1st Cook

[TLK]

Cooked my first pizzas last night. The temp was not high enough so the pizzas took an avg of 7 min to cook.

Two Questions from you pros out there:

1. When building the fire, should I build it high with as much wood as I think I will need or start small and add once I have the first layer of coals?
2. I thought I read to start the fire in the middle, wait for dome to turn white and then move fire to cooking side and then finally to opposite side. Doing this is what seemed to cool down the oven but If I didn't move the fire around, the entire dome wouldn't have been white

T

[DavidApp]

Re: 1st Cook

Hello T

Not that I consider myself as a Pro by any means.

If your oven is new it seems to take a while to get up to temperature.

I start my fire in the middle with about 8 pieces of wood 2" or so in cross section set in 4 layers. A ball of news paper at the bottom a pine cone above the paper and kindling on top. After this is burning well I add pieces a few at a time till the dome starts to clear. About 45 minutes to an hour. I then keep the fire going to saturate the dome and get my pizza ready. Before I start to cook I move the fire to one side of the oven and check the floor temperature. It is usually above 550f.
Small start and build up so you get slower heating of the oven. The fire can get big quickly if you are not careful.

David

[TLK]

Re: 1st Cook

Thanks David - I start my fire similarly but will add more once I get a better coal bed and see what happens. Tried to post pictures but they didn't come thru. They are in dropbox and I copied the url but they didn't load for some reason. Have another cook for the kids tonight so will try your suggestion and report back.

[DavidApp]

Re: 1st Cook

Hello T

Could be the size of your photos. Try reducing the size. Or it may be your post count I think you have to have a number of posts before you can post photos.

David

[TLK]

Re: 1st Cook

Trying to post photos

[TLK]

Re: 1st Cook

well - was able t post photo but not thumbnail

[TLK]

Re: 1st Cook

just to report back - had 2nd cook tonight. Build fire about the same but added more wood as it burned which made almost the entire dome go white. I skipped moving the coals to the "cook side" and moved them all opposite side. Gave the area a quick clean and put on pizza pretty quick. Floor temp was closer to 600 and dome was in the 800's. Pizza cooked in about 2 min and came out as expected. Didn't take pictures but was more in line of what I was expecting.

[DavidApp]

Re: 1st Cook

Hello T

I reduce the photos to about 200 KB and attach using the paperclip on the icon bar above the message box.
The paper clip takes you to an upload window where you browse for the photo then upload.

David

[kstronach]

Re: 1st Cook

i use the upside down fire method when lighting, i start with the bigger wood on the bottom and work up to the small kindling on the top, i usually use a natural firelighter under the kindling to get it going. when the fire gets going its burns down through the wood, and theres alot less smoke as the wood underneath only catches when it's hot enough to do so! i start the fire under the flue then push it back to the center of the oven once it gets going

heres a link with a diagram . .
A non-commercial service in support of responsible home heating with wood - Top-Down Fires Step-by-Step

[TLK]

Re: 1st Cook

Thanks Keith, I do something similar but will give this method a try.