when do you know oven is ready

[barney4069]

I am new to this and have been lighting a fire for the last 7-8 days and increased the burn time. Just wondering how do you know when the oven is ready to start cooking. Sound dumb. but just learning.

[roobqn]

Re: when do you know oven is ready

Have you increased the burn temp each of the 7-8 days? If you have been able to get it up to pizza temps I would think you are ready to go all out. A lot of folks have used the curing fires to cook with so as not to waste the heat, so I would imagine that you could do the same.
The oven will act differntly now than in a few months as the moisture continues to be driven out of the brickwork and mortars. You will fight it a bit but eventually everything will even out and you will be able to get to know the personality of your oven.
Others I am sure will chime in with more in depth explanations, but I would say go for it and cook a pizza tonight. Good Luck and don't forget the pictures.

[Neil2]

Re: when do you know oven is ready

You can cook pizza as soon as you can get it up to 600 F or so. (700-800 is better).

As the oven "seasons" you will find it takes less fuel to get it up to temperature.

[DrakeRemoray]

Re: when do you know oven is ready

It's ready! Cook!

[Stumpt]

Re: when do you know oven is ready

My oven is getting to 500 during my curing fires, but at 12" above the hearth, the sides of the dome doesn't get any hotter than about 250. I think I would need a full blown all out fire to get the sides much above 400, or fire it for hours. Any comments?
Thanks,

[brickie in oz]

Re: when do you know oven is ready

My oven is getting to 500 during my curing fires, but at 12" above the hearth, the sides of the dome doesn't get any hotter than about 250. I think I would need a full blown all out fire to get the sides much above 400, or fire it for hours. Any comments?
Thanks,

As the oven doesnt seem to be cured properly you need patience?
Feel the force........it will all be worth it in the end.....

ps
My oven has been cured for 12 months or more but if it rains and gets wet it takes ages to come to temperature.
Ive now built a roof over the whole lot to keep it dry.

[Stumpt]

Re: when do you know oven is ready

Thanks, I've had about 7 or 8 fires in it so far, the top 1/3 looks markedly different, drier and lighter colored. The lower half looks like it is still kind of wet. I finished the dome over a month ago, although it has been rained on several times since.
Thanks again.

[SCChris]

Re: when do you know oven is ready

Do your best to keep the rain off of the oven, otherwise your curing battle will go on for ever. If you have a tarp to cover after the burns and just before the rains, use it assuming that the exterior of the dome isn't so hot that your going to melt or burn the tarp. I used a weed torch to run very long low burns to drive the water out. I needed to loosely, partually, brick up the entry to hold the heat in during these burns. Once the interior dome was over 340F I found that I needed to apply insulation to hold the heat and allow curing to the higher temps. I finally introduced wood when I got things up over 540 on the inside top of the dome.

Slow and steady does the trick, you have the time to cure it right.

Chris