Greetings from South Africa - South African bread oven

[flatfourfan]

Hey all, Gary from Pretoria, South Africa here. Built my bread oven about 3 years ago and have been promising myself to make a thread in here as locally I've been asked about it a lot.

For a first build it's a pretty big one, but we entertain a lot and normally, not less than 20 people, so the plan was to make at least 3 pizzas at a time and also be able to get the oven to around the 450c mark.

I have to say that I learnt a LOT from this and was a confirmed stalker for at least 3 years before I spent a cent on anything. I couldn't afford to make any mistakes.



Will start a thread as I've been saving pictures and videos since day one and I have been waiting to upload them. That time is now.

Cheers,

- G

[SableSprings]

Welcome back Gary! Great that you've been enjoying & using your oven...I'm also sure your guests & family are also quite happy with your oven's performance

Do you build a fire in each wing or just move it to heat the area you intend to use? Also interested in your access to the wings...seems like a tight turn to utilize some of the cooking surface with your peel. Doesn't really matter since it's been working so well for you...just interested in the unique design and how you work it.

[MarkJerling]

Hey all, Gary from Pretoria, South Africa here. Built my bread oven about 3 years ago and have been promising myself to make a thread in here as locally I've been asked about it a lot.....

Welcome back Gary! I'm a (Ex) Capetonian, now living in New Zealand. This forum has been a fabulous resource for me.

[flatfourfan]

Welcome back Gary! Great that you've been enjoying & using your oven...I'm also sure your guests & family are also quite happy with your oven's performance

Do you build a fire in each wing or just move it to heat the area you intend to use? Also interested in your access to the wings...seems like a tight turn to utilize some of the cooking surface with your peel. Doesn't really matter since it's been working so well for you...just interested in the unique design and how you work it.

Hey SS, thanks for the welcome.

So the plan to build it with the wings was based on my experience with the one that encouraged me to make mine. Once the fire is up to temp, it's moved into one of the corners and then just fed to keep it going. Depending on what I'm cooking and for how long I can run one or two small fires to regulate the heat more evenly. I reckon that I don't need to see the fire and this allows loads more floor space to cook on and that isn't blocked by a fire.

If I have a small fire going in one corner, this allows me to slow roast a LOT of mixed foods. We're doing it again this year so I'll snap loads of pics of the day.

With a fire going in the corner I have enough space to cook and access 5 pizzas if I'm fast enough with the peel. (I'm comfortable with 3 allowing me enough access) When I'm not in a rush to cook, I pretty much fill up whole floor of the over if I know that something is going to be in there for a few hours.

- G