May 25, 2018 - 11:24am
Using a Commercial Deck Oven with a Steam System
I know, steam is a huge topic on TFL. To the best of my abilities I've searched the archives but have not found any discussion on steam usage in a commercial deck oven with a steam rig.
I have an ABS gas deck oven with individual steam units for each deck. Each steam unit has an internal allen bradley timer to determine how much steam is released when the button is depressed. The factory setting is about five seconds. There are also two temperature controls on each steam unit in the back which I believe to be boiler temp?
How long and at what intervals are people steaming for? I know this can be dependent on the loaf but is there any general sense folks have?
Thanks!
Share
Hello Kneadvt
I'm using a commercial electric deck oven, a german made Wiesheu. The steam unit is typical of this style of oven: it's a simple box hidden inside the oven walls, it contains heat coils&thermal mass in the form of metal rods, there is a valve holding back the water pressure, that is controlled by a button on the control panel. The dosage is controlled manually by pressing, there is no set dosage. I typically injet for two seconds immediately after loading, followed shortly after by an additional two seconds. This suffices to coat the loaves with fine moisture droplets. To control the rip, I open the oven damper between 6 and 12 minutes into the bake.
Happy baking to you
Daniel
Steinofenbrot Röschenz
Thanks for the response Daniel.
With the timers set to approx 5 seconds I've been steaming when loading and then at 40 seconds and again after and additional 40 seconds then opening the damper 10 minutes into a 15 minute bake. I'm not really seeing the shiny texture I'm looking for or getting significant spring or spread on my docking. Based on your experience I suspect I'm waiting too long for the second steam burst, and that the third is really not doing much.
I'm thinking of bumping up the timers to release 7 seconds of steam and going with a second burst at 20 seconds. Is there any reason you go with two, two second bursts rather than one four second burst?
Rob
When I steam for 4 seconds there seems to be too much pressure, by two stepping it more of it actually stays in the oven. A sales rep for the company also suggested it.
Your bake is 15 minutes long, I take it that you are baking buns? I would be inclined to use less steam and to release it after 5 minutes. There are many variables that come into play though. If you are baking buns made out of white flour and you wish to realise better oven bloom improved browning and shine, the answer might be to use a wee tad of enzyme active malt. What temps are you baking at? Keep in mind also that a huge steam dose can send the oven temp diving, the recovery time for such a short bake could be a negitive factor.
Also, i believe you mentioned using a gas oven, how well is the deck sealed? perhaps larger steam dosages are required due to circulation issues with gas ovens? I've only used electric deck ovens…and WFO's
Fine tuning takes patience, keep good track of what you do and it will come together. Do keep us posted.
cheers
daniel
This is really interesting. Can you elaborate on two stepping the steam injection? I find 6 seconds on the ABS, the majority comes out of the front of the oven. And after 15 minutes, when I open the door — no steam is actually released.
Hi! You mentioned that there are controls to change your boiler temperature of your steam. What is the optimal temperature of the boiler to set a good steam for your doughs. I read from another post that there is such thing as "dry steam" which is a result of high boiler temp and I believe that's not the steam that we need for our doughs.
Appreciate your response on this! :)