Cooking in the Winter Heat Management Discuss Cooking in the Winter in the Oven Management forums; I just finished my brick oven. I am antsy to use it (curing it now). I was just curious if ...

[sammy]

I just finished my brick oven. I am antsy to use it (curing it now). I was just curious if it was hard on the oven to use it in the winter. I am in Iowa and the winters here get pretty cold. Am I going to have severe cracking and a potential cave in if I use the oven in the middle of winter when it is zero degrees out? Just curious if there is a suggested temperate range for use?

Thanks

[DrakeRemoray]

In Denver I had similar concerns. I figure that
A) if it is really zero degrees out, you will probably not use it, I mean, it is going to be hard to be outside at all...
B) even if it is 15 or 20 degrees, you are going from 20-900. Is it that different from 65-900?
If you were really concerned, a light bulb in the oven overnight would probably bring it up quite a bit.

Drake

[CanuckJim]

Sammy,

I'm in southern Ontario, and I've baked in my AS oven in February, with the temp at -20 C and stiff winds. You can do it, but just be sure to make sure your oven is very well insulated, both below and above. It's not so much the thermal shock, which is minimal in these ranges as Drake rightly points out, it's more the amount of fuel you'll need to bring the oven up to baking heat. Don't worry about oven failure due to cold weather; it just won't happen.

Jim

[sammy]

You guys rock. Thanks. That all makes sense. It will be interesting to see how well I did insulating mine when I actually get to that first big fire. I am a little nervous about that