Solving soot on the front of the oven

[navyintel]

I have been burning Douglas Fir in order to heat the oven up and then I switch over to oak or mesquite for the flavor part of the cooking cycle.

Doug Fir burns a little dirty and has been blackening the front of the oven.

My wife cant stand this, and I could see a whole new chore of scrubbing the front of the oven every time we have guests.

So I got some copper sheeting from a local company (pretty pricey) made a cardboard template - cut and hammered this into position. Took one afternoon (today - just finished).

I hope this solves the problem - and it looks great.

[Les]

Re: Solving soot on the front of the oven

I hope this solves the problem - and it looks great.

I don't think it will - now the copper will be covered with soot. I think the solution is good draw and using a blast door (I need to make one of those) for start up

[Tscarborough]

Re: Solving soot on the front of the oven

It will make cleaning the soot a lot easier and it looks cool.

[navyintel]

Re: Solving soot on the front of the oven

I don't think it will - now the copper will be covered with soot. I think the solution is good draw and using a blast door (I need to make one of those) for start up

I think that it will just make cleaning the soot from the front of the oven easier. If we are having company, and I have preheated the oven, it is as chore to start cleaning with a scrub brush while the oven is hot. This makes just a sponge clean up and done!

[Les]

Re: Solving soot on the front of the oven

It does look good. My wife found a product, from all places; Dollar Tree - it's called awesome. It's cuts grease and soot like no other.

[nissanneill]

Re: Solving soot on the front of the oven

Hi navyintel,
a couple of things:
1. I believe that your problem stems from the transition into your chimney is too small and cannot capture the smoke at start-up and direct it up the chimney. Once the chimney is hot, it will automatically draw the fumes, smoke (if any then) and heat straight up and not allowing it to "overflow" via the front arch.
I don't have that problem but I do have a rather large stainless steel transition.
2. Do you feel that the type of wood that you burn to "heat your oven", affects the flavours in the product cooked?
I am not referring to smoking in the oven, but cooking for example, pizzas?
I personally find that my taste buds don't detect a 'wood flavouring', but I might just be enjoying it so much that I don't notice.

Cheers.
Neill

[navyintel]

Re: Solving soot on the front of the oven

Hi navyintel,
a couple of things:
1. I believe that your problem stems from the transition into your chimney is too small and cannot capture the smoke at start-up and direct it up the chimney. Once the chimney is hot, it will automatically draw the fumes, smoke (if any then) and heat straight up and not allowing it to "overflow" via the front arch.
I don't have that problem but I do have a rather large stainless steel transition.
2. Do you feel that the type of wood that you burn to "heat your oven", affects the flavours in the product cooked?
I am not referring to smoking in the oven, but cooking for example, pizzas?
I personally find that my taste buds don't detect a 'wood flavouring', but I might just be enjoying it so much that I don't notice.

Cheers.
Neill

Thanks for the comments Neill. The type of wood I heat the oven up with is free doug fir which is a building material that has a medium high BTU rating. The operative word here is "free." The problem with doug fir is that it burns hot AND fast, as opposed to the better hot and slow. So in order to get the heat up in the oven in a reasonably short period of time, you have to add more fuel before the fuel in the oven has completed its burn. The result is an over fuel situation which results in the fuel coming out in the form as smoke and soot.

Its a tough balance, but I lean to adding more fuel and getting the temp up to the 1000 degree range a little quicker. This saves me about 30 min of burn time.

This is not a cooking wood. It does not have a pleasant flavor like pecan, mesquite, oak or citrus. So when the oven is at temp, I throw in a couple of pieces of mesquite, oak or citrus- get them burning and then clean out coals left over from the Doug Fir.

In a matter of seconds, it is as if I had started the fire using oak- all the smoke is gone and the smells are wonderful from the new hardwood.

Any time I use the hardwood, I get none, or very little smoke coming out the front unless I put in too much fuel.

The copper arch is to make cleaning easier. I figure that as soon as I put in the hardwood, and clean out the Doug fir coals, all I need to do is take a sponge and wipe off the copper and it should look acceptable for company (that is to say my wife).

[V-wiz]

Re: Solving soot on the front of the oven

It looks nice, but over time i believe the copper will loose its shine and turn dark, especial with all the soot, spray it with acid and it will turn green and rustic. Not sure if you would like that

[Laurentius]

Re: Solving soot on the front of the oven

All you will get from that is soot covered copper! Try this: Start your fire, put your door at an angle to allow air to enter, just in front of you chimney vent. As Les indicate, this will act as a blast door and force the soot up the chimney.

[nissanneill]

Re: Solving soot on the front of the oven

navyintel,
Douglas Fir over here is known as Oregon, (probably because it originated or even came from Oregon), again a construction timber, not nearly as available today as it used to be but mainly available as recycled timber.
I like to use it as kindling wood as it is straight grained, splits easily and burns very well. The main fuel that I use to heat the oven is Eucalypt, (many different types), a very dense hard wood timber, easily sourced and burns with a high BThU index.
I simply get it going well, add more split timber as required until the dome is white and my infra red temp guage reads max over 500˚C, allow it to soak, brush the coals to one side, brush the hearth an cook. Some members claim that Eucalypt leaves a resin taste but I find that it leaves none but plenty of heat.
Cheers.

Neill

[Outeniqua]

Re: Solving soot on the front of the oven

The copper will remain a beautiful feature, whether it darkens, looks more rustic or whatever. Great idea!

[Laurentius]

Re: Solving soot on the front of the oven

And then turn green.

[brickie in oz]

Re: Solving soot on the front of the oven

O'regon

Also called Irish pine here....