Perplexed Oven Opening Guy

[cmangine]

Originally Posted by Nick Brautovich

Yes, I did Chris and have actually cooked a couple of pizzas last week, but they took about 10 minutes each. With my large opening, trying to decide if I should just live with it or try to reduce the opening size. Plan to try a bigger fire tonight, THX

Nick,

My first pizza attempt was great, but I too had a bit longer cooking time than expected. There was a post here a while ago that said your fire's big enough when your spouse shakes her/his head at it, but your kids think it's the coolest thing ever. Can't agree more. Mine takes about an hour to get really rolling, and then I keep that up for at least 30 minutes more so that the heat fully penetrates those "white-hot" bricks. I'm experimenting with draft doors, but have found that with the outer opening completely open, the fire burns much better and hotter if it's burning near the back of the oven. Not sure if this is the same for others, but it seems to work for me. Otherwise, the flames are lazy and the fire smokier.

Your pizza cooking times will definitely increase with thicker crusts and more ingredients. Experiment with different crust thicknesses, toppings, etc. Also experiment with different fire locations and when you stoke it as you cook. I've been happy keeping a fire going in three places: left, back, and right sides. This helps keep even heat in my oven, and with even crust browning...I like it. I'll cook about two pizzas, then stoke the fire again while I'm getting the next pizzas ready, and by the time I'm back outside again, the fire's calmed down a bit and is ready for more pies. Some don't like having fire in the back of the oven for two reasons; (1) you can't see that part of the crust as it browns, and they say the fire in the back will pull cold air over your pizza. I'll experiment next with fire only on left and right sides this Monday for a family party.

I'm having a blast with my oven so far, and haven't given it much time to cool off since I started cooking in it. Just smoked some ribs the other night with the residual heat from a firing 4 days prior; loaded the old coals into a charcoal starter with some apple chips on top, put that in the oven and shut the door for about 4 hours. Put more chips in twice during that cooking time. Great success.

Good luck,

Casey

[david s]

Nick,
If your pizzas are taking 10 mins to cook, it sounds to me like your oven is not properly cured. If there is still moisture in it the bottom of the oven is still cold although the top maybe hot. Usually you can see a persistent ring of black around the base of the dome. This indicates that the dome is still not hot enough there. Likewise the floor, it is hard to remove the moisture from beneath the floor. It is ready when you cast a little semolina onto the middle of the floor and it takes 3 secs to go black. More is too cold, less is too hot.
Dave
pS new ovens also go through tons of wood, because they are busy using the energy to convert the water to steam, once properly cured they use way less wood.

[Nick Brautovich]

Tonight went well, we used really old, dried apple wood and the fire was seemingly much hotter. We also experimented with closing off part off the oven with fire brick and the combination of the two was great. Gourmet pizzas within about 7-8 minutes and that is good enough for me. Over some really vintage old vine zin. we all agreed that in real time there is not a real need for pizzas in less time. After all, half the fun is the socialization that happens around the oven. In the 2-4 minute pizza's, you hardly have time to chat. I guess a real plus is the end of the evening, with the fire, sizziling like a fireplace at Thanksgiving. We are good, & thanks for everyones input!!! Oh and by the way, the entire roof of the dome was "lilly white" tonight, maybe an omen.....You Think? The tired & retired Croatian Cop, As we say in Dubrovnik, "CHIVO"

[Les]

Originally Posted by Nick Brautovich

Out of curiosity, what is your dome height?

Just a tad shy of 21 - I forgot to account for the plug being flat on the last course.

[Aegis]

Congrats on a successful Pizza Party! The social aspect of the oven really competes with the extraordinary food it yields! Sounds like you still have a bit of moisture left and a couple of more cookings/firings will have you all set!
Enjoy, enjoy enjoy!