Oven temperature>>>barrel v dome Heat Management Discuss Oven temperature>>>barrel v dome in the Oven Management forums; oh excellent and how great to meet someone with a barrel..could you give us some cooking tips, anything would help, ...

[shvuntz]

oh excellent and how great to meet someone with a barrel..could you give us some cooking tips, anything would help, we have finished it now and im in the process of starting to mosaic it, but the weather here has taken a turn for the worse, and has put a halt to it.
we havent put a door on yet either so ant tips on that would be good aswell.
thank you very much
cheryl xx

[AnnieMacD]

Hi Cheryl,

Well, you need to tell me what you want to make in the oven - are you into pizza and bread? I'm getting to be able to use the oven first for pizza, then bread then roast or whatever. I also got a grill made so I can make steaks, baked potatoes - all sorts of things. Next day I make meringues! Also, can you get seasoned hard wood? That is imperative. Let me know and we'll take it from there.

Annie

[shvuntz]

OOOOh Pizza. bread. roasts oooh yeah, sounds amazing..how long does it take to heat the oven up, and how big is yours?..ours is 39 inches deep by 37 inches wide,,about 26 inches high (the dome)..
The grill thingy sounds good..have you any pics?..
Cheryl xxx

[james]

Not to be picky (OK, a little picky), but Annie's Casa160 is technically an oval. It is a 110cm (43") round oven with a 50cm (20") extender in the middle section -- making a 43" wide x 63" deep oven. But it is based on round, domed front and back sections and an oval foot print. Officially, a barrel vault oven has a rectangular footprint, flat front and back walls and a curved barrel vault dome.

OK, I'm done.

Carry on.
James

[AnnieMacD]

Thanks for the technical info, James. I'm a seat-of-your-pants baker type so not good on the details!

Cheryl, if you look at the grill in the Forno Bravo store on this site - that's what I have. Rather than get it shipped here from the US, I got a local guy to make it for me from the picture. I've just made a roast loin of pork in a Le Creuset casserole and it's the BEST! Half an hour before it was finished I put some new potatoes in - the gravy was amazing as the meat gets browned all round.

Anyway, I don't know if my heating times apply to you now. I have some very dry birch and it takes about 2 hours to heat up for pizza. But then you can keep on making them and then put bread in after you've cleared out the coals. Today I made bread only but was testing out a new load of sycamore and the oven took 3 hours (that's long) to get up to temp as the wood just wasn't sufficiently seasoned. I then made the roast and tomorrow morning I'll make meringues. I use the oven often and if it hasn't totally cooled from the previous firing the times are much shorter.

Attaching a pic of pizza in the oven. I'll go out tomorrow and take more pictures for you. Let me know if it's what you are looking for.

Annie

[AnnieMacD]

Cheryl, I forgot to mention the door - you definitely need a good door. I got a door from Forno Bravo with the oven but I got it insulated (same guy who made the grill) and then he built an outer door for me. Since these two improvements my oven maintains heat so much better.

Annie

[Mitchamus]

The bone of contention between the two styles of oven is insulation... which effectively is a construction preference.. not really a design issue...

The igloo style ovens on this site use lots of insulation, a property you can easily transpose to your barrel oven design.

[ksm]

Hi, this question really is for Annie about her oven doors. Would you share how you modified the FB-supplied door to make it more insulating? Also, do you have any pix of the outer door you mentioned?

I have a Toscana 39" (which is built around the Casa 100). The door is not a tight fit and gets really hot. So I've been thinking about finding a way to insulate it better for baking breads/retaining heat.

It would be great to learn from your experiences.

Thanks in advance.
Kathy