Neill's Pompeii #10

[nissanneill]

Re: Neill's Pompeii #10

Hi Maver
this was only my second try and still very green when it comes to wood fired oven cooking. This is certainly a science when it comes to the whole deal. It is one thing to build one (relatively easy) but the heat control and use, (making, and baking in one) is quite new to me.
There were very hot coals but I haven't attempted to keep fire in the oven. The first pizzas cooked in around 3 minutes but could obviously been even hotter. I should get my thermocouples and infra red thermometer for the next firing for a better guide to temperatures.
I found that salt on the peel helped the easy placement into the oven but I also need to educate the rest of the family not to push the sticky side of the balls onto the board that we use to make up the flattened base and assembled the toppings.
They don't look the flashest but they certainly taste great.
I try to refrain from using flour as the forum pointed out that it burns very quickly and easily, spoiling the taste.
It only goes to prove my point of what I claim to my students, in that "the more I learn, the more I realise how little I know"!

Neill

[maver]

Re: Neill's Pompeii #10

Neill, you really have an elegant oven opening design.

Keep working with those bare bottomed pizzas. Some people have reported a preference for semolina rather than flour to help it slide better. I use flour and it works well, but there is a technique involved. Be sure to give the pizza a small shake when you have it on the peel - hold it horizontally and just get some movement in it prior to sliding it into the oven.

With those three pizzas in there you don't have as much flame as I usually use while baking pizza - I know you are waiting for temperature measurements but my guess is you could keep a bit more wood on the fire while baking. Have you tried with the fire all to one side instead of in back?
Marc

[nissanneill]

(I started a new thread because I cannot find my #9 posting and Maver's response. Other posts are on my oven construction are found in Neill's Pompeii #4 and starting in the Pompeii oven construction thread)
Sunday 17th June.
It’s up late (what else do you do but sleep in on a Sunday) and make up 2 batches of dough for the family feast of pizza. Repositioned and re-wired the down lights in the oven stainless vent hood and ran the cabling through the hood in heat resistant fiberglass braided tubing. I also packed the back of the lights (especially the wiring), with the offcuts from the thermal blanket. It worked an absolute treat with no excessive heat affecting the power cables and shorting out the lights.
Just got that job done when Paul “Hendo” arrived to check out the oven and to collect a ‘left over bag’ of fire clay.
I made another log support out of scrap metal in order to set a larger and wider fire, now, almost the full width of the oven.
I lit the rather large fire at 4:00 pm, (as I was determined to get it hotter than last night) I continually stoked and loaded it with longer lengths of dry hardwood (Jarrah and gum) and it was ready to cook at 5:30. The whole of the dome was white this time but without the thermocouples and/or the infra red digital thermometer, still not able to check the final temperatures.
Although we initially used alfoil to cook the pizzas on, the latter pizzas were prepared and cooked bare bottomed. A little salt on the square edged peel had the pizzas sliding beautifully onto the hot hearth, puffing at the edge and cooking wonderfully.
The whole family was very impressed, with some going back for seconds. I finished the night by cooking two pizzas which I intend to take for ‘show and tell’ tomorrow at work.
I still need to master the reduction of the dough balls to a thin flat base

Neill