Night before a bake firing question

[jim81147]

For those of you who build a smaller fire in your oven the night before baking to achieve a better heat saturation , do you put any kind of semi door on the oven to help keep the heat in overnight while its still firing ? i think i asked that clearly

[Faith In Virginia]

Re: Night before a bake firing question

I fire my oven the day before with a medium fire. When the fire is out and nothing left but some glowing coals I put my (Fire Proof) door on tight until the next day when I fire it again. I tend to get a saturated oven temp of about 350 out of the first firing. The next day I fire to a point that my internal wall temp, mid wall temp, and out side wall average my target temp then I pull the coals and let the oven sit and saturate.
Hope I answered that as clearly???

[jim81147]

Re: Night before a bake firing question

Thanks for the reply . can you share some details on your door? I have tried to search the forum but I cant seem to pull up much info on the construction of doors. Thanks.

[SableSprings]

Re: Night before a bake firing question

My technique is a little different than Faith's. I put a load of wood in the oven and start it about 10 at night. After I'm sure the fire's going, I put my door on and leave it opened an inch or so. When I get back to the oven between 7 and 8 the next morning I have some coals left with temps about the same as Faith's (250-350F). I then start 1/2 hour feedings of wood and by 11 or 12, I'm cleaning out ash and putting my door on for the temp to equalize so I'm ready to bake bread early afternoon.

My firing door is a custom made stainless steel "thin box with handles" that holds an 1 1/2" thick filling of perlite. I've attached a photo of it when I was working on how to get the best draft control (I just angle it out a bit now.) My cooking door is a thin metal sheet with stand and handle. I've attached an early photo of the two doors with a fire started...the lighter, cooking door--in front and to the left of the firing door--has now been painted black (in the third pic).