Cookbooks in the 1800s were vague on how to heat a brick oven (and even a wood burning stove). People had to know what type of wood and what size pieces to use to make the heat needed for cooking various foods. There were no cooking thermometers in those days, so people had to learn from experience, or if they were lucky, learn from their their mother or grandmother.

INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS

TO BAKE IN A BRICK OVEN
If you have a large family, or board the laborers of a farm, it is necessary to have a brick oven so as to bake but twice a week. If you arrange every thing with judgment, half a dozen loaves of bread, as many pies or puddings, rusk, rolls or biscuit may be baked at the same time. Some persons knead up their bread overnight in winter. To do this, the sponge* should be made up at four o’clock in the afternoon. If you wish to put corn flour in your bread, scald one quart of it to six loaves, and work it in the flour that you are going to stir in the rising. To make six loaves of bread, you should have three quarts of water and a tea-cup of yeast. 

*sponge – made of flour, water, and yeast and allowed to ferment until it reaches a desired growth; then it is added to bread dough.

Scalded corn flour, or boiled mashed potatoes, assists bread to rise very much in cold weather. Have a quart of potatoes well boiled and rolled fine with a rolling-pin on your cake board. Mix them well in the rising after it is light. If the oven is not ready, move the bread to a cool place. 

Common sized loaves will bake in an hour in the brick oven. If they slip easily in the pans, and, upon breaking a little piece from the side, it rises from the pressure of the finger, it is done. But if it should not rise, put it back again. When the bread is taken out of the oven, wrap it in a cloth till quite cold. 

You should have a large tin vessel with holes in the top, to keep bread in. In this way, it will be moist at the end of the week in cool weather. 

DIRECTIONS FOR HEATING A BRICK OVEN, &c.
It is very important to have good oven wood split fine, and the oven filled with it as soon as the baking is out; by this precaution it is always ready and dry. Early in the morning, take out half of the wood. Spread the remainder over the oven in such a way as it will take fire easily. Light a few sticks in the fire and put them in. When it burns well, turn the wood about, and occasionally add more till it is all in. When it is burnt to coals, stir them about well with a long-handled shovel made for the purpose. 

When it looks bright on the top and sides, it is hot enough. Let the coals lay all over the bottom till near the time of putting in the bread, then draw them to the mouth, as it is apt to get cool the quickest. If you have biscuit to bake, put some of the coals on one side near the front, as they require a quick heat. They should be put in immediately after the coals are taken out and will bake in fifteen or twenty minutes. 

When all the coals are taken out, if the bottom of the oven sparkles, it is very hot, and you should wait a few minutes. But if not, you may put in the bread first, and then the pies. If you have a plain rice pudding to bake, it should be put in the middle of the front, and have two or three shovels of coals put round it if the oven is rather cool.

Close the oven with a wooden stopper made to fit it. After they have been in a few minutes, see that they do not brown too fast; if so, keep the stopper down a little while. Pies made of green fruit will bake in three-quarters of an hour; but if the fruit has been stewed, half an hour will be long enough. 

Rusk, or rolls, take about half an hour to bake in a brick oven. If you should have to open the oven very often before the bread is done, put in a few shovels of coals and shut it up. 

When all is taken out, fill the oven with wood ready for the next baking. 

There is nothing in any department of cooking that gives more satisfaction to a young housekeeper than to have accomplished what is called a good baking. 

TO BAKE A DUTCH-OVEN LOAF
If you wish to make a large loaf, it will take three pints of water, more than half a teacup of yeast, and two spoons of salt. When the rising is light, knead it up. Have the dutch oven* greased, put it in, and set it near the fire, but not so near that it will scald. When it rises so as to crack on the top, set the oven on coals. Have the lid hot, cut the loaf slightly across the top, dividing it in four. Stick it with a fork and put the lid on. When it is on a few minutes, see that it does not bake too fast. It should have but little heat at the bottom and the coals on the top should be renewed frequently; turn the oven round occasionally. 

If baked slowly, it will take an hour and a half. When done, wrap it in a large cloth till it gets cold.

*dutch oven – a large, heavy cooking pot with a lid serving as a simple oven, heated by being placed under or next to hot coals.

Image from Deposit Photos

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