alternate method for loading a Dutch Oven

Yesterday I was reading dosidough's account of her problems loading a dough into her dutch oven on Sally's thread

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/20578/txfarmer-et-al-tartine-book-arrived-awesome#comment-143715

and thought I could offer her an alternate method that I used when I baked for the first time using a DO. Dosi wrote me back in a private message so as not to hijack Sally's thread any further, saying she liked the idea and asked if I would re-post it on a separate thread for any other TFL members that might find it useful. My apologies to Sally for going off thread on her post.

The following is a copy and paste of my suggestion to dosi from yesterday.

"The DO that we have has a knob type handle on the lid, so of course it won't lay flat on the oven racks. I found an old spring-form pan that we never use and took the bottom part out and laid the lid of the DO on the ring of the spring-form which was just high enough to suspend the lid handle above the oven rack. This allowed the lid to sit in an even position.

This makes it much easier to get the proofed loaf into the DO, and clear access for scoring. I put the bottom of the DO over top of the loaf and baked it as per the instructions. I had to remove the top rack so there was enough clearance to remove the bottom (now the top) of the DO, but this way makes it much easier to load the dough into the DO. It seemed a better configuration to me for a bread to bake from the widest part of the pot, and give it more room for expansion on the sides. Just a suggestion, but hopefully you'll find it helpful for next time."

It may require some oven rack adjustments,but it should work for most ovens.

Franko