Bread baking workshop

I'm passing along this email I received from Stone Turtle Baking and Cooking school. The workshop with Richard Miscovich is something I can highly recommend. I attended one of his presentations on baking in a wood-fired oven, and the bread he baked was really one of the best breads I've ever eaten.

Hello all,

Attached is our new schedule for Jan - Apr 2010. We are excited about this session and our classes.

Our chocolate instructor, Becky Potter, is planning to do more hands on with the class - hands on with chocolate, it doesn't get much better! Did you see her write up in the December issue of Down East magazine?

We are fortunate to get a special bread workshop and a great instructor, Richard Miscovich, for a 2 day (12 hour) Intensive. Richard is one of the best bread bakers and instructors in New England. He is in demand all over the country and we are fortunate that he loves Maine.

Our 2 day Wood-fired Oven Intensive scheduled for April 16 & 17 is sold out. We have started a waiting list for it and we are taking names for our October 8 & 9 Intensive.

We hope you all have a happy holiday season and look forward to seeing you in 2010.

Best wishes,

Michael & Sandy Jubinsky

Stone Turtle

Baking & Cooking School

173 Howitt Road

Lyman, Maine 04002

Tel: 207-324-7558

Cell: 207-459-0567

Email: info@stoneturtlebaking.com

http://www.stoneturtlebaking.com

"How can a nation be great if its bread tastes like Kleenex." - Julia Child

Fire Door Update

Fire Door

I've adjusted my fire door by cutting a slot in the bottom. I can restrict or increase the airflow by sliding the two bricks shown in the photo. This arrangement does improve fire management, but I was hoping to get the blowtorch/freight train sound when I started the fire. This will probably not happen unless I add a chimney, and that I won't do.

Fire Starter

I have two doors for my oven. One door is made of wood, but has a steel backing (see earlier post), and this is used after the fire is out. The door is then set in place when baking bread.
The other door, that I just adapted today is used while the fire is burning. What I did was to cut the top of the door, but I left a space at the bottom of the door so that when it sits on the hearth, it doesn't sit on it completely.

So, there's a large space at the top of the door for exhausting the smoke and a small space at the bottom for constricting the flow of oxygen that the fire is calling for. This definitely makes it easier to start and maintain a fire. I believe this is called The Venturi effect.

Note the constricted air space at the bottom of the door.

For the scientifically minded, the Venturi effect is a special case of the Bernoulli effect, in the case of fluid or air flow through a tube or pipe with a constriction in it. The fluid must speed up in the restriction, reducing its pressure and producing a partial vacuum via the Bernoulli effect. It is named after the Italian physicist Giovanni Battista Venturi.

Without a door like this, the fire seems to be buffeted from all sides and does not burn as well.
The two bricks in front of the door are there to keep the door in place.