Maybe a silly question .... but ... here I go

[cobblerdave]

Re: Maybe a silly question .... but ... here I go

Gudday again
Every oven is a bit different and there owners usually know them best I suppose
There are heaps of different doors on the forum some of them pretty inpressive too. If you would like to experiment with a door here's a simple way.
Make a simple door from unpainted untreated wood. Planks nailed together whatever, as long as it covers the entrance. Before you use it make sure you rake out any coals and ash . Soak the door in water for a couple of hours so it doesn't burn and use a couple of bricks/rocks to hold it up tight to the entrance. It's simple and you should find out then how your oven works on the heat stored in the ovens mass.
Don't be to worried about the temp if something's not cooked it just needs a little longer it will probably be extra tender for that extra time
Enjoy your oven
Regards dave

[Laurentius]

Re: Maybe a silly question .... but ... here I go

Just don't use a wooden door right after removing ash from an oven that just cleared an hour ago, the next morning you will be surprised at how thin charcoal can be or when you take the door off and expose it to air, door ala Flambe. It happened to me.(Charcoal)

[cobblerdave]

Re: Maybe a silly question .... but ... here I go

Gudday
Flambe......well my first one ...was In the end ...we'll how can I put it ... A bit of smoky flavor. But give these folk a chance to play with there oven.
If it gets cooked no great lose. Build another....or build a better one. Either way the experience is everything

Regards Dave

[mrchipster]

Re: Maybe a silly question .... but ... here I go

I never got to see the flamb?' of my first door. I woke up in the morning and looked out to the oven thinking I forgot to put the door on, because. The oven was open.

It turned into smoke over night.

Chip

[Laurentius]

Re: Maybe a silly question .... but ... here I go

Hi Shoeless Dave,

You're right, but some experiences need not be repeated, like the time I had a light bulb(idea), that I could dry some green wood in my cleaned oven after pizza. I stuffed my 42" well insulated monster to the gill with a load of premo cherry wood, sealed that insulated door and went on my merry way. Not to be impatience, I gave it 3 days and nights to become well seasoned fire wood. Upon opening said oven, I was greeted with the most noxious smoke, after I finished my choking fit and could open my eyes, behold "Charcoal". The good from that(experience) is for the last 2 years, I haven't had to buy any charcoal or chips for my smoker, now my pastrami, turkeys, chicken, home made bacon has that subtle hint of cherry in every bite. Oh, I forgot the lesson from this experience,(Don't place wood in a perfectly clean oven if that oven is hovering near 500 degrees! Even with no flames, wood burns, with no oxygen you get no ash, you get a lots of carbon, so kids don't try this at home. PS, and if you open the door after the first day, you might receive a face full of flames. Be careful out there.

[Tscarborough]

Re: Maybe a silly question .... but ... here I go

Yes, I leave the last chunks of wood in there, and my door is tight enough that I get charcoal after every fire.

[cobblerdave]

Re: Maybe a silly question .... but ... here I go

Gudday all
Had this on my mind during the week so on friday I got a couple of pine electricial goods pallets of a friend. They had a standards no stamped and a quik check...not treated. So I had a play on sat morning took 2 hrs to carefully pull the pallets apart and an hour to build this

Pretty neat ha? had a lot of fun... felt like a kid didn't use a square, measured bits off other bits, even reused the flat head nails from the pallets.
Anyway at five oclock put the door in the laundry sink full of water and held it down with a brick.
Flashed the oven up with the remains of the pallet Wow never used pine from the Northn Hemisphere before. Thats stuffs like fireworks spits and crackles and burns like it soaked in fuel!! I was now worried the door would survive it first trial by fire.
After an hour the oven was up to exceptable heat for pizza. Probably 400C IR termometer has flat battery but you can usual tell without it. Cooked the evening meal whilst the embers burnt down and capped it of with the door about 7 oclock. checked it again at 9

About 240c perhaps I was to cautious would have been happier if that was 300c plus
Checked again next day at 9 AM

Had dropped to 120c still a usable temp and this is some 14 hours later so the door did its job.
Next remove the door... I'm just waiting for the door to flambe' in my face
( thanks for the stories guys)

Not so bad the wood was definitly effected by the heat. The one amazing thing I found the oven was full of moisture and had the most wonderfull smell, recon it would be perfect for a bread bake. It was a fun experiment but it shows how the old timmers use wood doors especially for bread baking. I would definitly not pick pine if I was to do this again and I think you would have to replace the inner surface on a regular basis it would definitly fail after a time regardless of the wood.

Regards Dave

[mrchipster]

Re: Maybe a silly question .... but ... here I go

Pine will tend to ooze sap badly when heated also. not the best chioce of wood but a fun experiment none the less.

Chip

[david s]

Re: Maybe a silly question .... but ... here I go

Italian ovens traditionally had wooden doors that they soaked in water as you describe. With my oven and wooden door it is safe to put the door in place when the temp has dropped to 325 C and this is with a 12 mm insulation panel attached.
I hired out my mobile oven last weekend and picked it up on Monday. All that remained of the door was the insulating panel and the stainless bolts and washers. I forgot to tell them not to place the door fully closed until the temp dropped. Oh well just a wooden door. I still think they are better than an uninsulated steel door that conducts too much heat from the oven and gets dangerously hot. I really like the look of a wooden door mostly.

[Laku]

Re: Maybe a silly question .... but ... here I go

I still think they are better than a steel door that conducts too much heat from the oven and gets dangerously hot. I really like the look of a wooden door mostly.

Won't argue about the look since I'm going to finish my door with wooden face. But the heat conduction is just a matter of building the door so that the oven facing part doesn't really have any connection to outside face. In other words you build heat breaks in the door.

[Bravo]

Re: Maybe a silly question .... but ... here I go

Greetings:

1) Does FB sell an insulated door?

2) Does baking bread in a dome that has not cleared impart any different taste then if it was baked in a dome that had cleared?

[Les]

Re: Maybe a silly question .... but ... here I go

1. All I have seen is a 1/4 plate steel door (they may offer something different today, contact them)
2. I don't think that it would matter unless you are still burning wood.

[rsandler]

Re: Maybe a silly question .... but ... here I go

Hi Shoeless Dave,

Oh, I forgot the lesson from this experience,(Don't place wood in a perfectly clean oven if that oven is hovering near 500 degrees! Even with no flames, wood burns, with no oxygen you get no ash, you get a lots of carbon, so kids don't try this at home. PS, and if you open the door after the first day, you might receive a face full of flames. Be careful out there.

Yep, I had that happen with one of my curing fires. My load of wood was all wet so I had dried a big batch the previous night when the oven was around 300. The next night the oven was at 500F when I was done and I threw a few extra logs in to dry. I wake up the next morning and my wife is looking out the window and says "Your oven is smoking!". Opened the door to see what was going on and foosh. Bonus curing fire!

I suppose if you wanted to make pizza two days in a row, you could do this on purpose so that you could quickly get a new fire going on the second day?