[Sca-cooks] Fwd: Oven temperature question

[MD Smith]

My experience baking in ovens built in the 18th and 19th centuries is 
that they are fired once, the coals are raked out, the floor swabbed and 
the breads inserted. The fires are not kept burning around the edges as 
in a modern pizza oven.

Modern commercial bakers using vintage or reproduction ovens sometimes 
keep them firing continually, but this has the unhappy effect of burning 
the oven out sooner rather than later, and makes the floor hard to swab 
for the proper steam. Hence steam injectors, which seem 
counter-intuitive in a mass oven, and are hard on the masonry.

The time it takes to fire an oven to bread baking temperatures varies 
widely according to (as Bear mentioned) the size of the oven itself, the 
thermal mass around it and the fuel used. Other conditions that affect 
how long it takes to fire an oven to bread baking temperature:

What was the prevailing weather the week before firing?

Is the oven outside, built on an outside wall or an interior part of the 
fireplace?

If outside, is the dome protected from rain/snow?

Has the masonry been properly maintained?

Is this the first firing of the year?

Is the oven fired regularly (once a week at the very least)?

Are there fires in the fireplace routinely?

Hope this helps.

MD/Marged