36" in Seattle

[kebwi]

Re: 36" in Seattle

Threw our first "party" last night, a mere six people and four pizzas, so pretty mild. Everyone was super impressed. Check out the ace bandage on my "tennis" elbow. Got that pipe-bending and hammering rebar for the counter last week, ugh.

One margherita, one pepperoni, one goat-cheese/spinach, one pesto/mushroom/tomato.

Also made a hearth bread later. It's okay I guess.

[tfasz]

Re: 36" in Seattle

Good work on the stucco/sbc. I'm sure I will be hitting you up with some questions on it in a few months.

Nice looking pizza's - how has the crust been working out for you?

[Tscarborough]

Re: 36" in Seattle

Looking good. That tomato mushroom pizza looks tasty. Why only 4?

[fxpose]

Re: 36" in Seattle

People are starting to throw parties. Very nice!
And your oven is starting to take very good shape. Unique.

[kebwi]

Re: 36" in Seattle

Looking good. That tomato mushroom pizza looks tasty. Why only 4?

We only had six people, plus salad and dessert. There wasn't any point in making more than that...plus it was one 500g recipe so it was a logical "chunk".

The tomato mushroom pizza was also pesto but I didn't put enough pesto on it.

[kebwi]

Re: 36" in Seattle

Nice looking pizza's - how has the crust been working out for you?

Considerably better. I haven't experimented with the recipe yet (because I wouldn't have any idea what to modify). I just tried very hard to get the balls flattened quickly with minimal "working" and attempted to cook them on a really hot floor to minimize their time in the oven.

I'm my own harshest critic at this point. Everyone else thought it was fantastic, I still think there's room for improvement.

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

Re: 36" in Seattle

I'm my own harshest critic at this point. Everyone else thought it was fantastic, I still think there's room for improvement.

Hey Keb,, I think we all are our own worst critics.. Your build is looking great.. I found the SBC very easy to work with,, Like putting frosting on a cake.. Great Idea putting in the drains.. (did you use the acrylic fortifier)

As for your pizza's, If they tasted as good as they looked,,,, because they looked good..
I found the worst part of my build was finally being finished.. Nothing else to look forward to on the weekends,,,Then I found out all the diff things you can cook.. The whole oven process can be very theraputic..

One more note,, If your not happy with the finish of your concrete counter, they sell hand polishing pads on ebay for about 10 bucks each..Diamond Hand Polishing Pad - 800 Grit - eBay (item 140076538572 end time May-02-10 21:27:15 PDT)

[kebwi]

Re: 36" in Seattle

The plan is to put granite tile down, so I don't care about the concrete too much. On the other hand, we do kind of like the counter as it currently is and if I add much more it will become flush with, or worst become higher than, the oven floor. I poured it a tad higher than I intended.

Thanks, maybe I'll just polish it down. Do you grind and polish it before or after sealing it?

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

Re: 36" in Seattle

Do you grind and polish it before or after sealing it

Polish first
Seal second....

Cheers
Mark

YouTube - Polishing Concrete Countertops?ConcreteNetwork.com

[bruced]

Re: 36" in Seattle

Hello Keith,
The pizza looks great, and from someone who has made pizza and bread for many years (decades actually), I know about the quest for the perfect crust. The single most significant change I have made over the years, is to work with a fairly wet dough. You need the moisture to soften the dough so that it can expand more easily during rise and bake. It is also a lot easier to stretch the dough really thin. Mine is wet enough that only gravity is necessary to stretch it as thin as I want. It is even slightly sticky when not dusted with flour, and when kneading. It takes practice and enough flour on your work surface and peels. Bread is more difficult to shape with a higher hydration %, but if you keep turning it under, or kneading it inward to develop tension, it will spring in the oven and give you a better rise and perfect crumb.
Sorry if this is already part of your process, but I am amazed how many long-term bakers I come across who don't get the crumb they are looking for, or a tough crust because of dry dough. You clearly have the baking part down nicely.
Bruce

[ohthetrees]

Re: 36" in Seattle

I want to second bruce's wetter is better advice. I'm making 70% hydration doughs, and they are very fast to work, and have great lift. Check out this site:
Jeff Varasano's NY Pizza Recipe
You can learn a lot about dough from this guy's experiments.

I'm thinking of building my own 36" oven, also in Seattle. I put a premium on fast heat up times. Kebwi, what is the fastest you have managed to get your oven up to cooking temp, with say a > 700? floor and > 800? dome? Do you think building with slightly thinner bricks (1/3 instead of 1/2) and lots of insulation would help heat up times?

[kebwi]

Re: 36" in Seattle

I'm doing better in many respects. First, the oven is getting drier and drier, although I think I'm basically there. Second, I'm learning to control my fires better: to get them roaring quickly, keep them fat for the initial interval, and distribute the heat in the second interval.

We had a party last Sunday and I wanted to do better than merely clear the dome because I have discovered that by the time the dome clears my floor really hasn't soaked up the necessary heat so the pizzas don't cook fast enough, so I cleared the dome, then pushed the fire to the side, cleared off some floor space, then kept the fire alive to blast the exposed floor. The pizzas cooked much better, but that increased my approach time. On the other hand, I might experiment with my schedule, push the fire to the side before the dome fully clears on the hope that I can get the dome cleared and the floor charged together at an earlier time. I'm still figuring out the optimal usage.

If I recall I was cooking pizza about two hours after I lit the match, but I was slightly held up waiting for people to arrive. I think I will eventually get to the point where the oven is pizza-ready in ninety minutes. I don't know if I'll ever do better than that, but who knows. A good bellows would help dramatically of course.

BTW, you mention >800 as a benchmark. I scoff at you sir. My cheapo HF IR thermometer tops out somewhere in the upper 900s and my oven consistently maxes the thermometer out. It's gotta be well over 1000 on the dome and even on the sides, somewhere around 700ish on the floor, although I have to keep the fire going to keep it from dropping.

On your last question, I'm not really qualified to speculate. Would thinner bricks help? Maybe, I can't possibly know. Would more insulation help? I seriously doubt it. My oven is very very well insulated. Three inches of InsBlock under the floor, three to six inches of InsWool over the dome (three on the sides, more at the apex), another sixish inches of vermicrete all around the InsWool.

We're going to have to throw a Seattle get-together at some point.

Cheers!

[Tscarborough]

Re: 36" in Seattle

Thinner wall would certainly heat up faster while achieving maximum heat soak. I debated this as well but decided to go for maximum residual for extended cooking. I figured 2 hours!? to heat up would never work, but now I find myself allowing 3 with no problems meeting schedules.

I like to warm it up slow, both to decrease thermal shock and also allow for maximal heat soak. I also found that after hitting my temps (over 1000 on the roof, 850 wall, 650 floor), banking the fire, cleaning the floor, and adding a fresh log or too, it did not smother the fire to put the door on for 15 or 20 minutes to equalize the oven.

[kebwi]

Re: 36" in Seattle

The first coat of stucco (Quikrete Quikwall Surface Bonding Cement with acrylic fortifier) is done. Trowling all those corners and edges is freaking tedious. One big flat wall would be a ton less work.

I am finding that the SBC requires considerably more water than stated on the directions. Whatever...

BTW, that was 43.75lbs of SBC, so not quite my first 50lbs bag (I have three), but it is quite thin in some spots.

[kebwi]

Re: 36" in Seattle

As shown in the previous post, I've finished the first stucco coat and the oven is pure white. So clean, so much potential for filth.

Anyway, this post is merely a plug for any Seattle builders. I have been using Salmon Bay concrete company in Ballard for many components of my build. I didn't initially get any cement color from them for the stucco because I didn't think to ask, so I got some on ebay. Ugh, $15 including shipping for one stinking pound. The ad was deceptive, verging on dishonest too. I think he should have sent me more than a pound.

Anyway, then I went to Salmon Bay and got three pounds for about $15, plus they're used to such large quantities that they gently scoff at small purchases, so they just threw in a pile and it's probably closer to 3.5 pounds. HA!

Salmon Bay, no shipping. Screw ebay and it's ripoffs (and shipping).

Cheers!