Bread baking surprise

[fresco]

For about a week now (ever since I managed to smash the glass door on our gas Kitchenaid range) I've been using the Weber grill to bake bread. And much to my surprise, the Weber produces a much better (crisper) crust than the Kitchenaid, although it is, you'll understand, far more basic.

The Kitchenaid is convection. The Weber is covered, and fueled with natural gas. I use a baking stone, just as I did with the range.

I try to keep the heat around 400 degrees, but it's cold outside, so I don't worry if it creeps up a bit.

Anyone care to speculate as to why the results are better on an outdoor grill?

[jackal10]

I guess in the Weber the gas combustion products exhaust via the oven, so the atmosphere is much damper.

[Dave the Cook]

Water is a byproduct of natural gas combustion. Is your KA gas or electric?

[fresco]

Gas

[Dave the Cook]

I think you're gettting the benefit of water vapor -- don't bread ovens usually have some way of introducing moisture to promote crust formation?

As jackal notes (at least I think this is what he's saying), in a domestic oven, moisture is vented. But your grill is not -- at least not at the top, where the water vapor would accumulate, so the cooking chamber is staying nice and humid.

[nightscotsman]

professional deck ovens often have a mechanism to introduce steam in the early stages of baking. This will gelatinize some of the outside layer of dough and help produce a thicker crust. However, they also usually have a vent that you can open to let the moisture out to produce a crisp and dry crust. I would think that if the oven is moist throughout the baking process you would get something closer to steaming and the crust would be more chewy?