First cooking fire Pompeii Oven Construction Discuss First cooking fire in the Pizza Oven Design and Installation forums; I am posting this here as it seems the forum for firebuilding doesn't get many posts. Pardon the intrusion.... I ...

[Roadkyng]

I am posting this here as it seems the forum for firebuilding doesn't get many posts. Pardon the intrusion....

I have successfully cured my 42" oven and am ready to try my first cooking fire. My questions have to do with how to get a hot fire in the most economical amount of time. I noticed during my curing events it took a loooooong time to heat the outside of the dome. (not insulated as of yet)
Now granted I did not throw a ton of logs on it but did have a few 3" diameter split mesquite on it. The heat was naturally concentrate on the dome directly above the fire. But I was expecting it to radiate to other parts of the cooking floor and dome a bit more than it did. I have reached an opinion that feeding with 2 to 3" split logs is better than throwing larger wood like you may in a fireplace. The larger wood takes longer to develope coals.

So what do you experts do? And after you have a good coal bed do you cook on the floor next to the coals or sweep the coals to the side and cook where the fire was?

Merry Christmas everybody.

[Tscarborough]

I have no idea how to do it properly in an oven, but would assume that it is like firing a wood fired brick or lime kiln: Pack in the wood until the entire oven is full of various sized woods so that there is air between them and then light it off, feeding in bigger chunks as it burns down.

[Les]

Roadkyng (thats my ride),

I build the fire in the center, let the oven burn clean (white), then spread the coals over an area that I plan to cook on. About 10 minutes prior to cooking pizza, I push the coals around the back and sides of the oven. I throw a few more pieces of wood in around the perimeter to get a nice flame for the crust burn.

This works for me but I am sure there are many opinions.

Les...

[Roadkyng]

Originally Posted by Les

Roadkyng (thats my ride),

I build the fire in the center, let the oven burn clean (white), then spread the coals over an area that I plan to cook on. About 10 minutes prior to cooking pizza, I push the coals around the back and sides of the oven. I throw a few more pieces of wood in around the perimeter to get a nice flame for the crust burn.

This works for me but I am sure there are many opinions.

Les...

Hey Les. I have a RoadGlide now. Love it. RK was fun. I put 63k on it then traded it in. Wish I had kept it.

What size wood do you use as in the largest you are using?

[Les]

I want an Ultra classic at the end of the day - I think my wife will enjoy the ride a bit more. It's just hard to justify two bikes and the one I have is awesome (paint,chrome, acc, etc...)

The wood is about 6 inches when I'm getting to heat. The wood I throw in at the end for burn is probably 2-3 inches in diameter.