[Sca-cooks] Fwd: Oven temperature question

[Terry Decker]

Did the baker relight the fire or have an oven that could be fired during
baking to maintain the heat?  I suspect you are thinking of the beehive
style oven that absorbs heat into the mass during firing then radiates it
back into the baking chamber after the fire is cleared.  In such a case, the
internal temperature after firing should be between 400 and 500 degrees F.
This will decline over a number of hours (depending on the mass of the oven
and the length and quality of the firing).

Breads (which reqire higher temperatures) were baked first, pies and coffins
next, then small cakes and dishes requiring lower heat.  While no source I
have found specifies the details, large quantities of bread (as for the
trenchers of a major household) were baked in advance and may have required
multiple firings.

I'm not sure what you are think about with a casserole of sticks and taking
it out in the morning.  I suspect most baker's fired their ovens before the
baker's mass (around 2 am), then cleared them after they returned and began
baking the loaves that had been prepared the night before.  Again, because
of the fire danger, the firing may have waited until after mass.  As with
today's bakeries, the fresh bread would have been on the shelves  when the
store opened.  The oven would have probably been cleared, cleaned and
prepped for the next morning sometime in the late afternoon.

Forget about trying to simulate a heat mass oven with a modern constant
temperature oven.  Modern ovens are designed to dissipate heat quickly and
you can't get the slow decline of the heat you need to match the temperature
gradient of a medieval oven.  Also, due to the nature of the beast,
temperatures flucuate inside a modern oven in ways that are completely
incompatible to a heat mass oven.  Just set the temperature and use it

If you have any more questions, contact me at t.d.decker at att.net .

Bear


> > I have a question for the bakers.
> >
> > At the end of the day of a medieval baker, how hot is his oven?
> >
> > I also want to know how long it might stay that hot, and what
> > temperature it might be by morning.
> >
> > I need to replicate putting a casserole filled with sticks in such an
> > oven and then taking that out in the morning. I am curious about what
> > a reasonable simulation with a modern oven might be? Would it be best
> > to start at a certain temperature and then gradually back it off over
> > the course of several hours to simulate medieval oven cooling?
> >
> > Randy Asplund     (734) 663-0954