Steam Injection

[carrieanddan]

I have heard that ovens in commercial "artisan" bakeries have steam injectors in them to promote a good "spring" when baking bread. When baking in my kitchen oven I usually spray water on the sides and floor of the oven to create steam when I put the bread in.
I am wondering if anyone has put some sort of steam injector in their backyard brick oven.
My thought was to have a tubing system with some sort of nozzle (like on a cappuccino maker) inside the oven, and the other end have a sealable container for steam generation (think tea kettle) with a stop-cock to control when the steam gets injected...
Is this a good idea? Bad idea? Or just a crazy idea that will most likely take lots of time and energy but produce little result good or bad?

Thanks for your input,

DAN

[Dutchoven]

Definitely interesting but I think it may fall into the lots of time and energy category because for the relatively small number of loaves baked it is just as easy to use a garden sprayer...unless you just devised something that was linked to the door? Have to give it more thought!
Dutch

[james]

Hi Dan,

There might be two separate things in play here. First, the presence of steam in the right quantity for making great bread, and second, the ease at which you can put it there.

I think Dutch hits it right on the head talking about the number of loaves, and the number of times a week, that you are going to be baking. There is a wood-fired brick oven at a Healdsburg winery that rigged up a steam injector system -- but they are baking commercial quantities of bread and firing the oven 3-4 times a week. I talked with the owner, and they set up the steam system more for convenience than quality.

As an aside, they also have a nice cast iron door with a counter-weight -- which seems to follow. The oven gets serious use as a piece of commercial baking equipment, and the door is functional.

James

[jwnorris]

Here is an idea that may work.

Drill a small hole in one of the courses of the dome, maybe the sixth or seventh. Take a piece of metal tubing [maybe SS] with a cap on one end.

Drill a small hole in the cap and insert the tubing through the hole in the dome. The tubing should be long enough to extend to the outside of the dome. This length may be enough to minimize heat transfer by the tubing.

Connect the outside end of the tubing to a one gallon pump up style garden sprayer. There should be some sort of a fitting on the end of the tubing coming out of the dome to attach the rubber tubing from the sprayer.

Viola...

J W

[Inishta]

I'm not a baker but it seems like overkill. Is there a reason you cant just open the door and use the sprayer directly into the oven?

[CanuckJim]

Inishta,

I'm with you. I've certainly seen injection systems on large commercial ovens, but I didn't and don't see the need for it in my 4' x 3' oven. Could it be done? Sure. Question is what would you gain other than the experience of putting it in. Garden sprayer works just fine.

Jim

[carrieanddan]

Thanks all,
It sounded good in my head, but the more I think about it, and from your insights, I realize that it is yet another of my over engineered schemes.
Now if I could only come up with something that people actually need...
Thanks again

DAN

[CanuckJim]

Dan,

Better mousetrap, paper clip, money making machine. They'd all be good, and maybe even possible. Perfect loaf of bread? Priceless.

Jim