SC - Flours was:[Dstlg] beer bread, OOP

[Gedney, Jeff]

> Brandu
> 
> PS  I am planning to cook an event --about 130 -- soon(my first!), with
> 7 working full size ovens. But I have limited storage. I was hoping to
> do fresh baked breads or good meat pasties (or hopefully both). 
> I figure that means about 14 loaves and 28 large pasties. 
> Does any-one have any ideas how I can do this with a minimum of
> precooking, and not tear my hair out?
> 
I did 40 loaves on site for a feast with 1 standard oven.  It took about 7
hours.  I had three batches of dough at various stages of production
continuously.  The feast had been planned for a marginal kitchen so all of
the dishes were prepared on the range top, leaving the oven (which was in
another building) completely free.  

For your project, I am going to assume you are talking about the standard 30
x 30 x 24 inch oven, if you have the larger commercial models, so much the
better.  I'm also assuming you have early morning access to the kitchen.  If
you don't, forget about baking on site.

I assume you are talking 2 pound loaves, so figure 4 loaves to the standard
home oven, or 16 loaves/4 batches.  I'd get 4 13 quart bowls and make up the
dough about 9 am, punch down and shape about noon, bake about 2 pm.  I'd
plan to reserve 4 ovens for an hour for the baking.  By baking your pasties
in those four ovens (depending on the size of the dish) before and after the
bread, you would leave 3 ovens available for other dishes.  If you need more
oven space for the pasties or for feast preparation, use all of the ovens to
bake the pasties early on.  You can probably do all of the pasties in one
hour of baking time, if you use all of the ovens.  This leaves the ovens
free except for the hour of baking.  Modify the advice depending on which
dishes hold well without heat or refrigeration.

With 10 hours of access prior to the feast and two or three helpers, I would
expect to do most of my cooking and preparation on site and would plan my
menu accordingly.  But check the equipment carefully, I had one feast turn
out badly when I lost all four ovens within the space of two hours.

Seven ovens.  I envy you.

Bear

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