I agree that a "plain jane" gas oven has a problem holding steam. My oven is gas, my Mom's is electric. The electric oven doesn't dissipate steam as quickly. No what steaming technique I use, the steam exits my gas oven through the vents so quickly it is hardly effective. None of the stuff I've read about steaming techniques talks about the oven - wonder why?

I know what you mean about getting a discussion going about ovens. I’ve always suspected the people that had good luck just spraying a little or putting a pan of water or a few ice cubes in the bottom of their ovens had electric ovens.

The only way I’ve found to get a good blast of steam in my gas oven is to pour a half cup to a cup of hot water down a copper tube (threaded through the top vent) into a cast iron skillet of river rocks. This method produces enough steam to pour out around the oven door and create a satisfactory crust on the bread. I put about 3/4 cup of hot water in the other skillet before I put the bread in the oven to raise the humidity for the first half of the baking time.

That is a cool setup, gt.

I've only had an electric oven since I've gotten seriously into baking. Here is my current setup:

My current technique is preheat the oven to the full 550. When it is time to bake, I take a cup of hot water from the tap then heat it for 1 minute in the microwave. When I put the loaves in the oven I pour the water into the cast iron pan on the floor of my oven then close the oven door. I then take another cup of water from the tap, heat it again, pour it in again, then reduce the heat to my normal baking temp around 460.

Let me repeat the disclaimer here about how a couple of people on this site have fried their oven's circuitry trying to fill it with steam. Steaming is critical to good crust formation, but side effects could include destruction of one's oven or personal injury. Proceed with any of the discussed techniques at your own peril!

For those of you that haven't seen it, I just bought one of these steaming devices.  I was having trouble maintaining steam inside the oven.  Everything I tried wouldn't give the crisper crust and rise I was looking for.  Although a little extra work and expense, I decided to give it a try.  So far I've used it 3 times, twice on baguettes and once on a pane siciliano, with better results than any I've previously had without the device.  So I'm tempted to say, yes it works great, but in reality needs more testing than I have given it so far.  Let's just say the results are very promising! 

http://www.steambreadmaker.com/ is the website you can look at it.  I am not affiliated with them in any way.  This is presented for information only.  It was worth it for me, but others may not care for the expense or the concept.

Ben

Thanks Ben, I've seen those and wondered how they work.  Please keep us updated as you use it more -gt

This is an interesting thread but I am surprised people with gas ovens are having so much trouble with their crusts. I have a ordinary Sears Kenmore 30" gas range, nothing fancy like a wolf or viking, no convection, it does have a gasket around the door, though. I seem to get really great crusts on all my loaves by just using baking stones preheated to 500F and misting with a plant mister for the first 3 minutes of baking at 30 sec. intervals and quickly shutting the door and turning down to 425F. No cast iron pan of water or anything else. I aim the mister on the 2 sidewalls of the oven. Now, maybe I'm not actually getting any effect at all from the steam this way, as a lot of people suggest, but whatever it is it seems to work. The crusts are crispy and chewy, and stay that way even after 5-7 days stored in foil (a light rewarming in a toaster oven when ready to eat certainly helps after that many days though).

Maybe it's my baking stone setup that makes the difference: I have a similar setup to Floyd's above: I purchased 2 very inexpensive ($6 each) pieces of natural bluestone from a local stoneyard here in the Catskills (garden centers probably have them too), each slab measures 1/2 to 3/4 in. thick by 16 deep by 22 wide, fitting on my oven rack with about an inch all around open for heat flow. One slab is on the bottom-most rack of the oven, the other on the top-most rack of the oven. This leaves enough room for even a very large 4 lb boule to rise and bake, and the evenness of the browning is amazing, perfect on all sides, and the bottoms don't burn like they used to when I used a thinner smaller stone. Certainly works good enough for me for home baking anyhow. I also leave the stones in the oven all the time - we don't actually use the oven for anything other than baking or the occasional roast, and the stones don't seem to be in the way for the roasts, and maybe they improve them with more even heating. I don't have my digital camera right now to show my oven stones, but here is a photo of what irregular bluestone looks like right out of the quarry, it is much more durable than slate, I hope to make an outdoor wood-fired oven someday with this material or combined with mud like Breadnerd's:

Thanks for sharing!

I've used the convection setting at 500F and my oven is still humid at the end when baking lean breads.  When I open the door it's pretty darn steamy.  A small amount comes out the vent, but it's very restricted.  I'm going in tonight to see if there's  any way to alter the volume of gas that escapes. 

Anyone have the same problem?

I've been introducing steam to a home gas oven by laying a hot damp towel on the bottom
rack at loading, turning the oven off and blocking the vents.  After 5 minutes of "active"
steaming, the towel is removed and the door closed for another  7 minutes of "passive" steam
with the oven still off and the vents blocked.  After this, 12 minutes into the bake, the vents
are unblocked and the oven set to the desired bake temperature.  While developing this
procedure I discovered it was very easy to control and measure the amount of water lost
as steam during the active phase: the towel weight is measured before and after introduction to
the oven.  Typically about an ounce to 1.5 ounces of water was delivered.  The towel is a tight
weave dishtowel, soaked and wrung to damp feel, and microwaved to HOT just prior to introduction.
Typically the towels are about 180F into the oven; this reduces inefficient use of the oven preheat.
I bake on a 1x15x20 inch stone on the middle rack.  The preheat is by convection to 540F.  At the end
of the active/passive steaming, the oven temperature has dipped to about 400F plus or minus 15F
depending on agility during the loading.  The bake temperature is usually 460F, and for a 2-loaf
64-ounce load in this oven 48 minutes is bold.  Loft and bloom seems to work best for me with cooler
dough temperatures at load, say 65F to 70F.  I've even loaded with dough in the 55F to 60F range with
good results provided the preheat is sufficient.

Obviously one must be careful about blocking oven vents in a gas oven; never do this with the oven on!!
I use a piece of cedar to block my vents, which are at the stovetop.  Be careful not to leave the towel in
the oven either; it will catch fire not too far into the bake!  My own opinion is that this is much safer than
home steaming methods which pour boiling water on sheet pans, or introduce ice, etc.  Damage to the oven
window or oven floor is less likely, oven preheat usage is more efficient (particularly compared to ice methods),
and you finally have a way to measure the amount of water converted to steam and correlate this with your
results.

I offer this perspective on what might be going on with this approach.  By allowing the oven to remain off for
the steaming phases, lofting and bloom is perhaps less restricted due to delay in setting of the crust.  With a thick
well heated stone (1 inch to 540F), thermal transfer to the interior of the dough is rapid while the crust is bathed
in steam.  The passive phase utilizes moisture released from the loaf to continue loft and bloom development
longer than possible with the towel.  This oven will achieve 460F bake temperature by approximately 20 minutes
into the bake. 

One can play all sorts of games with this.  For example, by adusting the active time, you can eliminate the passive
phase and have the dip temperature be your final bake temperature.  With that scheme, which I came to call
"gradient bake" the temperature ramps down from the 540F preheat to just above the 460F final bake temperature in the
passive steaming phase.  By the time you take out the towel and turn the oven on, you are very close to 460F.  As I
recall, I've used this most with really cold loads.

Anyway, so much information is offered here, and has benefited me, I thought it was about time I yielded back something
to this wonderful group.