Tuesday, September 7, 2010

I've been experimenting with baking on a rocket stove and a dutch oven placed on the rocket stove works pretty well as an oven. I've baked cakes and breads and have a few suggestions: Don't place your bread pans/cake pans directly on the bottom of the dutch oven. Put a rack or some canning rings on the bottom and place your bread pan on those. Get a small oven thermometer to place inside the dutch oven and be sure to preheat for best results. Keep the heat/flame of the rocket stove as even as you can. You can lift the lid of your dutch oven occasionally to check the temperature and the heavy metal will hold the heat pretty well. If the dutch oven becomes too hot, the bottom of the bread will (of course) burn. But if it's not hot enough, the loaf will collapse. Our ancestors used wood burning stoves (fire) to bake and it really is an art. You'll need to practice quite a bit to get the hang of it. A solar oven is a much easier way to bake, but if you can't afford the $200 it may cost, or if you live in an area where there's not a lot of sunshine, this is an inexpensive substitute. Wendy

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