Just a little bread baking commentary...
I've been baking sourdough bread for almost 8 years now and always used a dutch oven. While the dutch oven gets the job done and does a very good job at getting it done, it misses a key reward that comes with bread baking.
In a dutch oven we don't get to see the magic and what is going on with the dough until the second half of the bake, where the top of the dutch oven comes off. We don't get to see the bread rise and we certainly don't get to see it fall, god forbid.
I recently started baking exclusively on a stone. This adds the visual reward and excitement bake into bread baking.
To instantly see your success by seeing the bread rise, the score split, and the loaf brown into a mature loaf is truly amazing.
Just my 2 cents.
Similar experience. The vast majority of my sourdough experience has been open baking. The few times I’ve Dutch oven baked was okay but not quite as satisfying, in any way. Whatever yields acceptable results and is satisfying …
Except for if you have a gas oven you can’t generate steam unless you cover the dough with a vessel which kinda defeats the purpose visually haha.
I don't know. I used to have a gas oven, I used a double layer of stone and a steam pan, and it seems to me that the loaves baked up about the same as with my current electric oven.
Haven't used a Dutch oven in a lot of years - and many of them - never had a problem without one. And a comment on steam - it is not necessary. You can do it with - or without - steam. Enjoy!
You can have the benefits of both worlds (almost) with the Brovn. Afaik Brovn is not the only manufacturer, but he is probably the best known name in Europe. There must be something similar also in the US.
https://www.brovn.com/en/collections/shop/products/der-brovn
The inside of my oven door has so much baked-on crud that between the crud and the mesh reinforcement I can't really see the oven interior anyway. And the thought of trying to lift that smooth glass bowl while it's hot makes me nervous.
TomP
Taste!!! Who cares what it looks like!! Fragrance and flavor … a blind man only respects these two senses. 🙏