The Anthracite Special at platform 9¾ ....
So with recent chat of steam moving to steam engines and so on, I decided to have a go at cooking some bread inside my multi-fuel fire that I have in my office...
I got it going, starting with the usual waxed milk cartons and kindling, and when it was hot enough to ignite the beach pebbles that masquerade as anthracite, on they went. I let it get hot for an hour or so and topped it up.
Meanwhile I made up some basic yeasted dough - 300g white flour, 180g water, 20g olive oil, 8g yeast and 8g salt. I threw it in the mixer and let it get on with it. An hour later, it's risen, shaped into a boulle and placed in the smallest pot I have with a lid - a nice little stainless steel pan which has a thick copper clad bottom. I used a piece of baking parchment in the pot with the idea of being able to lift it out without it sticking. With hindsight this was somewhat foolish idea...
It rose well again in the pan in-front of the fire which I'd damped down. My IR thermometer was off the scale, but it was about 450C on the sides - maxed out on the coals, so over 500C.
Proving in-front of the stove.
In it went...
I gave it 15 minutes with the lid on, then took it out to remove the lid... Eeek! It had risen up more and stuck to the lid a little....
I took the lid off, enjoyed the crust stuck to it and put it in for another 10 minutes or so ...
Out of the 'oven'
I was going to leave it in a little longer, but the smell of something burning was in the air, so I decided to cut it short and took it down to the kitchen at this point...
And I was right about the burning:
Turned out...
The baking parchment had burnt - as had the bottom of the loaf.
Upside down on the rack ...
Scraped the worst off it, cut it in half and here we are:
For a basic white loaf, slightly undercooked it actually tasted very good! It has the aroma of toast without being toasted - nice soft fluffy bread - what's not to like!
So the question now - could it be cooked in the firebox of a steam engine? Well technically yes, but I have to say that I'd not like to be the one sitting in-front of it for all that time, and unless you can somehow put something in to insulate the base then the bottom is going to end up charred and blackened.... Ah, charred and blackened food - there's a word for that - cajun ;-)
Cheers,
-Gordon
Interesting!
:)
-Dave
Well yes - I think it fits both :-)
-Gordon
With the very high temperatures, and the localized heat at the bottom, it might be a real challenge to get anything other than a pizza or foccacia or naan or pita style bread to cook through before burning. Interesting experiment!
Paul
... if I can get a hotplate in there.
This was just a bit of fun after another thread here about steam wandered into the land of steam engines, etc. so I thought I'd have some fun with the closest I have to hand.
So my office is very toasty today - in more ways than one ;-)
Hm. and I forgot about something else I have: I have a kamado charcoal cooker/grill - and I have cooked bread on that in the past - they recommend 2 of their pizza stones for bread/pizza though - which might be fine for pizza, but the last time I tried bread, even with those 2 pizza stones the bottom still got scorched... Of-course I could have turned the heat down a bit, but there you go...
bit of a beige photo, but:
There's no other taste like toast cooked on a coal fire! Reminds me of my childhood actually - we had an open coal fire and used to make toast on it all the time!
Cheers,
-Gordon
This is so awesome! It gives me hope for our Locomotive Loaves. I'me sure that with enough experimentation we could deal with the charring on the bottom, or as Mrs. Boule calls them "flavor crystals."
The temps you are reaching appeal to the New Yorker in me, because I 'm already thinking of making a pizza in a multi fuel oven like yours.
If I get a chance to try it, I'd probably put a room temperature stone or cast iron griddle in just before the dutch oven went in just to see if I could slow the direct heat from the bottom just enough to reduce the buildup of flavor crystals to minimum.
Thanks for trying this out Gordon, you are awesome!
You've reproduced the source of that ancient phrase. The gentry got to eat the lovely top. Downstairs they ate the coal-black bottom.
I LOVE this! You have broken the barrier of the unknown and tried what I have been wanting to try for ages!
I wonder, though, if you need to work it like a pizza oven, heat it to white ash then rake the coals into the corners and sit the pan directly on the grate? That way you've not got actual combustion going on directly under your loaf, generating insane temperatures - you're just getting residual heat from the grate and indirect heat from the coal and the stove sides.
Another option for baking bread in a stove like this would be to wrap the dough around skewers or pokers and hold it over the fire, like Australian damper. When it's done, you slip the damper off the poker and fill the middle with jam. Always seemed like a great idea to me.
Bake your bread when you have let flames burn down some.perhaps when you are knowing you will leave office....the embers (glowing) will cook without burning bottom..control the temperature of embers by placing ash on them..more for lower temp..less for higher.