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By: user94836
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I was playing the Sims Medieval the other day, and at one point, the blacksmith proves s/he's a capable cook by... taking a piece of meat, firing up the forge, and hammering the thing into a steak.
It's obviously done tongue-in-cheek, but it got me thinking - is it somehow possible to use a forge (bellows, coal, anvil, the works) to produce something actually edible?
If 'yes', what sort of constraints (e.g. necessary preparations, limitations on what kind of foods you could prepare) would there be?
Putting aside issues of cost and practicality.
Forges operate at extremely high temperatures. Steel gets that "glow" of red around 900°F/480°C. So if we want to consider the coldest possible temperature, that's it (but likely much higher).
There are a limited number of foods that could be cooked at that temperature and be enjoyably edible. For most foods, temperatures that high will burn the outside before cooking the inside.
You'd really be limited to things like flatbread, pizza, or very thin strips of meat. Essentially things that have a lot of surface area to cook, but not much internal mass that needs to be brought up to temperature. Maybe even something like popcorn? Either way, that surface-to-mass ratio will be important.
There may be other things that are possible but not practical given enough creativity. Ex) You could heat the anvil, then use it's thermal mass to cook on. Because of the impractically, but possibility, it feels more fun as a world building exercise than a cooking one.