Ovens...

I know it probably sounds weird to most people, but I always fall in love with the ovens I use.

My old oven in Toronto used to be an old electric coil oven. It was roomy and could easily accommodate two loaves at once. It could probably fit three if I had a stone with enough surface area. With time, the bread and baked goods that came out of it got better and better. Once, I took a few loaves of dough to bake at the Alan Scott built wood-fired oven at Dufferin Grove Park, and my friends were teasing me that I was cheating on my 'wife'. Such was my affinity to what other people would treat as just a piece of machinery.

The one I have right now is an old gas-fired one. Lighting it can be a real pain in the ass sometimes because you have to take off the floor of the oven to light the burner underneath. And sometimes the burner doesn't stay on after you lift your hand from the nozzle that controls the strength of the burner. It can take a while sometimes to get it started because of this. Some people on the corridor have already given up lighting it because they can't keep the burner on. But I always manage, so I'm asked to help sometimes.

Despite its shortcomings, it's a really great oven. Yes, there's a hot spot in the left-hand corner, but at least I know it's there and if a loaf of bread is not browning enough I know I can move the paler side towards the hot spot and then it browns nicely. I also always peel the loaf onto that side to get more oven spring and then shift it after a while to prevent it from getting burnt later. After some time, I know the exact routine I have to follow when baking with it.

It's been a really dependable, albeit sometimes flaky, old friend.