Help Please - about to start work!!

[mmmhumous]

My wife has finally become interested in the project, now that the oven is "no longer an eyesore" (her words) and changed her tune to "do you think some gothic ridge tiles wood look good?" Better late than never!

[james]

Congratulations on that voice of support. It was always coming.

Now, it's time to build that monster fire, and convince your wife that you are going to burn down the entire neighborhood. :-)

James

[mmmhumous]

First pizza party tonight - great fun!!!

Soot burnt off within an hour, 10 Pizza's in after ~3 hrs at 300°C+ (probably 400-500°C - it wasn't many Mississippis) all very yummy and turned with my bespoke pizza tool (below).

This time:-

Blocked about half of the doorway with bricks to retain some heat.
The bottom of the firebricks were hot to the touch (the front row)
Roof and exterior walls were @ ~30°C
Rock wool insulation on top was at ~50°C

I'm glad I followed people's advice on using solid bricks for the oven interior: I used some left over grade B bricks (ones with holes in them) to block the doorway and all of them broke withing 3 hours!!

[mmmhumous]

Originally Posted by james

Congratulations on that voice of support. It was always coming.

Now, it's time to build that monster fire, and convince your wife that you are going to burn down the entire neighborhood. :-)

James

lol

I don't think that's gonna happen - we're both chemists (i.e. pyromaniacs).

[Frances]

Good call on the bricks...

Congratulations on your first pizzas! Very cool! Its been great fun watching you build.

So... what dough did you use? What hydration? Which toppings? How long did they take? Did you make any desert pizzas? And, above all... where are the pics?!

Enquiring minds want to know!

[mmmhumous]

Not actually the first pizzas out of the oven - did some about two weeks ago for lunch.

We did a white dough and a 50:50 white/wholemeal dough (surprised how much denser the wholemeal flour made the mix). Other than that, nothing too adventurous to start out (2.75 cups flour, 1 cup body temp water, 1 teaspoon dried bakers yeast, 3 tsp golden sugar, dash extra virgin olive oil).

Think I'll spend a month or so getting used to the fire and then do a proper experiment to perfect the dough.

We did 2 calzones - one savoury, one nutella. (3-4 mins cooking time).

And had 8 thin crust pizzas, (1-2 mins cooking time) with mixtures of:

gorgonzola
mozzarella
mature cheddar
home grown rainbow chard (with egg for a twist on a Florentine - very nice and no egg spillage either - I was impressed)
yellow peppers
asparagus (in season too...yey!!)
capers
chillies

For the sauce: drained tinned tomatoes, tomato puree and home grown oregano.

Unfortunately, no pics this time (too busy eating) but did get some of the fire before hand......went for the pushing to the sides technique once it got going - the convection currents and flames were mesmerising.

[gjbingham]

Wow! That's a scary fire!

[biondoli]

mmmhumous,
is that a thermometer in the middle of the inferno?
where did you buy it as I tried on ebay but found only up to 500F...thanks

[mmmhumous]

Originally Posted by gjbingham

Wow! That's a scary fire!

Not that scary really, (although my view of fire may be slightly skewed as I'm used to playing with 6-8000°C plasma flames at work, now they are scary or great fun depending on how you look at it, and burn a pretty shade of green)

[mmmhumous]

Originally Posted by biondoli

mmmhumous,
is that a thermometer in the middle of the inferno?
where did you buy it as I tried on ebay but found only up to 500F...thanks

It is indeed, but sadly only rated to 300°C (572 F). Athough I have calibrated it to higher temps using the mississippi method of temperature measurement:

I've been working on 50°C (having gone round the dial once already) = 400°C and the dial starting to burn = time to put the pizzas in lol!

Think I'll be buying the thermometer Frances is using (rated to 500°C/932F) The only one I've come across so far.

Tip, search for bimetal and/or gas filled thermometers as the high temp ones tend to be one or the other).

See quote:

Originally Posted by Frances

Here you go, Ebay:

500°C Thermometer Steinbackofen Holzbackofen Ofen Grill bei eBay.de: Zubehör (endet 17.05.08 19:55:41 MESZ)

Its not particularly exact or fast, but it does the job.