Oven sizing question

[kmrice]

Re: Oven sizing question

My 42" (interior diameter) Forno Bravo has a door 16" high. Three 12" pizzas fit just fine, with plenty of room for the fire, but, as others have said, I doubt you'll actually have 3 in at once. You could fit 4 in if you wanted to, and they could be larger than 12", but it is extremely unlikely you would ever do it. It would take a professional to handle that many at once; you'd have to be putting them in every 30 seconds to get four in before the first one is done. They cook in about 90 seconds, so there would be no significant wait between pies, even if you did them one at a time. I prep while my son cooks, and we almost never have more than two pies in the oven at one time and do 16 pizzas in less than 40 minutes.

A 23 lb turkey fits in just fine, or 20 or more pounds of bread. I don't know how wide the door is but it's a lot wider than any duck. Or turkey. The door height is the limitation for your vertical ducks. Due to the laws of physics or something equally complicated, your door should not be higher than a certain percentage of your dome height, and your dome height should not be greater than a certain percentage of your floor diameter, so, unless you build a really huge oven (which would take a really huge amount of wood a really huge amount of time to get up to temperature) you won't be able get the ducks through the door vertically. I can get a beer can chicken in vertically, but I there wouldn't be room for a duck hanging from a rack.You would probably be able to rig something up so you can slide them in horizontally and then hang them up from a rack inside the oven, or something, I don't know.

Follow the Forno Bravo plans carefully; vary the dimensions at your peril. It seems to me that a very high percentage of people on this forum who have performance problems have failed to follow the plans. These ovens have been built for thousands of years, and the optimal dimensions are pretty well settled. Varying them can lead to poor performance, excessive time and wood needed to get to temperature, or both.

Karl

[SCChris]

Re: Oven sizing question

Mutt, Best to you and yours. I'm looking forward to what you end up doing..

Chris

[Filthymutt]

Re: Oven sizing question

Thanks Karl, Chris,
As far as the ducks go really there is no need for me to put them through the door vertically. I can put them on the skewer while in the kitchen then put them through, horizontally hook end first and then just swing them up and hook them to the bar. (Wearing some good insulated gloves I am sure).
Then just slide a drip pan underneath.

Appreciate the info as always. These forums are fantastic. I am sure a life saver for many builders.

Chris, I am sorry but it is going to be a long wait. Our new house up in Beijing will not be ready for occupancy for 9 months yet. We will move up there in July and rent a place until it is done. I am hoping that I will be able to get into the back yard by mid July and start building the oven so I can have it in use by the time we move in in October. I am sure I can once we get up there. This is China, they are not strict about things like that at all.

I will be posting more for sure. Lots of questions between now and then. And I will do my best to post updates like I have seen others do.

Thanks all!

[Laurentius]

Re: Oven sizing question

HI DIRTYDOG,

Were you able to make the contact with Amos, concerning the ceramic fiber products?

[Filthymutt]

Re: Oven sizing question

Hi L,
Na, not as yet. Everything is basically shut down over here for the Chinese (Lunar) New Year. Especially anything to do with building materials, etc. All businesses closed a minimum of two weeks, some for a month. My kid had 5 weeks off from school this year.
I was not sure if Japan did the same or not. Being so close and given their ancient ties to China I figured they must do the Lunar New Year too. And since your guy's contact is over here it would not help to contact him 'til all this was finished and then try. Maybe after about another week.
DD

[Jayson]

Re: Oven sizing question

Hi Filthymutt,

I love your idea for the horizontal bar to hang ducks from. If I am correct (maybe someone can veryify) I think Indian tandoor ovens also cook chicken pieces on metal skewers hung from the top of the oven. Your idea of the bar would be great for both roast duck or tandoor chicken. Has anyone else fitted such a horizontal bar?

[Filthymutt]

Re: Oven sizing question

Well from what I have seen, I think in the Indian oven, which is vertical with an open top like the ovens of Kashgar (Kashii) which I posted pictures of earlier, rather than being suspended from a bar the meat is just placed on skewers which are put into the oven vertically and kind of just lean on the top rim for support.
The bar that I mentioned though seems standard in the duck roasting ovens here in China that I have seen so far.

[Lburou]

Re: Oven sizing question

I'll have to look into it some more. I do not really need to put them thru the door vertically. Only to hang them inside that way. So, should the door be a bit lower I do not think it would be a problem. Inside I really will just need a short iron bar going from one side to the other, to hand the skewers onto.
I do not anticipate doing duck more than once or twice a year so I don't want to get too ambitious with modifications.

Don't forget the bricks at the entry to the oven will be hot enough to burn you when at cooking temperatures....Something to remember as you are placing ducks in position to cook

I am 80% finished with a one meter dome. For an increased oven opening height, I elevated my dome gage two inches to make the peak of the dome two inches higher....That made my dome to oven door ratio allow an oven opening of 13.75 inches. We used a soldier course of half bricks for the first chain. The oven opening is 18.75 inches wide.
HTH