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I know I said I'd stop going on about my bread, but I've just had a thought, so bear with me.

We have a small outdoor bread oven, which is usually fired by charcoal rather than wood. It has a sort of trivet that stands in the fire, with a bakestone that fits in it over the fire about 4".

So, my questions are

1) would using this to make my daily bread be better than lighting the oven

2) do you think I could burn wood instead of charcoal and if so

3) would the oven get as hot as with charcoal, or too hot?

Answers on a postcard folks

Edited - I've probably put this in the wrong section, so if you want to shift it go ahead.

without experience I'd say give it a go and see what happens. I would reckon it would only get too hot if you stick loads of wood onto the fire or use accelerants like petrol after all charcoal does get red hot on barbies.

I don't know the answer to your first question.

Yes, you can use wood. Get the oven hot (I use twigs for this part), lob on some bigger bits of wood, then close the door for a few mins and the unburned wood will start to turn into charcoal.

You can probably get the oven too hot, but just wait for it to cool down before bunging your bread in. It takes a bit of practice and you'll get to identify when it's at the right temperature after a few attempts.

Thanks chaps. I was talking to OH about it last night - he doesn't think it's a goer - so I'm just going to have to convince him!

I need to be able to use wood though, charcoal's too expensive to use daily. I'll give it a try and see what happens.

I have to admit it will be a fair weather option - I can't see me battling 80mph winds and hail to make the daily bread in the winter:lol:

Wood is better than charcoal - you know the provenance and will soon gauge how quickly/hotly it burns and the food will taste better. Our wood-fired oven is ready for pizza when the bricks are white. An old neighbour's trick for bread is to throw a small dough ball in. When it is cooked it's time to put your loaves in.