building the oven

[Tman1]

I know a lot of people thought that this oven was ready to cave in. I present this picture... 24 bricks at about 4 pounds each, right over the center. I hadn't heard a sound of bricks rubbing against each other yet.

The oven has been taken apart and relocated.

[sacwoodpusher]

Hey TMAN1 !

I think that all of the Pompein Oven shapes are wrong! Your grill features that unique reverse curvature or the inverted dome.....where the middle part of your oven down is closer to the pizza, not farther away!

What a wonderful design!!!!!!!!

[Tman1]

Design adjustments have been made in the newer version.. pictures will follow.

[texmex]

Thanks for the laughs guys...so curious to see your new build Tman

[Tman1]

I'll get some pictures up tomorrow, but we did 88, yes 88 pizzas in 2.5 hours out of the temporary brick oven. Dough was good, pizzas were tasty, everyone had fun!

[Tman1]

A pic of the new set-up, along with a pic of one baking. The oven worked awesome in it's new form. We were able to keep the temps pretty easy with minimal wood. A couple of people timed us- came in at 69 and 64 seconds for our bakes. Alas, it'll have to come down again to bring home.

[Tman1]

I've included a couple more pictures... a better one of the new set-up. I find the second very interesting.. you can see where the soot is burned off in a nice half-circle pattern.

[Tman1]

Hello all,

I'm missing a couple pictures of my newest iteration since I had to take apart the oven and bring it home, but I had another party... and not a single picture.

As usual, it went well, with many compliments and 'this is the best pizza ever!'. *I'm happy that most find my homemade stuff better than a popular small chain restaurant here. I've always felt I need to be at least as good as them to succeed.

My 'shining' moment was when I realized I was talking to a guy who owns a small chain of higher end grocery stores in town. He mentioned that they had been working on a pizza crust for take home.. in his comments I thought I heard disappointment, so I queried him and sure he enough he wasn't all that thrilled with their product. He thought mine was very good. He also has a store with an oven in it (gas fired) that used to be a Wolfgang Puck based enterprise. It didn't work out, so now the store operates it, although he thinks it's underused. Who knows where this might go!!??

I leave later this morning to get the real thing... an oven on a trailer and I'm truly mobile. I've got a bunch of things lined up for promotion, fun and most of all, experience.

I do have a question though... I used AP flour these last 2 times, and while the crust came out slightly crispy, it softened after sitting and wouldn't hold up when a piece was taken. I know the floor was hot enough in mine (I thought under-baking might have been an issue from the day before so I made sure to check that more frequently), so it was baked, but is that a result of the type of flour? I want the crust to hold its form better. I'm working through a 50 pound bag of AP, but ultimately would use at least pizzeria flour. I don't remember this happening before.

[Lake lover]

Good thread. I have been enjoying it.

Try using a higher gluten flour. Called a cake flour.

What kind of oil are you using ?