A Pretender from Sydney

[doughjockey]

Guys and Girls,
Feel a bit guilty about joining because I am not intending to build a WFO. So, here to learn about temperatures, doughs, toppings etc. I recently bought a - gasp!- gas fired outdoor pizza oven, having used my kitchen oven for some years to cook pizza. I found that at high temps it burns the base seriously, so trying a layer of half bricks to replace their supplied ceramic stone. I based this decision on a forum posting on this site, so already I have a benefit. Maybe I can give back with successful recipes as I learn the characteristics of this oven.

Cheers to all,
Gus

[cobblerdave]

Re: A Pretender from Sydney

Gudday Gus
I just seen you post disappearing under a few Other post .So welcome
You will find quite a good section on all types of cooking. I think that is pretty universal on this site. If you go to the forno store on the site you'll find a No. Of PDF books for free. Being a member you can put them in your basket and they will be e-mailed to you.
I would be interested to hear about your experience with the gas fired pizza oven. I think most of our oz members have seen them at bunnings and wonders how they worked. Interesting to hear your experience with improving the thermal mass of your oven.
A photo and a bit on your experience thus far would be great.
Regards dave

[doughjockey]

Re: A Pretender from Sydney

Dave, thanks for the tips on using the forum and the welcome. First experiment with improving the oven function is a fail. As you see, pizza looked like a winner until I looked at the base, inedible, burnt, took three minutes @ 270 C, after a one hour preheat. The burnt remains on the new firebrick base outline the burner under. I am thinking that the burner is too close to the bricks @ 30mm. Maybe raising the base higher might result in a better heat distribution ? WFOs get much higher heat than this and there is no burn unless left in too long, no ? It must be the burner's position Dave.
Any ideas welcome.
Regards, Gus

[cobblerdave]

Re: A Pretender from Sydney

Gudday Gus
270 C is a little above an domestic oven my natural gas one goes to 240C.
With a pizza oven pizza temps are about 430C to 500C my own favorite temp is about 430C to cook a higher topping load.
I have cooked pizza in my oven on trays on top of a 5 mm thick upturned backing dish as a heat bank . They were successfully enough but my critics were 14 and 16 yr old boys ... Course they would eat every thing.
I have cooked with a pizza stone as well and I find it works best in a grill as the heat from the top catches up with the heat on the stone and you get a reasonable result. I have also used a pizza stone on a webber Q ( gas fired) the results were much the same but the bases were much like yours a bit crisper and dry than you would want. I would not worry about the burnt pizza stone it always look burnt and horrible
In a pizza oven once up to temp on the hearth you keep a small but active flame licking up the walls this is what cooks the top of the pizza. This is perhaps what your oven is missing. I know there is a thread called " frankenwebber" if you can research it were they use a top stone to refectg heat to cook the top of the pizza.
You have racks in this oven like a domestic one?
In the intertrim try putting your pizza on pizza trays to retard the basie cooking first. The trays might retard the heat to the bases a bit to much so just chuck them on the stone to crisp them off at the end.
Hope something here might help, a photo of the full oven would help me figure out which of our mighty retailers stocks this thing , I'm curious to have a look at one and flick through its instruction book.o
Regards dave

[doughjockey]

Re: A Pretender from Sydney

Hi Dave,
Thanks for all that mate. In the meantime I tried a couple of things. Raised the shelf with the bricks 32mm, this meant that the flames are not actually licking the bottom of those. I cooked a pizza at 250 C with a stone above as well, and voila ! Really good result.
This is a Gasmate pizza oven, usually you can find them at a BBQ retailer, online, [url=http://www.gasmate.com.au
Much more relaxed about this gadget now, it does cook a pizza better than the electric oven, and it can only get better as I discover its tricks. Guess this applies to anything new, doesn't it ?
My brother lives at the Gap in Bris, are you far from there ?

Cheers, Gus