Acoma's cure Heat Management Discuss Acoma's cure in the Oven Management forums; OK Acoma, tell us what your name is so we can avoid all the confusion....

[Ken524]

OK Acoma, tell us what your name is so we can avoid all the confusion.

[gjbingham]

Its Robert. I think Xjim called him Richard by mistake, then corrected it with an edit. I was just kidding around when I called him Richard. Sorry to cause confusion. Just being stupid... Its something I do quite often.

[Acoma]

Xabia, look what you have done Now I am Richard OK everyone, my real name is Robert, Robert, Robert

Photos will be uploaded shortly.

[RTflorida]

O.K., I got lost with Dusty......so really, who is this guy Robert that is trying to impersonate Richard? Or is Richard impersonating Robert?
Sir, may we see some identification??? Maybe a background check is in order.

RT

[Acoma]

Well, My first photo shows the oven with its beginning flames. Some smoke, but no biggy since at the low heat the smoke is not drawn up well.

My next photo is a shot of the scrap on the left that the yard says I can pick up any time. The right side is of old fence that I cut into pieces. I notice that this fence goes up QUICK. Great for getting a flame going, and to manage the low heat, which is needed for the heavy Almond.

The other is of my Almond, and unfortunately the other photo of my larger (60%) stack did not show. I will make it show tomorrow. What a beaute.

Now for notes. The first 6 hours needed regular babying to keep the heat between 200-300. The last 2 hours was way different. I could tell the bricks were starting to saturate heat at this level. I needed to move coals more than anything at this point, and barely needed to put any kindling in, especially the last 1/2 hour.

I closed up the opening with bricks, then covered all with tarps.

[RTflorida]

Anyone have any experience burning almond?
I'm just curious how hot it burns. I know my first fire with an unfamiliar wood (my current load of citrus) I was damn close to being scared...I kept building the fire just like I had with oak and hickory in every previous fire.....got so hot (my IR went nuts registering over 1400 degrees) and I thought every joint was going to fail or something melt...REALLY intense, took almost 2 hrs to cool down enough for pizza.
Guess the point I'm trying to make...be carefull with the really dense hardwoods with high BTU ratings until you get a feel for how hot each additional log will make it.

RT

[Acoma]

RT, you are correct. That is what I am attempting to learn with this wood too. The almond is near tops. Only a couple Oak varietis beat it. Almond is 32.9. This link shows a previous thread with ratings, and Mahogany is at almost 40. Now that's insane.

http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f2/a...wood-2543.html (alder or maple for firewood?)

That is why I am carefully eyeing the heat and flames as they accumulate during the day. I am now very proud to be doing the new technique. It allows me to see how heat begins to saturate into the bricks, and upon doing so, how the Almond reacts. No messing around with this high BTU wood that keeps going, and going, and going.

[gjbingham]

Good point RT,
A cooler burning wood like fir, alder, pallets cut up might be easier to maintain the temps. A well cure hardwood might be dangerous at this point. I'll come down and get rid of that almond for you.

[dusty]

Very nice to be trying this revised curing method. To me, having used the old one, it makes much more sense. Logically, the small fire going all day would do much more moisture removal than a dinker little fire for three minutes a day. Plus, as Frances mentioned, the old one was infuriating! You would light a dinky little fire and then have to wait a whole day to light an other dinky lil' fire. No wonder we all have cracks! Patience tended to wear thin and fires tended to get prematurly large - at least that's my excuse.
I'm truly hoping that you will excape this vicious crack trend. I believe that this new method is, logically, FAR better than our old one. Can't wait for the results. Keep us posted daily.

'Cause...., us being oven geeks, or whatever, this is what we want to know.

dusty

[Xabia Jim]

Almond is kind of like Olive wood, very dense. They are from arid regions. Almond will live over 100 years, Olive can live 500 years. Citrus woods are from these same areas. I think some woods from southern regions are more dense with less pitch. The spanish pines are dense and burn differently from northern pines found in Michigan.

Then again Oaks and Hornbeam (Ironwood) can be extremely dense too. They don't produce much ash like Maple or Birch does.

My Spanish friend said the best Paella comes from Orange wood fires.
Hope to get some and try that next.

....but for curing I used up my old pallets! (saved the good wood for cooking)

and yeah, I'm the culprit poster....sorry Riley!