How to Heat a Wood Fired Oven
Before electricity and gas ovens, cooking on a wood-fired oven was the only way that people had of baking; however, some still choose to use this method of baking. Wood fired ovens are praised for their energy efficiency, fast cook time and self-cleaning properties, as the oven burns off the grease inside. Apart from these attributes, a wood-fired oven is relatively simple to heat, using the most primitive source of heat: fire. Does this Spark an idea?
Things You'll Need
- A section of old newspaper
- 5 pieces of thin, dry, seasoned wood, approx. 6 inches long
- 5 pieces of dry, seasoned wood, approx. 10 inches long, 2 1/2 inches thick
- Piece of big wood, approx. 10 inches long, 8 inches wide
- Matches
Instructions
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Roll the newspaper up and place it in the fire chamber of the oven. Rolling the newspaper into tight rolls like logs lets the paper burn longer for igniting the small pieces of wood.
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2
Place the small pieces of wood on top of the rolled up newspapers. Laying the wood crossways on top of each other helps when starting a fire.
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3
Take the matches and ignite the paper underneath the small pieces of wood. Lighting the papers on the underside works the best when starting a fire.
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4
Add the bigger pieces of wood to the fire when it begins to get a good flame.
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5
Add the large piece of wood after the fire has produced a good bed of red embers. It takes around 15 minutes for the fire to get to this point.
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Tips & Warnings
If fire gets too low, throwing a few pieces of the small wood on top should revive the fire. If a piece of wood is too long, it is OK to stick part of the wood into the fire chamber, leaving the excess portion outside of the oven, feeding the stick into the fire as it burns down.
Keep flammable material at least 6 feet away from the fire chamber due to sparks and embers that could pop out of the chamber.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit old russian stove image by Dmitri MIkitenko from Fotolia.com
