On 27 Apr 2004 08:16:27 -0400
Allan Adler > wrote:

>
> N.Thornton described a way to make your own stove top oven and
> answered some of my questions about it, but I am still confused about
> it.
>
> I was contemplating an arrangement of the following sort:
> Take a large, deep cast iron sauce pan, put a wok base inside it,
> set a small cookie sheet (I've never actually seen them so smalll)
> or aluminum pie plate on the wok base, cover it and heat it on the
> stove to preheat. Then put dough in the cookie sheet or pie plate,
> cover and heat it.

I've had brownies baked in a cardboard box lined with tinfoil and
heated with hot coals, so i don't see why not.

I've seen pans that small, they're for toaster-ovens. Go big enough
and you could use a quarter sheet pan, or a pan intended for pizza.

Rather than a cast iron pan, you might consider a cast iron dutch
oven. They Don't Call It An Oven For Nothing. They come in sizes ranging
from useless ornamental novelty to man-hole cover. Lodge is a recognized
brand, and the last manufactured in the states, but really it doesn't
matter. Find one you like. It's all sand-cast from the same
hundreds-of-years-old designs. Mexican and taiwanese stuff is fine -
sometimes excellent. Ironically enough, my favorite griddle was made in
taiwan but says "mexican fiesta" on the bottom. If you plan to use it
outside some day, get one with legs - this won't prevent it working on
the stove top. Make sure you follow normal recommendations for the
cleaning and seasoning of new cast iron prior to use.

Then you can just use dutch oven recipes, though you may have to
experiment with conversion ratios for how hot to get it on the stove and
for how long vs. how many coals to use.

> Is that an acceptable oven? And is this really better than a toaster
> oven?

Depends what you think is 'acceptable'

You're not going to be able to follow the directions in the book or
on the box, you're going to be dealing with a situation where you can't
accurately control the temperature over a period of time.

Dutch oven cooking is generally the art of predicting a curve of
rising and then falling temperature, rather than the modern regulated
temperature sort of baking.

Better than a toaster oven? Depends what metrics you use for
'better'. Might be more fun experimentation. AB says that in college he
had an apartment where the only part of the range that worked was the
broiler, and the only cooking vessel he had was a 10" cast iron
frying pan, and he did alright.