Oven temperature>>>barrel v dome

[shvuntz]

Am I being a total twit or what?...Everyone is on about having a domed oven because it reaches a higher temp and its more versatile...well, how high does it need to go, to cook anything?. I mean wont it just burn if its too high, and surely it would be better not to be too hot, how can you cook anything without it getting burned to bits, if its about 800 high..
My ordinary oven cooks a grand roast at 180-190..what do I do with all those degrees?..
Also we have built a Vault-Barrel oven for the garden, as I wanted the space inside...1 meter deep..surely it will cook the same as a dome..WON'T IT!!!!?

[egalecki]

Re: Oven temperature>>>barrel v dome

In the pompeii oven plans, there's a "why build a pompeii instead of a barrel vault" explanation. Page 8, I think. Read is for why one might be better than the other.

That said, lots of people have built barrel vaults- they work fine. They will also get a lot hotter than your indoor oven, btw. Just takes longer to get there. Pizza cooks better, and actually burns less, at the higher temps in the wfo. (this is based on my highly developed ability to burn frozen pizza in the regular oven, but never burning one in my wfo... but then I can't make microwave popcorn without burning it either)

And the 800 degrees is F, not C, so maybe you've got your units mixed up? 180 to 190 sounds like C, not F. Sorry we're a bit behind in the US on conversion, but for some reason we've just never made the switch, even after YEARS of threatening schoolchildren with it.

You do want to fire the oven long enough to get it really hot, and keep it there for a while, to store up the heat in the bricks. Then you can cook pizza, bake bread, make casseroles, etc. over the course of several days as the heat dissipates. I usually make a list of things I want to cook beforehand to make the best use of the heat. Sometimes I'm horribly wasteful and just let it go when I'm finished with the bread...

[egalecki]

Re: Oven temperature>>>barrel v dome

Not that I"ve EVER cooked a frozen pizza in the wfo. Looked as though I was, and I swear I'm not.

[shvuntz]

Re: Oven temperature>>>barrel v dome

hey elizabeth. well we will see, i think we will enjoy it a lot when its made...it seems to be taking forever, then its got to dry out for a week, and in the uk thats impossible,,, its been raining all bloody week.
as long as i can do a grand spread for all of our friends using it i will be happy, i do love to make my own bread aswell...

[Xabia Jim]

Re: Oven temperature>>>barrel v dome

And although this site may have some bias towards the dome oven, there are members such as CJ who will talk about the benefits of his barrel oven.....I personally have had some great pizza after that oven was torched!

X

[shvuntz]

Re: Oven temperature>>>barrel v dome

Hey jim..do you have any pics of your oven!..im very excited about using ours...Thank you for your comments, nice to hear some positive feedback! x

[CanuckJim]

Re: Oven temperature>>>barrel v dome

To get a head start on your oven curing schedule, leave a light bulb burning inside the chamber for about a week or so. Alternately, set a small ceramic heater on 70 F for the same length of time. Take it easy and slow with your curing fires, just a little larger each day for seven to ten days. It's worth the wait.

Send me an email and I'll forward some pics of my oven.

Jim

[CanuckJim]

Re: Oven temperature>>>barrel v dome

Umm, it's better not to show your email on a public forum. I've written it down, so maybe the post should be deleted. You can send private messages to Forum members by clicking on their user name.

Jim

[shvuntz]

Re: Oven temperature>>>barrel v dome

DONE!! x

[AnnieMacD]

Re: Oven temperature>>>barrel v dome

Hi Shvuntz,

I've been off the blog for a while and just seen your posting.. I'm up in the north-west of Scotland, have a barrel oven, FB Casa 180 and make the BEST pizza and breads and roasts and everything in it. I'm bilingual in F and C so fire away with questions (ha ha - no pun intended!). I've had mine since August last year and it's been one huge learning curve. I'll give you all the help I can so you don't need to reinvent the wheel!

Annie

[shvuntz]

Re: Oven temperature>>>barrel v dome

oh excellent and how great to meet someone with a barrel..could you give us some cooking tips, anything would help, we have finished it now and im in the process of starting to mosaic it, but the weather here has taken a turn for the worse, and has put a halt to it.
we havent put a door on yet either so ant tips on that would be good aswell.
thank you very much
cheryl xx

[AnnieMacD]

Re: Oven temperature>>>barrel v dome

Hi Cheryl,

Well, you need to tell me what you want to make in the oven - are you into pizza and bread? I'm getting to be able to use the oven first for pizza, then bread then roast or whatever. I also got a grill made so I can make steaks, baked potatoes - all sorts of things. Next day I make meringues! Also, can you get seasoned hard wood? That is imperative. Let me know and we'll take it from there.

Annie

[shvuntz]

Re: Oven temperature>>>barrel v dome

OOOOh Pizza. bread. roasts oooh yeah, sounds amazing..how long does it take to heat the oven up, and how big is yours?..ours is 39 inches deep by 37 inches wide,,about 26 inches high (the dome)..
The grill thingy sounds good..have you any pics?..
Cheryl xxx

[james]

Re: Oven temperature>>>barrel v dome

Not to be picky (OK, a little picky), but Annie's Casa160 is technically an oval. It is a 110cm (43") round oven with a 50cm (20") extender in the middle section -- making a 43" wide x 63" deep oven. But it is based on round, domed front and back sections and an oval foot print. Officially, a barrel vault oven has a rectangular footprint, flat front and back walls and a curved barrel vault dome.

OK, I'm done.

Carry on.
James

[AnnieMacD]

Re: Oven temperature>>>barrel v dome

Thanks for the technical info, James. I'm a seat-of-your-pants baker type so not good on the details!

Cheryl, if you look at the grill in the Forno Bravo store on this site - that's what I have. Rather than get it shipped here from the US, I got a local guy to make it for me from the picture. I've just made a roast loin of pork in a Le Creuset casserole and it's the BEST! Half an hour before it was finished I put some new potatoes in - the gravy was amazing as the meat gets browned all round.

Anyway, I don't know if my heating times apply to you now. I have some very dry birch and it takes about 2 hours to heat up for pizza. But then you can keep on making them and then put bread in after you've cleared out the coals. Today I made bread only but was testing out a new load of sycamore and the oven took 3 hours (that's long) to get up to temp as the wood just wasn't sufficiently seasoned. I then made the roast and tomorrow morning I'll make meringues. I use the oven often and if it hasn't totally cooled from the previous firing the times are much shorter.

Attaching a pic of pizza in the oven. I'll go out tomorrow and take more pictures for you. Let me know if it's what you are looking for.

Annie