Bread Undercover/No-Knead

The most common method of baking bread using the no-knead is baking in generic Dutch ovens or Creuset Dutch ovens. The problem with these is the high sides that make it difficult to transfer the dough to the Dutch oven.

I've discovered that by transferring the dough to the upside down cover and then inverting the Dutch oven over the dough makes everything much easier.

Soap Stone Hearth

 Soap stone slab sit on firebrick floor

Soap stone is used for the hearths of some pizza ovens because soap stone is a very dense, heavy material that absorbs lots of heat. This is ideal for something that should be baked very fast, like pizza. For bread baking, a soap stone hearth is probably not a good idea because there is a very good chance the bottoms of your breads will burn before the interior gets baked.
Anyway, a friend gave me a soap stone slab, and I placed it right on top of the firebrick floor to check it out. What happened was that the intense oven heat caused the soap stone to spall (chip/flake). I had heard that soap stone might spall, but I had to try it for myself. Perhaps there are different grades of soap stone, and perhaps a different grade would perform better. I don't know. Is there anyone out there who has had experience with soap stone?

Pitas

Pitas are amazingly versatile. Prepare them most anywhere. Make indoors, in a flat bread oven and over fire. They will taste so much better than those dreadful things entombed in plastic found in stores.

Oven Cracks

 Benign oven cracks

Oven cracks are usually not life threatening. I really don't know how to build an earth oven that will not develop some cracks. It is a normal phenomenon for clay to crack when it dries. The cracks in the oven shown probably amount to nothing. The greater percentage of clay to sand in your mixture means more cracking.  Too little clay means that your oven will fall apart. It's happened to me.
Generally, you want 3 parts sand to 1 part clay.

Dry clay soil in garden

French bread spiked with LSD in CIA experiment

And I always thought it was ergot that contaminated the rye flour causing the town to go mad.

"A 50-year mystery over the 'cursed bread' of Pont-Saint-Esprit, which left residents suffering hallucinations, has been solved after a writer discovered the US had spiked the bread with LSD as part of an experiment. In 1951, a quiet, picturesque village in southern France was suddenly and mysteriously struck down with mass insanity and hallucinations. At least five people died, dozens were interned in asylums and hundreds afflicted."

Not for the faint of heart.To read the entire article

Photo Request

Hi
In the last section of the book I'm working on, I'd like to include a photo gallery. I am looking for interesting/unique/informative/unusual/quirky photos of ovens and or any bread related activities. The photo shown in this post is one that I'd like to use, but I can't find the person who took the picture to ask for permission to include it in Bread Earth and Fire, and I need permission to use photos.
If you have some photos you've taken to share, then I might want to include them, and you'll be given full credit.

 Portable Oven

Please send photos to:
Stu Silverstein
ssilverstein@gmail.com

Many thanks
Stu aka Breadhunter

High Rise

Just today I received an email from a friend who was really pleased with how well her dough had risen. I would say, beware of those high rises. They are often an indication of too much flour in proportion to water in the dough. Yes, a stiff dough might help you to achieve a "high rise," but you may be sacrificing a porous crumb with those big mouse holes. On the other hand, if you're making a sandwich bread, then probably you don't want the mouse holes or sandwich ingredients will fall through. In this case, your high rise dough might be just fine.
The French know how to have it both ways. A baguette is great for sandwiches even though it has big mouse holes. When you slice a baguette lengthwise for a sandwich, it is the outer crust that keeps everything in place.

Stove Pipe Oven

 A very long time ago, Richard Searls and I made a movie about two Maine woodsmen who gave up everything to discover what really mattered in the middle of nowhere. One of the woodsmen, Walter Lane was always baking biscuits in a stove pipe oven that he constructed in his trapper's shack. The oven captured waste heat where the biscuits were placed to bake. The oven shown is quite a pricey affair, but Walt was able to fabricate something similar for just a few dollars.
There was no way he'd allow heat to escape up the chimney without putting it to good use first. Walter was the ultimate recycler.
You can see the opening scene of the movie here.

 

 

Mayan Tortillas

 I recently returned from Guatemala and carefully watched the Mayas make corn tortillas. The ingredients are simple, but making them really takes a lot of practice. One thing I noticed that really helps is to have a small bowl of water accessible so you can keep your hands wet when patting them out. Wet hands keeps the masa from sticking to them.Some bread bakers also knead dough with wet hands (I don't because I hate the feel), and this allows one to knead without adding too much flour.

Bread Storage

Bread does not keep very well. It should be eaten within two days after it comes from the oven. Cut slices from it, and leave the loaf uncovered, on your bread board cut side down.

Refrigeration makes it stale and plastic makes it compost. If I know that we won’t finish the bread in under two days, then I’ll cut some slices, double bag them in plastic and freeze. If I want a slice or two, I’ll take them from the freezer, defrost and toast. Sometimes I don't even bother to defrost the slice, but drop it right into the toaster. Not bad. Or, I can double bag a whole loaf and freeze. To defrost, I take the loaf from the freezer and allow it to defrost in the bag, moisture and all. When defrosted, I rehabilitate it in a hot oven. Also not bad. Not bad at all.