Pizza party time line.
Collect dry firewood weeks or months in advance, I like to get different varieties of timber due to their different burning properties.
Morning of the party.
7am. Out of bed to clean the yard and timber deck, wash chairs and flat surfaces with detergent and bleach.
11am. I light the fire in the entrance of the oven, I like a good heat saturation for pizzas and find a burn of 6 hour or more hours is about right (for my oven).
I start the fire with a few twigs and a firelighter, on top I put what I call fluffy wood, its stuff life Stingybark and Messmate and has a fluffy bark that ignites readily, although both types of timber are Eucalypts its really not that hard and dense when compared to other Eucs but it burns readily.
Once the fire is going I push it to the back of the oven and add more fluffy wood, after the fire is well and truly going I start adding the really good wood that
burns with a passion, stuff like wattle, box and ironbark.
2pm. The fire has been going for 3 hours or so and after a good burn there is usually nothing but just coals left in the oven, I then start adding more firewood, usually smaller limb sized stuff and partially close up the oven to reduce oxygen.
Closing up the oven makes the unburnt timber reduce to coals.
The fire is checked periodically during the rest of the day and more small limb wood added as needed so that I end up with a huge pile of coals.
6pm, guests start arriving and the oven is well and truly saturated with heat (6oo*C), by this stage there is usually a very good pile of coals to use for cooking and for lighting in the oven to see.
I rarely have to rake the coals over the floor to recharged the hearth with more heat.
This works for me but as every oven and timber burnt is different it may not work for you.
Collect dry firewood weeks or months in advance, I like to get different varieties of timber due to their different burning properties.
Morning of the party.
7am. Out of bed to clean the yard and timber deck, wash chairs and flat surfaces with detergent and bleach.
11am. I light the fire in the entrance of the oven, I like a good heat saturation for pizzas and find a burn of 6 hour or more hours is about right (for my oven).
I start the fire with a few twigs and a firelighter, on top I put what I call fluffy wood, its stuff life Stingybark and Messmate and has a fluffy bark that ignites readily, although both types of timber are Eucalypts its really not that hard and dense when compared to other Eucs but it burns readily.
Once the fire is going I push it to the back of the oven and add more fluffy wood, after the fire is well and truly going I start adding the really good wood that
burns with a passion, stuff like wattle, box and ironbark.
2pm. The fire has been going for 3 hours or so and after a good burn there is usually nothing but just coals left in the oven, I then start adding more firewood, usually smaller limb sized stuff and partially close up the oven to reduce oxygen.
Closing up the oven makes the unburnt timber reduce to coals.
The fire is checked periodically during the rest of the day and more small limb wood added as needed so that I end up with a huge pile of coals.
6pm, guests start arriving and the oven is well and truly saturated with heat (6oo*C), by this stage there is usually a very good pile of coals to use for cooking and for lighting in the oven to see.
I rarely have to rake the coals over the floor to recharged the hearth with more heat.
This works for me but as every oven and timber burnt is different it may not work for you.
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