STOKED : In Actor Keith Carradine’s World, Bread Bakes Best in a Wood-Burning Stove

“It all started when I bought the stove, which I found in an antique store in Orem, Utah. It’s a gray- porcelain-and-nickel-plated, wood-burning Eureka cookstove, and if I remember correctly, I paid $250 for it.

Buying the stove was the first step in realizing a dream that I’d had since I was a kid. Even in my early teens, before I’d experienced the pressures of a film actor’s life, I had a longing for a simpler time. I would entertain fantasies of tranquil, rural domestic bliss complete with early American furniture, patchwork quilts and, yes, homemade bread from the wood stove. So when I ran across the Eureka in Orem, I knew I had no choice but to buy it and load it into the U-Haul trailer along with the rest of the antiques I’d been collecting on my way home from filming ‘Nashville.’

I was living in a small house in Laurel Canyon at the time, so for four years the stove languished under a plastic tarp. I moved into a larger house and finally got around to having the stove hooked up, but my home life was what might be described as unstable. The stove remained unlit and untested. I guess we (the stove and I) were waiting for Mrs. Right. She finally showed up, we got married and, by George, it was time to bake.

Baking bread in a wood stove is not difficult--once you know how. In fact, our first batch would have been perfect, had we known the temperature gauge was off by 100 degrees. The scorched loaves were a letdown, but the taste of the undamaged insides was quite promising.

It’s really all timing. You must co-ordinate the rise of the dough with the lighting of the stove so that the oven reaches 350 degrees Fahrenheit just as the loaves are ready for baking. With a little practice, you can get all the steps to blend into a wonderful concert of wood-chopping, flour-mixing, dough-kneading, fire-stoking precision. I use oak to fuel my stove; there’s lots of it around my yard and it’s an ideal fuel. It burns hot, a little goes a long way and it imparts a distinctive, smokey flavor to the bread. I also find it reaffirming that in order to bake bread I must first chop wood.

Kneading the dough is one of the best things about bread making. The feel of the dough in my hands and the heat generated by the kneading and the yeast working all combine for a pleasing, rejuvenating process. Barring other household distractions, my mind will wander through melodies, lyrics, memories both distant and recent--anything at all.

Ultimately, of course, the bread’s the thing. I’ve been baking bread this way for a few years now, and I guess I’m getting pretty good at it. It’s become our traditional holiday gift to friends, and it always gets good reviews. And in this prefab, chemically altered world, it’s nice to really know what you’re eating.” PRODUCED BY LINDEN GROSS