Wood-fired versus kitchen oven
There's a local restaurant with a wood-burning oven. They start a wood fire in the baking chamber and let it burn for hours. When the wood has been reduced to embers and ash, they are swept to the side and the food baked next to them. Unlike grilling over wood, the food does not have a smoky taste or aroma.
So, what is the advantage of baking bread in a wood-fired oven?
I've been trying to convince the local library to hold a summer workshop to build a mud oven, then use it to bake bread. I think it would be fun and messy group project, but they think it would be dangerous "and why not just hold a break-baking workshop using a regular oven." Any bread-baking workshop is good, but what are there any selling points for using a wood-fired oven?
Janet
I just finished my cob oven this last fall and have really enjoyed cooking / baking in it so far.
Building one is a fairly simple process, I recommend Kiko Denzer's book "Building Your Own Earth Oven". It's kinda the bible for cob ovens. There are also some good how to videos on youtube. The best series can be found by searching for " How to build a cob oven". It's a three video series.
Some advantages of the "cob" wood fired oven:
Lots of fun to use by yourself or in a group.
Can bake great bread
Depending on size, can make several loaves at once with two to three batches possible from one firing. My oven has a 32" cooking floor.
Some disadvantages:
Takes more time than conventional oven to be ready to bake.
Timing on oven heating and dough proofing can be tricky.
Most likely an out door baking environment. (That can be a plus if the weathers nice).
That being said, here is a picture of my oven and the last loaves cooked with it.
10528249454_b99ea4f5c6_z.jpg
12034928966_edf434de29_z.jpg
12034113525_b3594835e4_z.jpg
I've been reading about these ovens, and watching videos on youtube, and have been really interested in making one for myself. I think I might make one this late spring.
Wonderful looking loaves. What temperature did you bake them at in that oven? Also have you made any pizzas at 1000F yet? I bet they cook in like a minute and are the bomb :)
I think I missed your question about baking temps. I bake bread between 475-425F. Small loaves can be baked closer to 500F. I've also baked pizza's around 750-850F.
Cool oven!—and nice oven spring.
It looks like there is a roof over your oven. If rain got on it, would it turn to mud? Or does the heat of baking turn the walls into a low-fire ceramic, making it a permanent structure?
I have a practical reason for asking. In my town, a permanent outdoor oven is considered a structural addition. That means a permit and inspections, which if fine, but it also results in an increase in property tax!
Janet
It would in its present state, I need to coat it with a lime plaster finish. Then it could withstand a lot of weather. The cover will still prolong it life though.
How are your codes on BBQ' and fire pits? Maybe you could get away with calling it that and avoid the permits.
I might add, the dome is two layers. The inner thermal layer has become very hard. It's made of a clay and sand mix. The outer layer is clay and redwood bark chips and act as an insulator. The inside of the oven has been over 1000F while the outside has not been above 135F. Amazing stuff!
You mean the hard, shiny plaster that was used in houses before the advent of drywall? Where can you get that these days?
Janet
I'm making it out of lime I bought at Home Depot. I mixed it with water following the instructions from the link below. It has to soak for up to a year but I will most likely use mine when its about 4 to 6 months old.
http://buildsimple.org/resources/See%20How%20to%20Make%20Lime%20Plaster.pdf
Nice article. I bought a wood-fired oven for a backyard from https://www.ilfornino.com. Its very different experience with a wood fire oven. The food tastes a lot better in a wood fired oven.
I have a WFO that is desighed for neapolitan pizza.
The residual heat 6-8h after making pizzas and just letting the embers burn down is sufficient for 2-3kg of loaves.
Originally I used to remove the embers /ash (VERY dangerous) but have not for some years as there is no 'smoky taint' of the loaves.
If the loaves go in sooner, I sometimes use a steel tureen cover to protect the top of the loaves from cooking too fast.
Sometimes the loaves are loaded with a peel direct onto the floor, other times they have been proved in a disposable aluminium baking trays containin a disk of baking parchment, the trays are loaded onto the floor.
If I use it the next day, it takes a few logs placed on the ember pile from the previous night, and after a few hours the temperature is back up to 250C.
The oven is extremely insulated with a total thermal mass of around 250kg, with a 6cm floor.
The bread from the WFO is always very different to my domestic oven (250C for 15m, then 200C for 15m on a 1h preheated 2cm granite slab).
The domestic oven gives far more control, the WFO is more difficult to get consistent results (remembering the primary focus in pizza) but almost always gives a better eating experience: taste taste taste.
s