Help Please - about to start work!!

[Frances]

Actually this one says not to put it in the oven while the fire's burning because if it (the thermometer) is pushed higher than 500 C it will break. So I've no idea how hot the oven gets for pizza temps, and only measure afterwards for bread... more luddite than geek method I'm afraid

[mmmhumous]

Originally Posted by Frances

Actually this one says not to put it in the oven while the fire's burning because if it (the thermometer) is pushed higher than 500 C it will break. So I've no idea how hot the oven gets for pizza temps, and only measure afterwards for bread... more luddite than geek method I'm afraid

Doh! might have to wait for my Birthday and go for the infra red instead then

[Dutchoven]

I have burned several commercial oven thermometers in our oven. A couple just sorted of melted into some weird shapes and another just popped the face off and spewed the spring out. Infrared will work out to be more consistent anyway. You will find that surface temperatures are more important than the air temperature in most situations with your WFO. In our oven the air temp is about 200F lower than the top of the dome with the door open...about 150F or so below when the door is closed. You will get better as time goes by.
Best
Dutch

Originally Posted by mmmhumous

Doh! might have to wait for my Birthday and go for the infra red instead then

[biondoli]

thanks!
I already bought an infrared one $30 at harbor Freight, thought that the traditionals would be better...but after this exchange I guess I'll stay with the infrared/laser.

[mmmhumous]

Just had a few people round again for pizza -managed to take some photos this time too:

Got some guys from work coming round on thursday too!

[mmmhumous]

Did two batces of dough:

1. James'/FB's
500g 00 flour (from supermarket)
325g water
3g yeast
10g salt (more like 1g in our case, we don't eat a lot of salt).

2. Heston Bhlumenthal's
Pretty similar to the FB recipe except:
hydration level of 55%
less salt, and also some malt syrup (we used marmite in place of these)

Not much to tell them apart (HB's was slightly darker).

00 flour is definately a must! much better mechanical properties and texture than with standard bread flour and far easier to handle too.

[mmmhumous]

Put another 17 pizzas through the last night - enough to keep my team from work going.

Few new recipes etc:

Did a Spicy meat feast - pepperoni, salami, chorizo tobasco but more importantly one homegrown habenera chilli (scotch bonnet). Not so much spicy as strangly numbing... recommended before a trip to the dentist! (very nice too if you like it hot).

Did two sauces:

1. 2 tins (2x400g)Tesco's finest cherry tomatoes (drained),
1/2 tube tomato puree
fresh oregano

Blended and uncooked

2. 2 tins (2x400g) Tesco's chunky chopped italian tomatoes*
5 cloves garlic finch chopped
fresh oregano
Balsamic vinegar 50-100ml (ish) - 3 big glugs
Brown sugar 3 desertspoons (ish) - 1/2 handfull

Garlic sweated in some olive oil, vinegar added, rest of ingredients blended then added and the whole thing cooked down.

*(80% w/w tomato, so didnt need draining - most tins are only 50-65%)

Both sauces were really good and quite sweet. now tried all of the tinned toms in Tesco - the cherry toms are by far the best for pizza base. (If you don't like sweet, go for the chuncky chopped italian ones.

[Frances]

Wow, you're really getting going with this pizza thing! I've never done 17 pizzas in one go... (yet)

And the sauces sound great... makes me realise I should experiment more.

How is the oven performing? Are you happy with the retained heat and everything?

[mmmhumous]

Originally Posted by Frances

Wow, you're really getting going with this pizza thing! I've never done 17 pizzas in one go... (yet)

And the sauces sound great... makes me realise I should experiment more.

How is the oven performing? Are you happy with the retained heat and everything?

Yep not really tried anything else in it yet other than pizza - think Acoma was right about the 1-5 firings per month though... more like per week at the moment!

Oven ssems to be doing well. I had been worried that the hearth was too thick and my take too long to heat through, but only takes 1.5-2hrs to fully heat up. It's very hurngy though, takes about 10Kg of wood to become "pizza ready." Haven't really looking into the heat retention yet - I know ~12hr after firing it drops to 40-50°C. Something to look into when I get a thermometer.

More experiments on sauce to come (just bought all the brands of tinned tomatoes we could find in the local delis and Waitrose's own brand italian plum tomatoes - Heston Bhlumenthal reckons they rival the San Marzanos).

My thoughts were it's worth getting the sauce and dough right given the amount of time spent on the oven!

[fig man]

I see from your 'photos, your oven is built very close to your boundary fence. Have you had any problems with heat transfer on to the timber fence panels with your firings to date?

I have now started to build my oven and following advice from my wife, (need to blame somebody), I have set mine out a similar distance from my neighbour's fence, - it's a little too late to change now as the base is now built and the concrete slab is in position.

I am a little concerned however that I will damage the timber panels on the fence when I use the oven.

Graeme