A treatise on the art of making good wholesome bread of wheat, oats, rye, barley and other farinaceous grains / Exhibiting the alimentary properties and chemical constitution of different kinds of bread corn, and of the various substitutes used for bread, in different parts of the world

by Friedrich Christian Accum

Domestic Oven for Baking Bread.

The [figure on the title page] exhibits a convenient culinary oven for families who bake their own bread. It is usually erected on one side of the kitchen fire-place, and heated by a flue that passes from the fire-grate under the bottom of the oven. Although this is in many respects a convenient and neat way of heating the oven, yet the manner of managing the fire renders it only economical in families where a large fire is always kept up in the kitchen-grate. In small families it is far more economical to heat the oven by means of a separate fire-place built underneath it. A fire-place six inches wide, nine inches long, and six inches deep, is sufficient to heat an oven eighteen inches wide, twenty-four inches long, and from twelve to fifteen inches high, which is a convenient size for the baking of bread. The grate should be placed at least twelve inches below the bottom of the oven when the fuel employed is pit-coal; and, in order to prevent the fire from operating with too much violence upon any part of the oven, the brick-work should be sloped outwards and upwards on every side, from the top of the burning fuel, to the ends and sides of the bottom of the oven, that the whole may be exposed to the direct rays of the fire. If the fire-place be built in this manner, and properly managed, it is almost incredible how small a quantity of fuel will answer for heating the oven, and keeping it hot. In this small fire-place there is always a very strong draft of air passing into it, and this circumstance, which is unavoidable, renders it necessary to keep the fire-place door constantly closed, and to leave but a small opening, for the passage of the air, through the ash-pit. If these precautions are neglected, the fuel will be consumed very rapidly, the bottom of the oven will be burnt, and the oven get chilled as soon as the fire-place ceases to be filled with burning fuel. In an oven of this description, I have baked two loaves, each weighing five pounds, and fifteen rolls weighing two pounds, by means of half a peck (ten pounds) of coal.

The figures on the plate facing the titlepage[See [Note]] exhibit an oven to be heated with pit-coal for baking bread, now generally employed in this metropolis.

The oven from which this design has been made, is eight feet wide, and seven deep. The fire-place, called by the bakers, the furnace, for heating the oven, is placed at the side, and enters the oven diagonally; it is furnished with a grate, ash holes, and iron door, similar to a common fire-place for heating a boiler, but having a partition to separate it from the oven, and to allow the fire to enter into the oven; it, therefore, forms a canal, by which the flame is directed into the oven. Over the fire-place or furnace is erected, and lets into the brick-work, a boiler furnished with a pipe, to supply warm water as occasion may require.

When the oven is required to be heated, the boiler is filled with water, and the fire being kindled in the furnace, the flame passes into the oven, and the smoke escapes into the chimney.

The sides of the oven are nearly straight, and turned as sharp as possible at the shoulder, for this form has been found better calculated to retain the heat than any other.

The flues to carry off the smoke is over the entrance door, as shown by the dotted line a of the figure here exhibited, exhibiting the plan of the oven.

A piece of cast iron covers the space before the door of the oven, exactly level with its floor; the opening underneath is applied to no particular use, but is generally made a receptacle for coal.

Fig. 1, is an elevation of the oven. The mouth is closed with a cast iron door, in which is a small sight-hole with a slide valve. To heat the oven, the door is thrown back, and a blower is applied to the mouth, so contrived, as not only to cover the mouth of the oven completely, but to enclose also the throat of the chimney; by this contrivance the draft is quickly so much increased, that the oven becomes speedily heated, and if at anytime it is too hot, it is only necessary to throw open the door of the fire place, and to put up the blower for a few minutes; the current of cool air which is thus made to pass through it, soon lowers the heat to the temperature required. In the blower is also an opening of the same kind as that in the oven door, which may be opened and shut at pleasure; the course of the flue is described by the dotted lines at (b).

Fig. 2, is the blower before mentioned for regulating the heat of the oven.

Fig. 3, is a transverse section from A to B on the plan, looking towards the opening, the fire-place entering the oven at c, the crown of the oven is turned with the bricks on end, and in building the oven instead of centering the arch, the whole space is filled with sand, which is well trod down and shaped to the shape which it is intended the crown of the oven shall be of. When the upper work is finished, the sand is dug out at the mouth of the oven.

Fig. 4, is a longitudinal section of the oven from C to D. In this sketch the situation of the flue is evident, and the sectional line of the blower, fig. 2, when in its place, is shown by the dotted line d, the open space a, under the oven, has been before spoken of.