[Sca-cooks] terracotta dome ovens vs. mass ovens
Stefan li Rous
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
Fri Jul 4 00:32:38 PDT 2008
Bear said:
<<< What Dragon is describing is closer to the Athenian cloche ovens
than the
Egyptian bread molds.
The Athenian oven is a terracotta dome on a flat terracotta base. The
Egyptian bread molds were made of two terracotta cones (probably
joined and
sealed at the base by a little mud) about 30 inches overall length
and 18
inches in diameter. These were seated in a group of indentations and a
charcoal fire built around them. >>>
I note that Bear said *and a charcoal fire built around them*. I also
noted this when looking at the pair of websites which someone else
pointed to.
This is a key difference between the large, domed, "mass" ovens we've
previously talked about. In the pure, mass oven the great mass of the
oven is heated up first, the coals are removed and the residual heat
in the stone/other mass is what bakes the food. In these terracotta
ovens, while you probably want to heat the terracotta up first before
adding the food, you still need to keep some coals around the oven to
continue to provide heat. The terracotta is there primarily to smooth
out the temperature variance, both in time and around the oven, not
to act as a mass to retain the heat. In this way, this type of oven
is in many ways closer to a modern oven heated by gas or electricity
than a mass oven, which has a declining temperature rather than a
steady or varying one. It is also more likely to be more prone to
temperature spikes and hot spots, depending on how well the fire is
tended, than is a mass oven.
Perhaps this is obvious to everyone, but I thought I'd highlight it
just in case it isn't.
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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