Planning an outdoor kitchen - planning my first WFO

[SciAggie]

I live in central Texas and my wife and I are ready to begin building an outdoor kitchen. We are hoping to enjoy grandchildren and friends over for good food and fellowship. I purchased a Big Green Egg about a year ago and that has fueled a desire I have had for a number of years about having a wood fired oven. I love making bread and will probably want to roast and bake in the oven quite a bit - it won't be just for pizzas. The pictures are of my idea for my kitchen I made in Google Sketchup.

Here's the thing - I started thinking about a WFO seriously when I found this ready made, insulated oven for sale: https://www.grillsnovens.com/brick-pizza-oven.html
I love a good deal as much as the next guy but this seems too good to be true. I am suspect of the quality of these ovens. That led me to some searching and eventually led me here. I'm not opposed to building my oven; the Pompeii kits look like a great deal for me and the price seems reasonable. I am a public school teacher so I have time to devote to this project in the summer. I am a bit comcerned about time - is this a project that could be completed in 8 -12 weeks? I know that's a hard question to answer. Like many others I'm pretty handy but I have no masonry experience. I will have the slab poured by a contractor. I would be doing the remainder of the construction myself.

I'm also having a hard time deciding between the 36" and 42" ovens. I want to be able to cook a large turkey. The largest gatherings I can imagine cooking for is about 20 guests - and I have the BGE as well. Most gatherings with friends will be 6-8 people. Part of me says get the larger and be done with it - another part of me wants to be conservative with the overall size of the oven. My outdoor kitchen will sit on an 18'X24' slab.

I hope that is enough to give y'all an idea of my intentions. Am I nuts for building my own oven?

[UtahBeehiver]

Your plans for the outdoor cooking/entertainment patio look very nice. It is hard to give you a time line on construction of a oven since it all depends on many factors, but 8-12 weeks may be aggressive unless you can devote 100% of your time. The FB kits (our site sponsor) are a option, also procuring materials and building your own, as well as a turnkey unit from FB is also an option. Most of the builds on the forum are build your own, then kits, then turnkeys. I can say the most of the builders are not professional masons or had limited bricklaying skills. FB offers a set of plans that are nominal in cost ($2) which can be used as a baseline for an oven design. The forum members have developed a ton of improvements to the original design. So here is a link to some of the more documented builds on the site.

https://community.fornobravo.com/for...n-the-archives

I have a 42" but a 36" can easily cook a large turkey as well.

[SciAggie]

Thanks Russel. The Casa kits look like a possible solution for me. It's within my budget and it looks like a project with a much shorter timeline. One of the big problems for someone like me is I have no experience cooking in a WFO. Knowing what size will best fit my needs is something I haven't figured out yet - that's part of why I jumped into this community. The Casa 2G90 looks promising. Do you think it will work well for baking breads and roasting meats? I guess my question is directed toward heat retention - will it hold temperatures well? Pizzas are not my greatest priority for the oven - i want to use the stored heat in the oven for cooking things that need long even low heat (350 degrees F and less).

I know I'm showing my ignorance, but I don't know anyway to start figuring this out other than to jump in and ask questions...

[RandyJ]

If you think that a 42 is to big then you can do a 39 or 40. That is what I did. I like the size of my 40" it is easy to cook 2 pizzas at one time. So make sure that you keep that in mind. Like Utah said most on here sorce their own materials. The most important thing is to insulate as well as you can afford. It makes a huge difference. Keep asking questions and we will all do what we can to help.

Randy

[gastagg]

I have a 33" oven, which is easily large enough for a turkey...I don't see why I couldn't fit two turkeys in there. I've had 5 pizzas (10-12") in at one time and have had two parties at 20-25 people. Granted, you need to get the oven to high temps on the front end to sustain that amount of pizza, but parties of 5-10 people are a breeze. Consider also the wood needed for fuel. These babies consume a lot of wood and the larger the oven, the more wood needed. Judging by your specs and expected need, that 36" Casa should fit the bill nicely. After building one (brick by brick), if I had the coin, I would definitely consider a kit or at least build a fully cast oven. Looks like you're also going with an igloo design. I'd recommend hiring a pro to finish the stucco unless you have experience doing that.

[SableSprings]

I installed a CasaG90 several years ago up in British Columbia and it's been used extensively every summer. As to bread, I make bread kits (basically add water) and easily do 4 baguettes at a time. Also as to what it will hold, I've attached a pic of a 25# suckling pig we did a few years back. We had the butcher take off the head and feet (some squeamish people in the group) and as you can see it did just fine. The foil wrapped "done pig" resting is on a three burner camp stove for a little scale. Also attached some cupcake, corn, and lemon grass-coconut ribs pics to show you its capabilities. Note that because the oven was a bit hot, I had to use an inverted half baking sheet to reduce the transferred bottom heat.

The only comment I have is that the dome is a bit low for cooking taller objects like a turkey, but that's pretty easy to deal with by using foil. (I mean low as it's a bit closer to the food as per heat not actual "fit it in" space. ) The CasaG90 holds heat very well with the included insulation and we installed it pretty quickly from clearing dirt for the foundation to stucco.

Hope that helps with some of your questions...

[SciAggie]

Thanks everyone for the responses so far. The Casa 2G90 36" oven looks like a good size that will fit into my design. This is a large commitment and investment, but I'm very excited about learning to use a WFO.