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Rustic Primitive Materials

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  • WJW
    replied
    Re: Rustic Primitive Materials

    I have four loading peels and load two loaves with each peel. So I have eight loaves up and ready to roll. I slash all eight just before they go in. I have the other eight loaves sitting right there still in the banetons (baskets).

    Then I load the first eight. Probably ten seconds per peel, so call it forty seconds total. Certainly less than a minute. As I'm loading, the peels go right back where they were.

    Once the first eight are loaded, I flip the banetons on to the waiting peels and then quickly slash each loaf. Figure ten seconds per loaf to slash. So slashing the second eight loaves takes about a minute and a half. Then another minute to load. So the whole process is probably something just under four minutes. I do my first load at 565 degrees F. So the oven is pretty hot. On the the first batch of sixteen, that four minutes does make a difference. My loaves typically take between 28 and 32 minutes to bake on the first batch. The clock starts when the last loaf goes in. The ones done first are invariablly in the back. It's not a big difference, but but there is enough of a difference that I will typically let the last two or three loaves sit for another three minutes or so before pulling.


    I'm moving pretty quick, but it's doable. It would be much easier if I had enough peels so that I could slash all sixteen at once. Before my next big bake I am going to make four more loading peels. Then I'll have eight and will be able to load all sixteen in under 90 seconds.

    The photo below is my current set up. This was last week. As you can see from the bricks against the oven door, I already have one bake going and these loaves outside are ready to go. When I pull the first sixteen loaves I will usually let the oven rest for five minutes or so to come back up to temp. (I typically use the same rest period to let me come back DOWN to temp.)

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  • Laurentius
    replied
    Re: Rustic Primitive Materials

    Hi WJW,

    How long does it take to load 16 loaves and does the deep loaves bake faster that the others or does it equal out in the end? Do you slash all loaves in advance? I'm getting to the point that I will need to do full loads soon and am a little worried.

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  • WJW
    replied
    Re: Rustic Primitive Materials

    I'm not sure what you mean about the brick lay out, but to answer your question about perimeter....

    ...when I bake I can load up to sixteen 1.5 pound loaves at a time in my oven. When I do that I have loaves within about three inches of the side walls and rear. Any closer and they will start to get overdone at the points closest to the walls. Here is a bake of 1.5 to 2 pound loaves of sourdough. There are fifteen in there in the top pic. That's pretty close to a full load I think. My oven hearth is 36 inches wide by forty inches deep.





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  • Gulf
    replied
    Re: Rustic Primitive Materials

    Annie M.
    I think that you are right by building the oven first. But, WJW is right about "any kind" of covering for your oven. You might be protected from the elements, but when the 40 minutes is up for your sour dough, and there is a good rain over head, you will need some type of protection (at least for the bread) !

    Just Sayin .

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  • WJW
    replied
    Re: Rustic Primitive Materials

    Wonderful thread Annie.

    It's neat to watch a person go from having no real concept on how a modern wood fired oven can/should work....and then slowly pick up knowledge to the point that they know more than the guy behind the counter at the home improvement store. I was the same when I started my oven and now feel like a know a thing or two. (Just enough to get me in trouble.)

    I love your stand. Looks rustic, but it will function as an efficient modern stand with that insulation layer. You will love what you can do with the retained heat properties of your oven assuming you insulate the top and sides.

    One challenge you will need to face is your climate. Wet insulation is like no insulation. Worse actually. I'd pay close attention to the advice of folks who have built in the PacNW. Think about "over-building" on measures intened to keep your insulation dry. Frequent use of your oven is a very good thing in this regard as well.

    On that same vein...what are your plans for staying out of the weather when cooking. Doesn't have to be fancy...but worth considering in my opinion. If you're not a builder....even sinking three logs....one on either side of the oven, and one toward the rear...so that you could stretch a triangular tarp, sail cloth, whatever....the two poles near the entrance could be somewaht higher so that the rain would run toward the rear and not pool in your sail cloth. It won't be completely waterproof (obviously) but it would keep the vast majority of rain from actually falling on the roof of your oven....which would help keep your insulation dry...and it would make using the oven in a rainfall much more pleasant.

    I bet your beach is loaded with ten foot long tree trunks. Find three that are six inches in diameter and relatively straight. Get a friend to help you drag them and stand them. It would certainly be rustic and would be as easy as digging three holes and anchoring each pole with a bag of quick-crete. You could go really authentic and research the appropriate totems for a wood burning oven.

    Just a thought.

    I'll continue to watch with great interest.
    Last edited by WJW; 02-24-2013, 06:14 PM.

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  • Gulf
    replied
    Re: Rustic Primitive Materials

    Annie,
    If you aren't already doing this, you can use an old window screen or most any other kind of sieve to seperate the the clay down to the smallest particles possible. The finer the clay dust and the less chunks the better.

    Also, start by mixing very small batches of the mortar until you get the hang of it. It want take more than a couple of batches until you will know how far it will go. I think that it should be used within an hour of first mixing. And that will require some shaking up of the unused mortar to stretch it out that long.

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  • stonecutter
    replied
    Re: Rustic Primitive Materials

    I was originally going to build the current oven out of clay earth but decided to go with firebrick this time instead...I'll give it a try next time!

    This is a great book on earth building if you don't have it already...

    Build Your Own Earth Oven, 3rd Edition: A Low-Cost Wood-Fired Mud Oven; Simple Sourdough Bread; Perfect Loaves: Kiko Denzer, Hannah Field: 9780967984674: Amazon.com: Books

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  • stonecutter
    replied
    Re: Rustic Primitive Materials

    Cool project, I am also watching with interest. I am building an oven on a dry stone base as well.
    Last edited by stonecutter; 02-23-2013, 01:09 PM.

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  • nu_brew
    replied
    Re: Rustic Primitive Materials

    Following with interest!

    Good luck, seems you have a lot of help here.

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  • brickie in oz
    replied
    Re: Rustic Primitive Materials

    Originally posted by Tscarborough View Post
    (but don't promise anything to Australia).
    Actually, the shipping to here from the US is half of what I have pay from the UK.
    I would have thought the same box weight would have been the same for the same Kms traveled, but its not so.

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  • Tscarborough
    replied
    Re: Rustic Primitive Materials

    De nada, the shipping is more than the clay, and that isn't much (but don't promise anything to Australia).

    edit-to fix my poor Spanish grammar.
    Last edited by Tscarborough; 01-31-2013, 08:01 PM.

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  • UtahBeehiver
    replied
    Re: Rustic Primitive Materials

    Very nice gesture Tscar..............

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  • Tscarborough
    replied
    Re: Rustic Primitive Materials

    PM me your mailing and I will send you 10#, that should be enough.

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  • UtahBeehiver
    replied
    Re: Rustic Primitive Materials

    Annie
    Did you look on muddox website? They have distributors in BC too.

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  • Tscarborough
    replied
    Re: Rustic Primitive Materials

    If it is indeed volcanic bentonite (which I would almost bet on), it is high in kaolin which should work fine, IF you can get it dry enough and IF you can get it ground fine enough.

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