and it works fine, but is too small and nothing can be placed on top.

The most exciting solid fuel stove, aesthetically, is the "Sardine" by Navigator Stove Works, narrowboaters check out the Little Cod. Now these are really lovely stoves and the pictures of installations on the website are a joy.

 

Navigator Stove Works

 

I now have a fan heater because the marina provides electricity within the berthing price, but oh that cork oak bark smoulders with such a luscious scent.

Clarissa

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  • 6 years later...
Betty Rivers Gongoozler

Betty Rivers

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I am looking for which solid fuel stove to buy for our new boat. The most popular choice seems to be a Morso Squirrel. I have heard that it is possible to boil a kettle on the top of one of these stoves. Does anybody have any experiene of this? I guess if you can boil a kettle on top then you could also use it to boil potatoes, steam veggies, etc. ...

 

Hi TomandSophie,

 

If you haven't got one already, go for it. We have had ours a month or so and regularly cook on it. Some things which need to be brought to the boil quickly like rice might be better started on your gas if the stove's not hot enough yet, but otherwise it's great. We also toast directly on the top, keep a full kettle on there and I am planning to make a rotating potato roaster like they had in early 20th century kitchens too.

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Grace and Favour Veteran II

Grace and Favour

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I am looking for which solid fuel stove to buy for our new boat. The most popular choice seems to be a Morso Squirrel. I have heard that it is possible to boil a kettle on the top of one of these stoves. Does anybody have any experiene of this? I guess if you can boil a kettle on top then you could also use it to boil potatoes, steam veggies, etc. ...

 

Aye you can, - - but before you start steaming your Turbot in a giant fish kettle - - it would be advisable to ensure that you've adequate ventilation near your stove to make sure that you don't collect too much condensation during these wintry days

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Hi TomandSophie,

 

If you haven't got one already, go for it. We have had ours a month or so and regularly cook on it. Some things which need to be brought to the boil quickly like rice might be better started on your gas if the stove's not hot enough yet, but otherwise it's great. We also toast directly on the top, keep a full kettle on there and I am planning to make a rotating potato roaster like they had in early 20th century kitchens too.

 

I would hope that in the intervening 8 years since the original post that they have managed to get one.... ;)

 

:cheers:

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churchward Veteran II

churchward

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I am looking for which solid fuel stove to buy for our new boat. The most popular choice seems to be a Morso Squirrel. I have heard that it is possible to boil a kettle on the top of one of these stoves. Does anybody have any experiene of this? I guess if you can boil a kettle on top then you could also use it to boil potatoes, steam veggies, etc. ...

It is possible to cook many things on top of a stove, providing there is room. We have cooked stews, chicken breast wrapped in foil. Even backed potatoes in their jackets wrapped in foil in the fire itself. We had two house bricks in fire sides to limit the fire base and so placed the potatoes on top of them and it worked a treat.

 

I did use an old deep tin as a kind of oven on the top of the stove and managed to bake some bread.

 

I don't think we ever ran the fire hot enough to actually vigorously boil the kettle but it ca be brought to very near boiling and we have a kettle on it during the day as a default. When tea is required a few seconds on the gas ring gets it boiling. We use the kettle water for washing up etc too.

 

I would hope that in the intervening 8 years since the original post that they have managed to get one.... ;)

 

:cheers:

Hee hee I hadn't noticed the date!

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