I'm a stanch bread enthusist wanting to build a brick bread oven.

[tbarnes]

At 76 yrs old my wife of 56 yrs and I love to bake and eat authentic bread. We grind our own flour and produce some of the finest breads you can imagine. But like everything else I want to add the wood fired oven to enhance the bread experience. I'm wanting to build a 60 in deep by 40 in oven. In addition to the bread love affaire we smoke/ grill food probably 4 days every week and I want to incorporate that process into this oven. Any thoughts on our plans would be greatly received.

[SableSprings]

Welcome to our community! Sounds like you are going into a commercial bread baking adventure. There are several builds on this forum that are quite large, certainly on the same scale as you're planning. Large bread baking WFO's tend toward the Alan Scott, half-barrel design which makes loading/unloading a bit easier. My modified Pompeii style (39" diameter) will only allow me to work 10-12 baguettes or 5-6 boules at a time. With the larger mass you'll need to heat, be prepared to have a pretty good stack of wood. If you intend on trying to avoid constant cleaning out of ash/coals, there is a design (white oven) that separates the firing chamber from the baking area.

Anyway, welcome again to the forum and looking forward to your thoughts on how you want to use such large oven (loaves per batch, prep/bake schedule, heat ranges anticipated, etc.).

P.S. Congratulations on you two sharing the baking bread bug and being together for 56 years! Do you do sourdough?

[tbarnes]

Is there anything else but sourdough. We've had a sd starter for years and its hard to imagine anything else. We are fortunate enough to have an unending supply of hardwood scraps which is perfect for this process. I was curious as to anyone smoking/grilling in there ovens. I seem to want to grill everything I eat so the constant warm oven has caught my interest. Thanks for your warm welcome. My grandkids say Grandpa knows everything and what he doesn't know he makes up

[SableSprings]

Yes, there are several threads and posts that deal with smoking & grilling in a WFO. Using a Tuscan grill in the front of the oven with a live bed of coals (or just doing the caveman steak method--meat cooked directly on the coal bed) provides nice versatility for the oven. Several devices (pans/slotted cylinders) and short racks can be used for smoking in the oven at lower heats...drying fruits & making jerky is pretty straightforward, but drying airflow makes it a bit less controlled. I think the primary issue is getting away from that exact temp/time issue that most recipes infer...cooking & baking with a more flexible mindset is important. My target baguette temp is 575F for 10-15 minutes, but I don't see that in many bread recipes .

I haven't been baking much this last year while working on my beer brewing room...but I'm planning on reactivating my regular sourdough starter (Bill) and his compatriots Adelle (whole wheat) & Rylee (rye) soon for a return to my regular neighborhood giveaway.

I was told once on an international trip that the guides will always answer your questions... just not always with the correct answer. Sounds like your grandkids already understand how the world often works.

[david s]

Here's an interesting rebuild of an 1860 bread oven in Tasmania, Australia, that you may find interesting. I think they made a few mistakes, but they fire the ovensucessflly every day and successfully produce and sell a lot of bread.and pies. I've visited this bakery about 10 years ago and had a good look the oven. Nice people
The use of sand as an insulator could have been easily improved on by the use of vermiculite or perlite dry or in combination with portland cement as well as maybe some insulating blanket. Thes materials would not have been available in 1860. However they chose to stick to the original materials as a point of authenticity. Firing every day the oven probably never gets to really cool down.

The use of the Hobart reds, although ok for the vault, I believe would have been better repkaced by firebricks for the floor. During our trip to Tasmanis, we noticed three badly spalled fireplaces, probably built in the mid 1800's that used what appeared to be Hobart solid reds.

The wet mortar they used soumds like it was a sodium silicate based mortar.

The use of a pressure washer to clean up the inside of the oven after removing the sand mould is a really dumb idea. The presence of visible steam on drying an oven is a warning sign that damage is about to occur, they were lucky. To escape this.

Here's the link

https://www.rossbakery.com.au/booklet.pdf