On 27 Feb 2005 21:40:21 -0800, wrote:

>
>> Howdy,
>>
>> With respect, spraying the oven does little for the bread...
>>
>> In fact, it probably makes things worse. You want the heat
>> of the oven to go into the bread, but with the method you
>> suggest, much of that heat is wasted changing the water to
>> steam. That cools the oven dramatically.
>
> That's the whole idea. I used to work for Kroger's too in the
>bakery department as a baker. I worked there for over 10 years.
>Steaming the bread did lower the temperature of the oven by as much as
>25 degrees or more. However, the steam only remained in the oven for
>about 25 seconds before the blower kicked on and pulled it all out.
>Here is a website that explains how this happens.
>http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/icooks/4-1-03.html
> One time I had to use the deli's ovens to bake the bread because
>the bakery oven was being fitted with a new ignitor. The deli ovens
>were more like your home oven. The only difference was that they were
>slightly larger, probably about 50% bigger. I put the trays of bread
>in the oven, sprayed the inside of the oven real good with water and
>then shut the oven door. After 30 seconds I opened the oven door to let
>the excess steam out and then closed it again to let the oven come back
>up to temperature and let the bread finish baking. The bread turned out
>fine.

Hello again,

With sincere respect to you, the good people of Kroger's,
and to the author of the piece at the link you provided, I
disagree (completely).

When you say that the "bread turned out fine" what are you
comparing it to? In an oven that has proper steam, there is
virtually no droop in temperature with the addition of steam
so the baker gets the benefits of the higher temperature and
the steam. (The reason that there is virtually no drop in
temperature is that even though the steam is only at 212F
very little water in the form of steam is actually added and
compared to the mass of the oven, that amount is truly
trivial.)

All the best,

--
Kenneth

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