Help needed to find alternative to clay baker

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kjohnson on 21 Feb 2015 at 07:26

Have finally mastered sourdough using a clay baker (inside glazed) with a lid, My husband has COPD, however, and cannot tolerate even the slightest fumes from the clay baker. I have even tried a new clay baker but for some reason whatever odors the clay absorbs are exuded at high heat and he can't tolerate it. I experimented by trying a Pyrex casserole dish and his lungs were fine with it. BUT...it is not the right shape and the lid is not high/domed enough to keep on the bread for more than 10 minutes - it then rises too high and against the glass lid.

What can I use that is glass with a lid? I need a normal loaf pan size - inside measurements about 8 x 5 x 3 or so....

Thanks for any help. 

Karen

Do you have a Dutch oven?  That works.  Why not just bake in your loaf pan?  Sour dough can be baked just as other yeast breads.

Ford

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Jane Dough on 21 Feb 2015 at 07:45

i have a big Turkey roaster that works.  Even a foil tent can work. 

My favorite is as Ford says, a Dutch oven.  Mine is a Lodge cast iron.  Wouldn't trade it for anything. 

while the loaf is baking and cooling should help a great deal.  Crack a window to help the removal of baking gasses and fumes up the exhaust.  

Have you considered moving the oven to a garage or well vented room,  a secondary kitchen,  or putting  a seal on the kitchen door while baking and cooking is going on?  I bake in the summers with a small counter top oven (mini oven) putting it outside.  Very practical.  I think the mini oven cost less than my double roaster pan.  :)

Unless your oven is properly vented to the outside - and almost none of them are - turning on the exhaust fan just blows back into the kitchen, effectively spreading any oven fumes around the house more thoroughly and more quickly.

I MADE them put in a proper venting range hood when we built our house in the '80s.  You would not believe the amount of bitching and whining this caused.