[Sca-cooks] trivets and Dutch ovens

[Ron Carnegie]

		Seems to be a mistaken understanding here.  The hearth is not a stone
oven.  A hearth is just the brick area in front of the fireplace.  While
Lady Ann (Nancy Kiel) has baked in brick ovens, not stone, we don't have any
stone ovens at Colonial Williamsburg, I assure you it is cast irons ones she
means.

	Cooking on a hearth is more efficient than cooking on an open fire however.
This is what she was suggesting might be different.  It is different.

	Both she and I have used "Dutch" ovens both on hearths and at fires, though
I think I may have more experience than her  at camps.  If so however, it is
changing quickly!

Ranald de Balinhard

> -----Original Message-----
> From: sca-cooks-bounces+r.carnegie=verizon.net at ansteorra.org
> [mailto:sca-cooks-bounces+r.carnegie=verizon.net at ansteorra.org]On Behalf
> Of Stefan li Rous
> Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2005 5:39 PM
> To: SCA-Cooks maillist SCA-Cooks
> Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] trivets and dutch ovens
>
>
>   Nancy Kiel replied to me with:
> > I was able to cook for 4 years at Colonial Williamsburg without using a
> > trivet in the ovens.  Of course, it is nice to have an actual hearth to
> > cook on, and maybe that makes the difference between needing and not
> > needing a trivet.
>
> Yes, but there is a major difference between the stone ovens you were
> using and a metal dutch oven over and under hot coals. You are talking
> about using a single chamber rock or brick oven, right? Or are you
> talking about using a dutch oven in a hearth? If the latter, you may
> have just been able to control the heat better. If you are talking
> about using a mass oven, the following applies.
>
> With the dutch oven you are continuing to apply heat to the metal,
> which will conduct it quite nicely to anything touching it inside,
> which in our case, meant the bottom of the turnovers. In your case, the
> temperature will be at its hottest when you first put the food in the
> oven and from then on it will continue to go down. The more mass in the
> oven, the slower the temperature will drop. But it isn't going to get
> hotter. The temperature in the mass oven is also likely to be much more
> evenly applied. In the dutch oven you can very likely have some hot
> spots. The air space below the food helps even this out.
>
> Stefan
> --------
> THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
>     Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas
> StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
> **** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****
>
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