The Infernal Flame or What Happens between 6 and 11 am

Most visitors to the “The Bake” will never experience the events I’ll describe here, think of this little story as a mercy to those who appreciate a warm bed over a luke warm oven!

The bake actually begins about a day before when a incandescent lamp is used to warm and dry the interior after months of rest. The baking door is in place during this preparation phase, and the heat from just the lamp raises the air temperature to the point that it is perceptibly warmer than the hand.

The mortar patch in the rear of the oven was made after the first bake in 2008, back when I was concerned about such things!

About 12 hours before the large fire is started, a small fire is built in the oven to raise the temperature a bit more than what the lamp is capable of doing. The temperature in the oven is raised to about 150 degrees F with the small fire.

And then, at 6 am, the Infernal flame is lit! (Thanks to Jeff Sigrist (the only other living soul to as yet experience this event) for this and the following photograph)

This fire is also small, a bit more robust than the evening warmer-upper. As the fire grows, it is pushed toward the rear of the oven, slowly warming the ceiling bricks over the span of a half-hour.

One of my favorite photos is this, of the early stages of the firing.

Once the small fire has been moved to the rear, the entire oven box is filled with branches, smaller is preferable to larger, the rule is “full”!

Once the box is filled, the draft door, which deflects the smoke from the oven box up the chimney is installed. This door is just a single sheet of metal that leans from the oven floor forward toward the front brickwork (if you’ve read the “building” story, you’ll remember that the front brickwork is also the lower part of the chimney). The photo below shows the draft door in place and the baking door (insulated and thicker). The draft door is larger in size, the baking door fits snugly across the oven opening.

With the draft door off, the “infernal” becomes obvious…not only smoke goes up the chimney!

After about two hours of fire “maintenance” (before the new draft door was built, I used the term “control”…I was busy extinguishing the wooden parts of the draft door!), I usually tinker with the fire, adding a branch every now and then, the oven has a beautiful bed of coals in place of the great blaze.

Note the metal plate in front of the coals in the above photo. It’s the ash dump. Another hour on (around 11 am) the coals have reduced to ash, and can be cleared from the oven floor.

I’m using a simple metal “rake” to move the ash from the oven floor through the ash door and into a metal washtub. To the right of the scene are two other tools used in the cleanout: a brass brush and a towel that will be wet, wrung and used to swab out the remaining ash dust. The wet towel also adds a bit of moisture to the oven atmosphere, essential for producing a crisp crust on breads.

After this particular firing oven temperature started at 1044 degrees F!  A bit hot for bread, but this is taken care of in part by putting the bake door in place and letting the oven “rest” or equilibrate for about a half-hour. This period allows the inevitable temperature variations to even, and allows the wave of heat from the fire to move deeply into the thermal mass of brick and concrete.

After the rest period, the real cooling to baking temperatures is accomplished by baking pizzas with a small fire in the oven and an open oven door for about an hour. Oven temperatures (even with the small fire) drop to near normal bread-baking temperatures: around 500 degrees F.

I’m ready for lunch!