Floor temperature drop-off rate vs. floor-brick saturation

[texassourdough]

Re: Floor temperature drop-off rate vs. floor-brick saturation

Rereading all of your comments I think your fire is way too small. Once your oven is dry and really ready to use you should be able to build a big enough fire to heat it up and clear the dome in less than an hour. With only 2 1/2 inches of fire brick to heat up in the floor the hearth should heat fast. An issue, I think, particularly for a commercial oven, is that those bricks are the only source of heat to cook the bottom of the pizza. Your pizza will cool the surface and heat has to come from below. Are your fire bricks heavy or light. If they are "light" you may not have enough hearth mass or they may be too insulating and that may be part of your strange problems. I know some of the people on this site have their firebrick right on the insulation and they aren't getting raw, soggy bottoms to their pies.

Also, if you basically clear the coals and sweep and put a pizza on a hearth that turns flour black in a second the bottom should burn almost instantly. An unbrowned bottom crust should be impossible. (Actually not burning the bottom should be impossible!) Are you cooking the pies directly on the hearth or are you using pizza pans??

[Tenorio74]

Re: Floor temperature drop-off rate vs. floor-brick saturation

The firebricks are medium 42% alumina, and rest directly on the fiber board. I am also starting to think that I'm not heating the floor properly, with the fire in the middle and black unlit coals underneath it.

I cook directly on the floor, and If I have a properly leavened dough, will not burn the bottom - only spot it (when I have slid in under-proofed dough, it's lack up air bubbles caused it to lay flat and stick to the bricks. I find the air bubbles create a hovercraft effect raising the pie as they fill up)

Maybe I was misleading - when I blackened the flour instantly I was at 850, but I let it drop to 790 before sliding the first one in. However I want to see if I can raise the floor temps with a big side fire. They always start to drop with a smaller cooking fire and I expect that's not good or indicates superficial heating only.

My other thing is that maybe it's a dough thinness matter. It's SO thin in the middle that it doesn't have a chance against the wet toppings once brought out. I did get leoparding but the slices still drooped – couldn't hold the wet sauce and cheese.

Next goal as stated is:

1) a bigger side fire to properly heat up floor
2) slightly thicker dough in middle (I'll try 2mm)
3) a not-so-wet / bit less tomato sauce (a white pizza I did my first try-out fared better than the margheritas)

[texassourdough]

Re: Floor temperature drop-off rate vs. floor-brick saturation

790 is still plenty hot. Heating the hearth is not usually a challenge. Keeping it hot can be, but...this whole thing feels really weird! Sounds like you may be using too much/too wet a sauce also. And dough recipes are important. I know you are using local flour. You may need/want to add a little oil to make it less sauce susceptible. Also, try putting herb oil on a pie and some coarse salt and bake that. It should come out as outstanding, crisp flatbread. If you can't get that to work then pies are hopeless.

[Tenorio74]

Re: Floor temperature drop-off rate vs. floor-brick saturation

I think my dough and sauce amount must contribute to the equation. I understated the white pizza I made, it came out excellent and crisp (add to that I usually do white pizza at lower temps - around 660). Its a white, prosciutto, bosc pear & EVO pizza, which has quite a following.

I'm gonna have to alternate red and white pizza. The thing I'm just having my gas line installed this week, I can't cook here yet and that hinders my testing. Sometimes I wonder if I should have stuck with my day job....