Amount of wood to fire a 51 inch (130 cm) oven to pizza temps?

[Tenorio74]

Re: Amount of wood to fire a 51 inch (130 cm) oven to pizza temps?

Good debate going....

Tomorrow I'm going nuclear again for some cooking tests, so after I'm done I'll stuff it with wood to dry it out (when it gets below 500F, point taken).

So next time I'll know what dry wood works like. However, I consider the as a factor in this equation the super high humidity levels we have here in Lima. We're at 70% RH in summer, and get 6 months of around 100% humidity during winter/fall. But no rain.... It's weird. I hate it, having lived abroad many many years, but what can I do.

Im going make a door for the wood storage underneath my oven, which gets warm after cooking. That should help in starting the dry out process before I "kiln" it

[Lburou]

Re: Amount of wood to fire a 51 inch (130 cm) oven to pizza temps?

Don't get me wrong Lee, I appreciate your input and it backs-up what I am saying. But the wood will auto-ignite given the right conditions. I think the additional mass and all the other inaccuracies can explain any differences in the numbers. I admire your enthusiasm.

lwood and Tscarborough, no offense taken or intended here. I have a fire cheif acquaintance, I'll ask him about a flash over temp for wood in a confined space -if I can remember to ask him- It was watching one of his training films that I learned abut flash over.

Terorino, you give me the impression that you are going to work out solutions to problems you encounter and come out on top, keep at it.

[Tenorio74]

Re: Amount of wood to fire a 51 inch (130 cm) oven to pizza temps?

Terorino, you give me the impression that you are going to work out solutions to problems you encounter and come out on top, keep at it.

Thanks Lee, my girlfriend always laughs at my improvised solutions to everyday problems... And I don't have any other choices now, with all my money in here and rent coming up... All my chips are in!!!

[Neil2]

Re: Amount of wood to fire a 51 inch (130 cm) oven to pizza temps?

"We're at 70% RH in summer, and get 6 months of around 100% humidity"

Getting wood seasoned and dry must be a problem. Is there a local source of coal ?

[lwood]

Re: Amount of wood to fire a 51 inch (130 cm) oven to pizza temps?

"We're at 70% RH in summer, and get 6 months of around 100% humidity during winter/fall." Here in the Philippines, we are at 70% humidity year round, when it's not raining. It's a problem, especially when you live in the rain forest. We get 36 ft of rain/year. That's why I always dry my wood in the oven. Just make it a practice.

[Tenorio74]

Re: Amount of wood to fire a 51 inch (130 cm) oven to pizza temps?

Getting wood seasoned and dry must be a problem. Is there a local source of coal ?

The people who sell wood, sell coal. There's lots. I find, at least from my bbq experience (or lack thereof) lighting coal harder than wood. And no big flames... Though I've had great pizza in NY in coal-fired ovens...

Here in the Philippines, we are at 70% humidity year round, when it's not raining. It's a problem, especially when you live in the rain forest. We get 36 ft of rain/year. That's why I always dry my wood in the oven. Just make it a practice.

It sure sounds like it!!I lived in Panama for a couple of years.... lots of rain too! I guess I'll have to make the drying wood thing a habit, if it can fit in the restaurants daily schedule. How long after you rake out your fire does it take your oven to drop to 500F?

[lwood]

Re: Amount of wood to fire a 51 inch (130 cm) oven to pizza temps?

after not feeding it anymore, the oven drops below 500F in less than an hour with the door off.

[Tenorio74]

Re: Amount of wood to fire a 51 inch (130 cm) oven to pizza temps?

Excellent, thanks! I'll let you know how it went

[lwood]

Re: Amount of wood to fire a 51 inch (130 cm) oven to pizza temps?

I have a recent discovery, 500F is too hot to dry wood. I just burnt up a whole oven full of firewood I was drying....hahaha. Lee, you were correct. It's too close to the flash-over temp. I had an oven full of flames and the oven got up to hotter than I had ever seen it before, probably 1,200F. I'm a pyro, so I was amazed at the power of the flames, please don't try this at home. With this experience, I would only put wood in the oven to dry at less than 300F.

[Tenorio74]

Re: Amount of wood to fire a 51 inch (130 cm) oven to pizza temps?

lwood, thanks for the heads-up!

I haven't had time to light again... but I did buy some very dry eucaliptus wood when I was out of Lima.... Man it's light!! I don't know if super dry mesquite would get that light, because it's a much harder wood... But when I'm able to fire up at least I'll get to try out some dry wood!!

Will let ou guys know... but I have to finish the location!!! I never thought there would be so many millions of details.... but that's another story (or thread or forum)

[Tenorio74]

Re: Amount of wood to fire a 51 inch (130 cm) oven to pizza temps?

Update on the wet wood issue: As for the wood being wet, my last light up from cold I used some very dry eucaliptus, which burned quite nice but smoked a lot (much more than my mesquite), so at the point of big scary fire licking out the door, I had some smoke evading the flue and coming out the front in puffs.

I also used my oven dried mesquite... I was really mixing the two, with more eucalyptus than mesq. Neither of them unfortunately BURST into flames when thrown in at full raging fire, but caught on fire within 30-60 secs. Not really a burst if you know what I mean.

It's definitely a timing issue as well, as I start out with a pretty small fire (newspaper start) and have to really feed it the first hour, growing in piece size.

I have identified the wood supplier of another pizzeria close-by, who uses mostly eucalyptus, but with a much larger, taller, beehive style oven at much lower temps than I shoot for (also a completely different dough, rolled-out with a rolling-pin – I never de-gas my dough that way).

Anyway, I feel I'm getting better with the fire starting deal, but I definitely use more wood than I thought I would. But looking at other oven pics, I guess I need quite a lot to really stuff my oven and have the big fire. I have to negotiate my buying prices (figuring maybe 800kg+/month)