Building my 1st oven on Tickfaw River in La.

[Crawfish fest]

Hi
I have been lurking for abouth a month and i have learned a lot. I am building A Neopolitan type oven using the plans from the book titled. "The Bread Builders"
We are building the oven over a pre-existing outdoor kitchen.
The kitchen was built over filled blocks. We are extending the top to allow for a deep oven
Next week we will be adding the 4" thick vermi-crete floor insulation using the 5:1 ratio i have learned from this message board
My mason is learning with me as we go. We are taking it slow.
Attached is our progress to date.
Thanks
Michael

[Kurtloup]

Re: Building my 1st oven on Tickfaw River in La.

You aren't far from me. Let me know if you need any help sourcing materials.

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: Building my 1st oven on Tickfaw River in La.

Mike,
Can you go thicker on your vcrete and maybe leaner on ratio for better insulation?

[Crawfish fest]

Re: Building my 1st oven on Tickfaw River in La.

Mike,
Can you go thicker on your vcrete and maybe leaner on ratio for better insulation?

Kurt, i think i have everything i need, i am from BR too
Utah, what ratio would you suggest?
My cooking surface will be high, 44" with 4" of vermi-crete
Thanks guys
Michael

[Tscarborough]

Re: Building my 1st oven on Tickfaw River in La.

The oven in that book is not a Neapolitan oven and is not a very good set of plans for most non-commercial ovens. How far along are you?

[Tscarborough]

Re: Building my 1st oven on Tickfaw River in La.

OK, I see from the picture where you are. Stop and let's discuss where you are going. FYI, I am a Gulfcoast guy, tubed and swum the Tickfaw my whole life and went to school at UL. L-S-U-C-K-S!

[Crawfish fest]

Re: Building my 1st oven on Tickfaw River in La.

OK, I see from the picture where you are. Stop and let's discuss where you are going. FYI, I am a Gulfcoast guy, tubed and swum the Tickfaw my whole life and went to school at UL. L-S-U-C-K-S!

A friend in NJ built that oven, i fell in love with it.
I got the style wrong? Oh no, showing my ignorance.
I live between the Prop Stop and Tin Lizzy's.

[Tscarborough]

Re: Building my 1st oven on Tickfaw River in La.

It is a great oven (although it has construction defects) if you are baking multiple batches of bread on a daily basis or have a lot of time and an endless supply of wood. For home or occasional use, it is not so good, especially at the size it appears you are building: 18"x24", more or less. For Neapolitan pizza, it is entirely unsuitable.

[Crawfish fest]

Re: Building my 1st oven on Tickfaw River in La.

It is a great oven (although it has construction defects) if you are baking multiple batches of bread on a daily basis or have a lot of time and an endless supply of wood. For home or occasional use, it is not so good, especially at the size it appears you are building: 18"x24", more or less. For Neapolitan pizza, it is entirely unsuitable.

Inside dimensions to be 34" x 48" with a dome height of 16" and a door 10" x 18"
The small square u see was a space for a utensil drawer that we had to fill in. You can see the new brick on the side where the drawer was.
We are extendind the base out to attain the 48"
I expect this to get occasional pizza duty and less bread.
Michael

[Tscarborough]

Re: Building my 1st oven on Tickfaw River in La.

OK, I assumed the blockout was for the under hearth insulation. 34x48 needs a slab of 50x64 minimum, will you be able to fit that?

[Crawfish fest]

Re: Building my 1st oven on Tickfaw River in La.

OK, I assumed the blockout was for the under hearth insulation. 34x48 needs a slab of 50x64 minimum, will you be able to fit that?

Yes, it will be.
What defects did u find in the plans?
Thanks so much
Michael

[Tscarborough]

Re: Building my 1st oven on Tickfaw River in La.

The primary issue is that it is designed as a multiple batch bread oven, meaning it has an extreme amount of mass that has to be heat soaked. Good for daily use, bad for company in an hour or two. Second some of the specific construction details like the suspended slab, and the throat design are just ill advised or poorly executed.

For home use, the ideal is an appropriate amount of mass, well insulated and isolated from the weather cover. For an occasional use oven used to bake 4 or 12 pizzas, the thermal mass optimizes at around 2 inches. For making a big batch, say 30+ pizzas, 4" of thermal mass is better, but you will have to add a lot more heat to get it to Neapolitan temps and maintain them.

Do you really want actual Neapolitan pizza, or is that just a general term to you.

Neapolitan pizza cooks in 90 seconds or less. Pic 1
Neo-Neapolitan pizza cooks in 2-3 minutes. Pic 2
New York style cooks 4-5 minutes. Pic 3
American style cooks 6-12 minutes, Pic 4 (Detroit style is the only kind I cook that long).

[Crawfish fest]

Re: Building my 1st oven on Tickfaw River in La.

The primary issue is that it is designed as a multiple batch bread oven, meaning it has an extreme amount of mass that has to be heat soaked. Good for daily use, bad for company in an hour or two. Second some of the specific construction details like the suspended slab, and the throat design are just ill advised or poorly executed.

For home use, the ideal is an appropriate amount of mass, well insulated and isolated from the weather cover. For an occasional use oven used to bake 4 or 12 pizzas, the thermal mass optimizes at around 2 inches. For making a big batch, say 30+ pizzas, 4" of thermal mass is better, but you will have to add a lot more heat to get it to Neapolitan temps and maintain them.

Do you really want actual Neapolitan pizza, or is that just a general term to you.

Neapolitan pizza cooks in 90 seconds or less. Pic 1
Neo-Neapolitan pizza cooks in 2-3 minutes. Pic 2
New York style cooks 4-5 minutes. Pic 3
American style cooks 6-12 minutes, Pic 4 (Detroit style is the only kind I cook that long).

My buddy cooked his in less than 3 minutes, the surface temp was 800 degrees.
We wereplanning on 2" on the sides and rear and 4" on top.
Should I reduce the mass on top?
The outer shell over the vermi-crete will be red bricks.
I will most likely be in the 4-12 range 95% of the time.
Thanks so much for the guidance and pics
Michael

[Tscarborough]

Re: Building my 1st oven on Tickfaw River in La.

It sounds like you have it pretty well in hand, obviously the top heats faster than the walls and floor so 4" won't hurt a bit. The weather cover doesn't matter, so long as it does not let water into the insulation.

[Crawfish fest]

Re: Building my 1st oven on Tickfaw River in La.

It sounds like you have it pretty well in hand, obviously the top heats faster than the walls and floor so 4" won't hurt a bit. The weather cover doesn't matter, so long as it does not let water into the insulation.

I feel better about this now
I only want to do it once and right the 1st time.
Pics to be posted Sunday if we have good weather
This is a long shot of my outdoor kitchen.
I entertain a lot at home and at work.
Michael