SC - I Fired My Bread!

[MAUREEN.L.MARTIN at DFAS.MIL]

Greetings The List!

Now that I have (more or less) gotten all put back together from Lilies
I have time to report on my adventure in baking bread with real fire. 
But first let me take this opportunity to say that Lilies' weather this
year was the best ever since I have been attending (6 years):  Days in
the 70's and nights in the 50's with low (for Missouri) humidity;
perfect camping weather (for those of us who brought blankets)!  And
only 1 day of rain (I'm not counting the nights)!  We should be so lucky
again.  I am presuming the Weather Gods felt mildly guilty for last year and
were trying to make things up to us--contributions must have been down.

And now for our story...

I started about 11:00 a.m. stoking the fire.  Used mostly Pin Oak
kindling and some mystery logs someone brought.  Our fire pit was
roughly 3' by 3' by 18" deep.  There was a little keyhole notch, 1' by
1' by 6" deep, dug on the up-wind side.

Fire Pit Illustration (this may not come out O.K., but you can kinda get
the picture):


|---------------|
|               |
|               \-----|
|                     |       <---Nitch for coals
|               /-----|
|               |
|---------------|


 
Once the fire was going I mixed up the dough using Cindy Renfrow's
redaction of Rastons in *Thousand Eggs* (Cindy, may I print your recipe
on this list?).  Since I forgot modern measuring implements I fell back on
the time tested method of Guesstimation (I used eating implements as
rough measures).  

Since temperature was only in the low 70's by the time I finished mixing
it, to keep it warm and cozy I covered it with a damp towel and put it
in the (normally) hot (but now just uncomfortably warm) old mundane tent
I was using as a storage closet. It took 2ish hours to rise to double in
bulk.  I punched it down, shaped it into a ball and placed it on a
greased 9" stoneware pie plate, that being a close approximation to a
stone hearth AND the right size to fit into my little Coleman-type
oven.  I returned the mass with dampened towel to my improvised
"proofing oven" for another rise.  Since by now it was honestly hot in
the tent the dough rose much more quickly this time.  Also, I didn't
quite let it double in size since I was afraid that with the spring in
the oven it would grow too large for its baking confines:  my oven is
roughly one foot square.

In the mean time, I kept the fire stoked; the neighbors cooked lunch on
it and I placed my oven on the ground over its little niche in the dirt
to warm up.  Conveniently, the fire was sufficiently burned down to
coals when the bread was ready to bake, and the pit was nice and hot.  

After removing the oven, I took a shovel and rounded up all of the coals
that were ready (which were most of them), scooping them into the niche
the oven had been on. I replaced the oven over the niche with its coals and
put my little 9" bun it the oven.  I then sat impatiently in front of the
oven's glass window to watch the show.  After 3 minutes of the wind
switching directions and blowing smoke from a smoldering bit of wood
into my face I gave it up and puttered around camp for half an hour,
checking the bread frequently.
 
Its initial spring was good, but things slowed down after that, I think
because the breeze came up, or maybe because the coals were too far gone
after the first 20 minutes.  At any rate, its size was good, but it was
too pale.  By now it was time to stoke the fire for dinner, so I dropped
some more mystery wood on the pit and built up a nice blaze behind the
oven.  And, Lo, the bread began to take on some color!  I turned it
once, obtaining a nice, fairly even, golden color.  The texture was a
little moist and could have used a little more time in the cooker, but I
was afraid at the rate it was browning it would just burn if I left it
in longer.  
 
The recipe calls for scooping out the guts and mixing the cut up bits
with clarified butter.  Unfortunately, I forgot the butter and was
forced to use (shudder) Shedd's Spread.  It tasted fine anyway.  I was
supposed to wait for the loaf to cool before I gutted it, but I forgot
that part in the excitement of the moment and did it while it was (very)
warm.  I might have gotten a better texture if I had waited until it was
cool.  

After replacing the crumbs in the cavity of the crust, the loaf sat
around and got quite cool waiting for dinner to be served.  However, after
returning it to the oven for a few minutes we ate the bread for dinner.
My camp mates seemed surprised but they pronounced it not only edible
but "Very Good."  However, for my personal palate I think I will add some
salt next time even though none of the original recipes called for it.

That's all for now.  Let me know what you think.  I plan to do this again;
it was so easy!  I want to build an earthen oven at home and play with that.
Does anyone have any specs on something like that?

Melisande Saucheverel
Calontir
Barony of Forgotten Sea
 
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