An enclosed compartment used to bake bread. Ovens can differ in several different ways. One of them is how the heat is produced in it. Some of them are electrical, others are gas-powered and some even powered by firewood.

Another important property of an oven, especially for baking bread, is to have steam injection. That is, a mechanism that injects steam into the oven compartment during baking to improve the oven spring and development of the bread crust. Home ovens usually don't have this feature, so, to recreate the same effect at home, some bakers use dutch ovens to bake their bread. The idea being that, cooking the dough with the dutch oven lid on, you would trap most of the water released by the dough and imprint most of the qualities provided by a steam injection oven without having to use all the expensive equipment.