Steam Injection for the Home Oven

Submitted by Supes On on October 27, 2007 - 9:34am

Steam Injection for the Home Oven

I am brand new to The Fresh Loaf and have read the content with great interest. I have tried just about every method ever suggested for creating steam in my home oven with varying results. My latest attempt to mimic the commercial steam injection is a relatively simple modification to my oven. I bought a quarter inch copper tube and inserted it into the vent for the oven. This took some disassembly of the oven which some may find daunting, but it's really just removing screws. I pushed the tube in as far as I could and bent it by hand to come through the vent just under my oven's control panel. I added a compression fitting to hold it in place and put the oven back together. The whole process took about thirty minutes.

Now for the steam-my wife had purchased one of those small hand held steam cleaners (Scunsi I think) that are advertised on infomercials. I never had much use for it until now. I simply fill it with water, let it heat up, and then insert the small injection fitting into my copper tube and presto--my oven is full of steam!

This approach lets me do the steaming without opening the oven door. This may be a little extreme but it works great!

Supes On (I'm a school superintendent and Supe's On is the name of my blog at school.)

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Submitted by gt on October 27, 2007 - 12:19pm.

I tried that once but I

I tried that once but I didn't think I got enough steam into the oven. I'm going to try it again.

Is your oven gas or electric and does steam roll out around the door and vents when you apply the steam?

Thanks gt

Submitted by Supes On on October 28, 2007 - 9:45am.

Leaks?

gt,

My oven is an old electric with a Hearthkit permanently installed with quarry tile on the rack above the Hearthkit to get thermal mass on all sides of my baking. The door seal is bad in one place and steam does escape there and of course it can, and does, come out the vent some. However, it is so easy to add more steam that it has not been a problem. Adding steam without opening the door and losing heat is a real benefit. Of course the thermal mass in my oven helps air temperature recover relatively quickly anyway.

Supe's On

Submitted by JIP on October 28, 2007 - 6:41pm.

I always see alot of talk

I always see alot of talk here about better ways to inject steam or how to deal with covection ovens when trying to steam bread etc.. What I want to really know is, with all this new "resturaunt style" stoves being maufactured for the home kitchen why doesn't some company come up with a home oven with a stone hearth and steam injectors. I know there are commercial ovens that are sort of small that do this and may somehow be coverted for a rel hardcore breadmaker but what about the others. Personally I could not afford it either way but you think someone would have done it by now. If you can convert a a big Vulcan range to home use why not a commercial steam-injected oven for home baking???. I don't know I guess it's silly but it's just a thought.

Submitted by KipperCat on October 28, 2007 - 9:38pm.

Steam Ovens

I'd forgotten about these. When I was choosing appliances for my kitchen, I noticed some people on GardenWeb were choosing steam ovens. Since I had no clue about bread baking then, I never looked at them. I steamed veggies just fine on top of the stove. ;~)

Of course, I also had no clue that I would move in to an energy efficient house and start cranking up my oven to full blast so many times a week!

Submitted by sphealey on October 28, 2007 - 7:02pm.

Home oven with steam injection

The KitchenAid dual-fuel ranges with Steam Assist have a steam injection system. Pretty expensive even for the 30" though.

I am surprised Viking doesn't have steam injection as an option, but perhaps that means the market isn't large enough. I looked at a lot of brands of ranges at the Kitchen & Bath Show in 2006 and the KitchenAid was the only one I found.

sPH

Submitted by gt on October 28, 2007 - 7:41pm.

Tried steam cleaner again

My gas oven was hot tonight so I tried injecting steam with my hand held Shark Steam Cleaner again. The result was I saw no steam coming out the vents or around the door.

When I pour approx 1/2 cup of water down the 1/4 inch copper tube and into a cast iron skillet filled with river rocks in my oven, a lot of steam comes out the vents and around the door. The amount of steam that comes out around the door is very similar to what I've seen a couple of times on bakery ovens when they pulled the steam lever.

I have always suspected electric ovens are much easier to steam due to the fact that they don't need and don't have near as much vent area as gas ovens. If you search on my name "gt" you can see my setup and some vent area measurements I made on my gas oven and another electric oven.

So Supe's On, that's neat if you get enough sream into your electric oven with your steam cleaner - it's a slick way to do it.

Submitted by tgw1962_slo on January 3, 2009 - 7:19pm.

steam cleaners

Hello,

I saw one of these hand held steam cleaners at a local Dept. store. I think it was about $50.

I considered buying one, but before I did, I contacted King Arthur Flour to ask their opinion about using it to inject steam. The person there indicated that if the item isn't listed as being intended for use with an oven, it isn't safe for that use. But frankly, I'm not sure what difference it makes. Its not as if this thing shoots a huge amount of steam and I don't know how it could be any worse than "spritzing" water into a hot oven.

If anyone here has had good experience with this, maybe I'll give it a try.

Tory

Submitted by SteveB on January 3, 2009 - 7:45pm.

Oven Steaming with a Hand Held Steamer

Tory,

Good article

Steve B.,

Thanks for that link. It is an interesting article.

Actually, the device he refers to "steam bread maker" is something I came across a few months ago. But after seeing the hefty price tag on it, I decided not to bother.

But when I discovered this same kind of steam bottle at the Dept store for a fraction of the price, I decided to give it a try.

I'm glad to know you've had success with yours.

When you say "when used properly", I'm assuming you're just meaning using it the way its intended...? Do you have any suggestions on how you use it to get your excellent results?

Thanks,

Tory

Submitted by SteveB on January 4, 2009 - 10:56am.

Home Oven Steam Injection

Hi Tory,

I'm actually the author of the blog post you just read. :)

Like you, I already had a hand held steamer. I did not buy a steam bread maker either because of the price. Instead, I just bought the stainless steel cover at a restaurant supply store and drilled a hole in it myself. Inexpensive, and when used as I describe and show on the blog video, very effective.

SteveB

http://www.breadcetera.com