Newbie question--how to prep oven for baking with gas and or wood

[maryclem]

Hi. We had a Casa 100 installed with the gas burner kit. We have been curing the oven with small fires only, I was told residential ovens cannot be cured with the gas. Just wondering how it looks when we are ready to bake. Do we use the gas to help speed up the wood fire burning process? Use both to heat the oven more quickly? Is it possible to heat the oven with only gas? Any great suggestions/hints? I haven't found any information on this on the site, feel free to direct me if you know of something helpful. Thanks! Mary

[david s]

You should be addressing your question to Forno Bravo. This forum is for home builders.

[SableSprings]

Welcome Mary! As Russell noted in a message to you, start one thread for your oven and then use it for all of your questions. It's much easier for the forum community to answer those questions and give you optional advice as needed. Although this forum really is focused on the home builders using wood only as a heat source, there is a trove of information that will be pertinent to just using the oven. I don't have experience with the gas burner kit, but I'd still look at curing the oven with using the standard briquette/wood method that uses a temperature step-up process over a week or 10 days. My gut feeling is that the gas burning might heat the oven up a bit too quickly and definitely not as evenly as with controlled fire and the ability to move the coals around as needed to "evenly" heat up the oven. One of the issues we've experienced on the forum is that most builds that want to incorporate gas, do so without using professional help and potentially setting up a "dangerous" situation. (The forum general disclaimer was added this last year to address that issue.) Glad that you are not in that group and purchased a kit designed specifically for your Casa 100!

I think everyone on the forum would appreciate some feedback on your upcoming experiences with the Casa 100/gas burner kit combo. You're absolutely correct, there isn't much here in the way of useful info on performance and/or issues...we know they work well once installed correctly, but it would be nice to get some more personal observations added to the forum via your thread. From the ovens with a gas option that are represented here, many still prefer some wood burning in the chamber during a pizza party. I also am a little dubious that the cooking floor temps will reach the higher (and preferred) levels with the burner only. To me, the wood fire/coals are really needed to head the cooking floor, while the gas burner does a great job on the top-down cook. Again, I only use wood in my oven and have only observed restaurant ovens using gas (this is where I always seem to see something in the range of 450°F on the commercial temp gauge...which I assume is the cooking floor). I do think you're in for a great experience and a whole new world of cooking methodology. Again, welcome to the forum!

[maryclem]

Thank you for your response. I must admit I find this forum difficult to navigate. Should I post somewhere else? I am just in information gathering mode and not finding much specifically on managing the oven with both wood and gas. I will certainly report any great insights or discoveries!

[SableSprings]

Yes, although we've got a lot of great information on the forum...its sheer volume of threads full of questions, suggestions, and answers is intimidating! I suggest you go the forum area that targets the gas oven systems (Gas & Other at the bottom of the Pizza Oven & Design section) and start a thread (that you can stay with & where everyone who's interested can follow). I'd suggest a thread topic that is short & specific...like "Using our Casa 100 with Gas Kit in Cincinnati". I think you'll find a lot of interest in your "journey" with the Casa 100+gas kit. Looking forward to your addition to the forum!

[Pizzarotic]

Hi. We had a Casa 100 installed with the gas burner kit. We have been curing the oven with small fires only, I was told residential ovens cannot be cured with the gas.

Interesting, gas is a great way to control the heat for curing an oven.

Just wondering how it looks when we are ready to bake. Do we use the gas to help speed up the wood fire burning process? Use both to heat the oven more quickly? Is it possible to heat the oven with only gas?

You have a gas oven and most people choose this option for the speed & convenience of gas rather than burning wood. So your oven is perfectly good cooking with just gas or you can leave the gas off and just cook with a wood fire. Also nothing wrong with using both fuels at the same time to add that authentic wood ash in you pizza.
Hope that helps.

[maryclem]

I was told by Forno Bravo that is was not possible to keep the temperature low enough for the early stay of curing. We are firing it up today, will see how it all goes! Plan is to use gas and wood, to get the temp up more quickly, then turn gas off for baking.

[david s]

Presumably Forno Bravo’s advice is based on experience with previous failures when customers attempted firing new ovens with the gas burner supplied. Failure to heed their advice could lead to damage and loss of warranty.