[Stoves] Lion Cub Stove and Rocket Barbecue

[Ray Menke]

Last year I converted a standard propane powered rectangular BBQ to a
wood gas bread oven by removing the rusted-out burner assembly and
replacing it with a piece of steel channel (inverted over the bottom
hole, and running almost from end-to-end).  Next to the channel I
tossed in two 2" x 2" angle irons (again, the length of the grill),
and covered the whole works with the old lava rocks, then the grill,
and finally a stainless steel cooling rack from the kitchen.  (The
grill tended to blacken wide bars on the bottom of the rolls, whereas
the cooling rack has small diameter wires, and being made of
stainless, just leave nice narrow diameter brown marks.)
I put a TLUD stove under it, on some cement blocks, and covered the
top of the BBQ with some fiberglass insulation.  I fired up the stove,
and let it bring the internal temperature of the steel, rocks, and
grills to about 500 F.  Then I opened it up, and added a batch of a
dozen dinner rolls, closed the lid and let them bake.  Other times I
have baked loaves of bread.  The original BBQ thermometer is visible
through the glass window, but I also inserted a thermocouple as a
double check of temperature.
The bread and rolls did have a slight wood smoke flavor, but by using
the channel to direct the exhaust gases out the ends, I hoped to avoid
adding too much wood flavor to the bread.  (The propane BBQ has very
small slots on the ends for exit gases and smoke.)
About half way through the baking time for the bread, if everything is
still up to temperature, the TLUD stove can be removed, and the char
extinguished in a bucket of water.  The thermal mass of the oven
continues the cooking process.

-- 
Ray  Menke