[Sca-cooks] Fwd: Oven temperature question

[Stefan li Rous]

   William de Grandfort commented:
> 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...
What fire danger? You are keeping the embers in a big chunk of stone 
and mortar. The only opening is the door, and that has a closure of 
some type. Where would the embers go to cause a fire? In addition the 
area around the ovens, in the pictures I remember, seem to be pretty 
clear of burnables.

The cost of the fuel wasn't insignificant. I don't think they would 
have thrown out something that would have saved them some wood, and 
time, in bringing the oven back up to temperature.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
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