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Why does nobody talk about how restaurant ovens cook differently than home ones?
I trained at home for years making perfect bread, then my first week at a busy spot in Austin my loaves came out burnt on the outside and raw inside. Turns out commercial ovens run way hotter and hold heat like crazy compared to what I was used to. How did you guys adjust when you made the switch to pro kitchens?
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sean484mo ago
Lower your temp by 50-75 degrees right off the bat and keep an eye on color way earlier than you think. Commercial ovens have way more thermal mass so they bounce back to temp faster after you open the door, which throws off timing bad. Use a probe thermometer to temp the bread instead of relying on how golden the crust looks.
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beng514mo ago
Huh, I gotta push back a little here @sean48. Dropping the temp that much just means my bread sits in the oven longer and the crust gets this weird thick, leathery shell that's tough to cut through. I'd rather nail the color and texture by pulling it out a couple minutes early than mess with the whole baking schedule.
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caseywalker4mo ago
Nah, pulling it early isn't the fix either, the inside won't be set right. The real trick is knowing your oven's hot spots. Commercial ovens aren't uniform. Mine runs about 40 degrees hotter on the left side. If I don't rotate my loaves halfway through, one side gets torched while the other's barely colored. A probe helps for sure, but you gotta learn the oven's personality first. Test it with a bunch of cheap dough balls one slow morning. Mark where they burn and where they're pale. That'll save you way more headaches than guessing on temps.
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