Hamelman's Sourdough

[CanuckJim]

Drake,

No need to go any further. Here's what SFBI has for wooden peels:

Without Handle (36x22in) - $28.00
Without Handle (36x18in) - $25.00
Removable 8ft Handle - $12.50
With Fixed 6in Handle (36x22in) - $27.00
With Fixed 6in Handle (29.5x8in) - $22.50

Either buy a handle or make your own. The 18" wide one would probably do nicely if you cut it down a tad, say somewhere between 14 and 16". Depends on the width of your door. Don't forget you'll need some wiggle room, so don't make it too wide.

Jim

[maver]

The wet towel hanging over the inside of the door (a somewhat fluffy hand towel works pretty well for my oven) can do a pretty good job of sealing the oven and helps add additional steam - take it off when you vent the oven. It's a simple solution if you don't have high temp gasket rope.

[CanuckJim]

Maver,

Good solution. Before I finally made a door that fit properly, I'd drape the Alpha version with a wet towel, just as you do. However, I did go through a fair bit of towelling using that method, and when I ran out of old stuff I got into serious trouble for eyeing the good stuff in the bathroom.

Jim

[Dutchoven]

Not Hamelman's sourdough...rather a version of Reinhart's...a Mississippi Original...as well as a ciabatta at the back and a somewhat larger baguette/italian loaf...
Best
Dutch

[DrakeRemoray]

Dutch, that is good looking stuff!

I baked again this weekend and made 16 loaves of bread!

I tried to take all of the advice into account and had much success.

I made (in this order):
17 Pizzas
4 small (12oz) sourdough baguettes (Hamelman's basic sourdough)
6 1.5 lb ovals of olive sourdough (Silverton's La Brea)
1 1.5 lb oval of Hamelman's sourdough
1 4 lb batard of Hamelman's sourdough
4 1.5 lb ovals Hamelman's Sourdough Rye with Walnuts.

I fired for about 3 hours from start to when the pizza was finished.

Then I put the door on and equalized for about 3 hours and baked the baguettes at around 570F, 12 minutes or so and they were done. (I used the wet towel to seal the door and did not see any browning when I vented the steam, a BIG difference from before). 205F internal temp.

Then came the 1.5 lb Olive and regular sourdoughs. Interesting that the Hamelman sourdough browned much faster than any of the other loaves and developed a darker crust....Have to look into that, think the hearth was still around 540 F or so. 200F internal temp

Next came the large 4lb batard (oh and some tater tots and chicken nuggets for the kids...they did not want left over pizza for dinner), around 490 F. Again got a very dark crust but not burnt (close) managed to get this up to about 202F internal temp, but was afraid of burning (forgot to try tenting with foil...

Last (for that day) was the sourdough rye, think the oven was around 460 then. got those to about 198F internal.

The next day I did a pork shoulder rubbed with sage, rosemary and garlic, cooked uncovered for about 4 hours and also a chuck roast as a pot roast.
pork shoulder was amazing, I turned it several times and it just basted and carmelized! Pot roast great too, but hey, it's a pot roast...

Gave away many loaves (happy neighbors and coworkers) and froze some as well.

Sorry no pictures this time.

Thanks for the great advice. I am really starting to understand all the different bread shapes as the accommodate the falling heat in an oven...

Also, I think this is a testament that home bakers (as opposed to pizza makers) can be very happy with a Pompeii oven. I feel obligated to use all the heat I can, what would I do If I had more mass??

Drake

[Dutchoven]

Don't forget you can roast some bell peppers when the oven is past the roasts and then when it has cooled down to the 200 degree range you can make some great oven-dried tomatoes, dried fruit and even further dry your own fresh herbs. Use your "noodle" and you will come up with some great stuff with this cooking appliance. We have done our Thanksgiving turkeys and all the trimmings, cakes, brownies all sorts of stuff. Just as you said you just have to know where on that temp curve they fit in. The color on my sourdoughs are generally darker also, I believe it would have something to do with more sugars being present during baking thanks to the different enzymes breaking out the sugars before the yeasts came consume them. I think. I would hope to hear from CanuckJim about that as he knows much more, so I defer the real "sage" advice to him. Too bad now pictures. That market was good, took lots of stuff and coma home with none. There were baguettes, french country batards flavored with a bit of fresh basil and sliced garlic, boules flavored with oven-dried tomato and fresh basil, the Mississippi sourdough, ciabatta, and New York style bagels. Thursday afternoon to Saturday morning was interesting but seeing happy faces made it worth it.
Best to you!
Dutch
P.S. Drake are you allowing time between loads of bread for the oven to restabilze? If so, make sure as the baking time lengthens to also lengthen the rest time in between. As I remember you have a well insulated oven and it should recover quite well in those first few hours. Oh and also you can leave some coals spread out on the floor for a while to soak some extra heat into the floor before you rest and stabilize the oven.
Dutch

[DrakeRemoray]

Originally Posted by Dutchoven

P.S. Drake are you allowing time between loads of bread for the oven to restabilze? If so, make sure as the baking time lengthens to also lengthen the rest time in between. As I remember you have a well insulated oven and it should recover quite well in those first few hours. Oh and also you can leave some coals spread out on the floor for a while to soak some extra heat into the floor before you rest and stabilize the oven.
Dutch

I did not really leave time between loads, I should probably start that, good idea! I did spread the coals around after pizza to let all that heat soak in, also, it lets the biggest chunks burn themselves out, making it easier to shovel them out!

Great to hear about the market! That is a lot of work!

I need to send my good digital camera back to Nikon for repair (again!), then I will take some beauty shots...

Also as to the sourdough and the darker crusts. Both loaves were sourdough, I think the Hamelman is a higher hydration dough than Silverton's olive bread. I guess that would mean more Lacto type bacteria and more sugar, therefore a darker crust??

Thanks again for the advice.
Drake