The Fresh Loaf

News & Information for Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts

Convection with stones, like a deck oven?

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dantortorici's picture

Convection with stones, like a deck oven?

Thinking about getting an extra oven primarily for bread. I like the hearth in deck ovens but also like the capacity, and even baking of convection.

Do you think if I put stones in on a few of the shelves I would get the benefit of the deck oven hearth?

I imagine the stone would be 18x26 just like a sheet pan you might bake on so it wound not interrupt airflow anymore than pans would. Certainly seems like it might take longer to heat up given the added mass, but any other thoughts on  how effective this might work or not?



Chuck's picture

Convection oven or deck oven? The choice may be less stark than it seems. Several deck ovens that are also convection ovens are available. Perhaps more importantly, multiple heat sources make the heat distribution in many deck ovens so even that their manufacturers feel justified in advertising them as "convection" even though they don't have a fan.

(There's a clear and significant difference between a home non-convection oven and a home convection oven; it's less clear there's a significant difference between a professional non-convection oven and a professional convection oven. In fact, the idea of very even heat without a fan sounds even better to me than the usual home convection oven -- never a problem either with dough getting too dry or with steam clearing itself out of the oven in just a few tens of seconds.)

Yep, guilty as charged: this is not a direct response to the question you asked (it's rather a response to a slightly different question that you didn't ask:-).  Even so, hopefully this different perspective will be helpful.

dantortorici's picture

Thanks. Should have said I was looking at professional ovens, not home ovens. The convection also has additional uses other than bread so am leaning that way.
I like cooking bread on the hearth tho so that's why I was thinking of the stones.