The oven Archie is free to use for everyone on non - commercial purposes, but please email us and ask permission first! The event's calendar with reservations can be found here, and the reservation can be made by sending an email to saviuunihelsinkiin(at)gmail.com.
You will need to bring:
*Firewood and tinder
*An axe and a saw
*Matches
*Bowls, oven gloves etc. whatever you need for baking
*Ingredients for your baking
*Oven thermometer (optional)
*Oven rake (or something similar)
There is currently a pizza peel in the Dodo container, but that can only be used by the people in the organisation. So bring something similar! We are working on a solution so that everyone could use the peel!
It takes an hour or two to heat up the oven. There is quite a lot of firewood to be found in Kalasatama area. You'll need to load the oven a couple of times, so prepare enough wood. The roof on the oven is removable, if you remove it, please see that it's back on place when you go!
The best way to heat up Archie is to burn the fire to coals before adding any wood to it. Also, it is not a good idea to load the oven totally full, since a big fire might cause cracks. After burning the fire for an hour or two, spread the coals evenly on the stones and close the oven door, letting the coals heat the stones for half an hour or so. After that move the coals to the sides with the oven rake (or a branch!) creating a space for baking.
The oven is really hot to start with, so a good idea is to bake first something that requires a really hot temperature, like pizza, Finnish flat bread or carelian pies. After the first minutes the temperature will drop, but then the oven stays warm enough to bake things like bread and cakes for a while. We are still experimenting with the oven, feel free to tell us your experiences!
with love,
The Archie Tribe
Here some useful tutorials on firing ovens from the internet:
http://www.traditionaloven.com/tutorials/fires.html
http://clayoven.wordpress.com/2008/09/24/8-firing-the-oven/
And how to control the temperatures before and during the baking process:
http://www.traditionaloven.com/tutorials/oven.html
http://www.traditionaloven.com/cooking.html
