[CanuckJim]

Sammy,

I bake mostly bread, so my comments come from that direction. Once the hearth is where I want it (typically in the 850-900 range), I rake out the ash and coals using a custom made iron rake (James sells both rakes and shovels in the FB store). I let the oven moderate for about two hours (mine is a high mass oven), then brush the hearth with a copper pizza oven brush. With pizza, as with bread, many of us don't mind a bit of fly ash on the base of the finished thing. But, because I deal with the public, I swab the deck with an old piece of towel wired to a pole. The towel is damp, not wringing wet. This will pick up most if not all of the fly ash, but the swabbing should be done quickly, with a sort of rolling motion over the bricks. For the Brits and Aussies out there, it's called skiffle-ing.

I use a large, deep galvanized metal pail for the coals and ash that I bought at a local farmers' co-op. It's the kind of thing used to water stock.

When I make pizza, I push the coals to the right side of the oven (I'm right handed), then brush out the cooking area, then swab very quickly. After that, I put a few pieces of wood on the coals to get a bright fire going in that area, one that licks up to about the middle of the dome.

Except for small items like kaisers or bagels, I always bake directly on the brick. For rolls like these, I use parchment lined sheet pans. This is mainly for speed of operation, because it's tough to chase a bunch of small, rolling items around in the oven unless they're on pans. Think of large marbles rolling to the back of the oven; it's a sure way to get over-baked rolls.

In the 550 to 600 range, the bottoms of your breads will come out quite clean, even it the flour you use to lubricate your peel burns around it. If there's anything at all left, you can just brush it off.

Frequently, but not always, the bottoms of my hearth breads (about 2 pounds in weight) will show the pattern of the bricks. My customers find this fascinating, particularly the French ones, because it shows how genuine the breads really are.

Depending on where your oven is situated, there's really no effective method to minimize mess. You'll aways have a bit of ash swirling around when you rake out, but that's part of the territory with a WFO. "Fly" ash is called that for a reason.

It's quite possible to retrofit insulation board under the oven, using SuperIsol or similar, but don't do it until the oven has been in use at operating temps for several months. You want to be absolutely sure everything is dry and cured. This is particularly true if you used a vermic-perlite/Portland mix for your insulation layer.

Jim