How does it work?
The trick is to salvage an old steam iron, keeping only the "steam" part - the iron is useless.I found mine second-hand on e-bay, 10 years ago, and paid €8 for it, so it wasn't a big investment.
The principle is very simple: you fill the unit with water, plug it in, it heats the water, which escapes as steam. This steam is injected into the furnace, forming the necessary steam.
How does it work?
To achieve this result, a little tinkering is required.
The rest, however, needs to be adapted a little. Normally, the steam generator only delivers steam when you press a button on the iron, but in this case we want a continuous flow. To do this, I've replaced the iron button with a simple switch mounted on the unit, at "B".
Once this is done, you need to connect a hose to the steam outlet at "D", and end it with a small piece of metal tubing that will withstand the heat from inside the oven, like this:
Use
Thus equipped, the steam machine is ready to operate. Here's the principle I use:
- With the oven at 270°C (520°F), I plug the machine in until it starts to steam up.
- With the oven at 250°C (480°F), I turn the machine off temporarily.
- I load the oven
- Close the oven door
- I insert the tube into the oven, and restart the machine
- I leave it running for 15 minutes
In conclusion
Steam in the oven is essential for good bread, and a steam machine like this will solve all your problems. Note: if you have a kitchen oven, consider this method instead.A few points to watch out for
- Rather than steam, which is too dry, it's the scalding water injected into the oven that's effective. Set your steam machine ("C" button) to produce a mixture of water and steam, so that it "spits".
- The water you pour into your machine will end up partly on your loaves, so use clean, pure water, ideally rainwater.
- Drops of water will fall from the metal pipe into the oven, so make sure there are no dough pieces underneath.
