Acoma's cure

[Xabia Jim]

it's a spiritual journey eh?

[Acoma]

Xabia, that jourjey is coming to an end.

I found that the soot in the dome finally vanished half way through the cure today. I walk away from soot, come back to clean..

With a clean dome, I discover a 7 course vertical crack. Not sure if it is done, and it is at the location in the back, just expanded. My arch cracks have not though, and no seepage of soot to the blanket.

I believe that I should get the furnace cement and seal the cracks this coming week along the dome. As for the arch? I still have to figure that out, but it will be dealt with eventually.

Les cam by, and gave his analysis. He figured the work was A OK

So, when can I get HOT? Do you think cracks are done? If this many hours of curing has gone by with this heat increase and duration, will more occur? Have any of you seen more cracks after this long in hours and temps? I want to play with dough

[Acoma]

DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I decided that after so many hours, and I mean many, that at the end I had to crank it up. Well, crank it after being out there so long was to 950 dome and 550 at dome floor entrance. I closed much of the door with bricks and will check morning temp. I also used my tarp over the entrance area to keep heat within the oven area. No worries, been done throughout. I say we go BIG Monday with food to cook. I have to get pizza knowledge together now, and oh ya, to furnace cement outside dome (that is a must).

[Les]

Originally Posted by Acoma

Les came by, and gave his analysis. He figured the work was A OK

It is a good body of work! In regard to the cracks - I think it's the nature of this beast. The quality of work that Robert put into this confirms my belief .... cracks happen Robert had the oven up to a little less than 800 degrees when I was there and there was no visible smoke escaping from the cracks - looks like he is good to go. The oven is going to pale in comparison to his next endeavor - landscaping

Les...

[gjbingham]

Ahhh, making pizza in a WFO. Something like being a babe in the woods all over again. Another journey! Buon viaggio Robert!

[Acoma]

Yes indeed! As I stated in the curing strategy thread, I had kept a 900-950 temp on upper dome the last half hour, then closed up shop at 1:30pm Saturday. I went out to check the retained heat for dome and found inside dome at 453 degrees. This was great, an approximately 65% retained heat from a 700 cure day. More insulation to apply too. I may pick up some ribs today and throw them inside for about 4 to 5 hours so that they fall off the bone.

[RCLake]

I'm glad you are done. I would have guessed you would of had pizza yesterday afternoon. I did a slab of ribs last week, so easy to do and so good. I'm still working at getting the pizza dough to turn out round.

[gjbingham]

RC,
Did you try Dave's method from his vid? Its pretty easy to do and produces a surprisingly round pie.

[Acoma]

RC, I need to pick up the ingredience. I want to give it a shot tomorrow, but for today, ribs. I threw in two slabs at 3pm, with floor temp of 275. I started off with a reheat of the oven for 5 minutes with a fresh fire. Once it got going I threw in the ribes with floor temp of 325. I figure it will stay smokey for a few hours in there with everything closed up. I will check it at 7pm, then coat for an hour with sauce every 20 minutes, 3 times. I will update this evening with results.

[Xabia Jim]

Originally Posted by RCLake

I'm still working at getting the pizza dough to turn out round.

Why do we need round pizzas?

.....go with the flow of the dough....artisan pizza shapes are cool