How Heat Works

[james]

I've been meaning to build this graphic for some time, and got around to it this weekend. The graphic below is a visual representation of how heat moves, and is stored in both a Forno Bravo pizza oven, and in a high mass bread oven. It's is based on my personal experience with a range of ovens, and reports from many owners of various types of ovens.

There are a number of things that the graphic tries to capture, including:

1. Why higher mass ovens require longer firing periods.
2. Why insulation is so important to the traditional pizza oven -- as it comes in constant contact with high-heat on the outer edge of the oven chamber and floor.
3. Why a pizza can maintain high heat while cooking a large number of pizzas.
4. Why all wood-fired ovens, and most noteably bread ovens need time for the termperature to regulate before you bake bread.
5. Why a high mass oven actually starts to cool down inside the oven chamber when you start cooking pizzas -- those BTUs are still filling up the rest of the oven chamber mass.

Let me know if the graphic helps make this more clear.
James

[james]

Isn't anyone going to comment on my nifty graphic? Does it seem right to you?
James

[maver]

This is a nice graphical illustration of the theories of brick ovens we've talked about here. The question - for James or other bread oven owners with thermocouples - is what the oven is like at 3 hours - is it getting to suitable pizza temps then?