[Sca-cooks] Fwd: Oven temperature question

[Terry Decker]

In general, medieval European ovens are closer to New Mexican hornos than
pizza ovens or pit type ovens.  The fire is built on the floor of the oven,
the mass is brought to temperature, then the embers are raked, the floor is
swabbed, coarse meal is scattered on the floor of the oven, the shaped
loaves are loaded and the oven is closed for about an hour to bake the
bread.

There are a couple illustrations which may show constant temperature ovens
with a seperate firebox, but the issue is open to question.

Bear


>
> I think the closest approximation to a mass oven used in medieval times,
which is widely available
> to the ley-public, would be either a wood-fired pizza oven or a "deep pit"
style oven.  Still, you
> are likely to get better results from the wood-fired oven.
>
>
> Speaking from experience, a wood-fired oven of decent commercial size (say
a 3.5' radius base), if
> the coals are left in at night, can still push out between 200 and 275
degrees F the next morning.
>  I have worked with ovens which, due to business volume, were kept 'at
temperature' until closing
> (11 pm or so), and were still pushing 300 - 310 F at about 8 the next
morning.
>
> Bear is most likely correct in his belief that medieval ovens would have
been cleared out after
> the final use of the day.  The risk of fire would likely have been too
great to keep the embers
> burning unattended overnight.  Clearing the oven would have caused the
temperature to drop
> drastically over the intervening hours, though i would not be willing to
hazard a guess as to how
> much...
>
> William de Grandfort