[Sca-cooks] Fwd: Oven temperature question

[Terry Decker]

> The few pictures I have seen of medieval 'communal ovens' all appeared to
be constant temperature
> ovens, with the fire burning at the rear/sides of the oven, much like our
modern pizza ovens.  Of
> course, these were all paintings from post-period, and could very well
have been artist
> interpretations.

I've seen period illustrations showing a fire in the oven during the baking,
but I suspect that it was an artistic way of showing the oven was heated.
You really don't want smoke in a baking chamber.  There are a couple of
illustrations with what might be seperate fireboxes, but it's open to
debate.

I would point out that a brick and clay oven insulates against exterior heat
sources for the same reasons it absorbs and later radiates heat from an
interior heat source.

>
> Still, I would relish the opportunity to see one of these mass ovens in
operation, and would like
> even more to try my hand at mastering it.  Are there any replicas near the
south-central portion
> of California???  Not likely, right?
>
> William de Grandfort

Check the Spanish missions.  The beehive oven commonly found in the Spanish
colonies hasn't changed since the Middle Ages.

Bear