[Sca-cooks] On Nattes VERY LONG

[Terry Decker]

You don't have fine temperature control with a wood fired oven.  You have a 
heated mass of masonry radiating that heat and losing temperature in an 
extended arc.  Too hot, you damage the marzipan.  Too cold, you don't brown 
it.  A hot iron allows you to view the results and adjust the temperature as 
needed.

Your statement makes me wonder what type of oven was being used.  You might 
get scorching of the bottom crust due to proximity to the oven floor, but 
for the most part, a wood fired oven bakes fairly evenly.  Uneven baking 
suggests a badly designed or constructed oven or that the baking chamber was 
opened too often, allowing cold spots to form in the chamber.

Bear

----- Original Message ----- 

So I wanted to be sure I understood this correctly - it is better to make
the marzipan with the 'hot iron' method than in the oven because it is
easier to control the heating because the sentence seems a little awkward?
 I read in the Schachtafel der Gesundheyt that oven baked bread could have
uneven finishing - burnt in some places and undone in others.  I imagine
that the temperature variations could wreak havoc with the oil/sugar
content in the marzipan.  Last weekend at a garage sale I found an iron
designed for burning the sugar on creme brulee.  Should be perfect to
experiment with!

Katherine