Driving heat across the cooking floor

[El Puaco]

Re: Driving heat across the cooking floor

I'm learning as I go in the pizza making part. Much like my learn as you go process with the oven building part. I've been getting over 800 on the oven floor at first and having some heat drop off as I make pizzas. I've tried adding wood to the fire as I cook and also dragging some coals on to the floor again for a minute or so to try to heat the floor back up. Mostly I dragged coals onto the floor to burn up any toppings that flew off of my first pizza tries. Any thoughts on this? I love the frighteningly large fire idea too. How do you feel about the size of the fire (along the side of the oven) as you continue cooking?

[james]

Re: Driving heat across the cooking floor

I think Robert said something like "if you kids don't say cool, and your wife doesn't say holy "%&#*$#", it's too small.
James

[DrakeRemoray]

Re: Driving heat across the cooking floor

I pretty much wait until my entire dome goes white before I start cooking. That may mean just starting your fire 15-20 minutes earlier than you think you need to...

Any I second the "frightening fire" idea...that is what you need...

Drake

[CanuckJim]

Re: Driving heat across the cooking floor

I think we might be in Bob Musa territory. He said, I think, that you "don't want a big fire, you want a frightening fire." It may be that in the beginning some of us are a bit timid about this, hence the floor does not get hot enough. The dome will go white at about 750 F, but I always shoot for something in the 900 range before letting the oven moderate. This guarantees that the floor will be hot enough.

A while back, I posted a few fire pics in the photo gallery, as have others with similar experience. Maybe have a look. There is one that shows what I call the "plasma" stage, where the very air seems on fire. That's what you're looking for.

Burn time is a question that seems almost individual to each and every oven. It's a matter of mass and insulation, plus wood type, plus beginning temp of the floor, plus fire size. Don't forget, you want to generate as much flame as possible.

Jim

[beammeup]

Re: Driving heat across the cooking floor

Bigger fire in initial start up and don move it until much later would be my suggestion. I have a barrel vault oven and went through the same issues in the beginning. With a circular dome let the fire stay in the middle longer and let the heat soak into the floor. Even if you let the fire burn down completely to coals and let them sit. When you clean the coals out just brush a bit to the side to fire up again and get the rest out. We bake a good bit of bread in our oven so I have learned to soak the heat into the floor but, you have to allow the temperature to balance a bit. I am sure after initial firing your dome bricks are probably 1200 degrees but the floor will maybe be half that, give a little extra time after a bigger fire for the temps to equalize to about 800 each place, and then as mover said maintain a good fire. You built a nice oven by the sound of it, I hope this helps!
Best
Dutch

Dutch,
I am also having trouble with my floor. You may be onto a solution. I usually wait to see the dome bricks go white before I start cooking the pizza's maybe the floor isn't there yet. How long do you figure I should leave the fire for before the floor is ready?

[james]

Re: Driving heat across the cooking floor

I like the 11"-12" personal size pizza. Very traditional.
James

[Dutchoven]

Re: Driving heat across the cooking floor

Mine are usually in the 14 to 16 inch range...sometimes I make them a little bigger but 18 inches is my door width so more than theat is fun to load!
Best
Dutch

[dougecs]

Re: Driving heat across the cooking floor

how big are the pizza people are cooking are they little or lg 16 in round

[Dutchoven]

Re: Driving heat across the cooking floor

Bigger fire in initial start up and don move it until much later would be my suggestion. I have a barrel vault oven and went through the same issues in the beginning. With a circular dome let the fire stay in the middle longer and let the heat soak into the floor. Even if you let the fire burn down completely to coals and let them sit. When you clean the coals out just brush a bit to the side to fire up again and get the rest out. We bake a good bit of bread in our oven so I have learned to soak the heat into the floor but, you have to allow the temperature to balance a bit. I am sure after initial firing your dome bricks are probably 1200 degrees but the floor will maybe be half that, give a little extra time after a bigger fire for the temps to equalize to about 800 each place, and then as mover said maintain a good fire. You built a nice oven by the sound of it, I hope this helps!
Best
Dutch

[maver]

Re: Driving heat across the cooking floor

That insulation sounds adequate, if the rest of your oven is as well insulated, I wonder about whether your initial heat up time needs to be longer or whether you need to burn more wood (during heat up or while cooking pizza) to achieve a more thorough saturation of your hearth bricks. I have less perlite under my oven than yours and I can cook 14 or more pizzas with little trouble - remember to maintain a good fire while cooking the pizza, with the flames licking from one side to at least the dome apex.

[beammeup]

Re: Driving heat across the cooking floor

I usually do about 6 pizzas per session. I find the first 2 are great the bottoms are perfect but after that I can not get the charred bottom. It is cooked but not as much as I would like. Perhaps after the first 2 I should replace the coles onto the cooking area for a few minuted to let it heat up again. I have 5" of vermiculite and 1" of sand under my fire bricks. I thought that would be enough.

[james]

Re: Driving heat across the cooking floor

Hi Jim,
This all sounds good. It was good to add the insulation at the bottom, or you would have lost a lot of heat out the bottom of the floor. Are you able to keep the cooking floor hot the whole time you cook pizzas, or does it start to cool down after a while?

Does anyone have some nice "flame" photos. I am putting the cookbook together and collecting up photos.

Pizza prep photos would be good as well.
Thanks.
James

[Xabia Jim]

Pizza Inquiry

About the pizza's james....I'm running pretty hard.

The dome goes white...digital is about 800 degrees.
...hearth is pretty hot....I moved the fire over before mopping the hearth

...take a few pictures...

Pizzas seem to go pretty quick...a few minutes....

I give them one turn usually...next ones go in within a few minutes....keep the fire licking the dome.....

....pizzas go quickly...both in the oven and after a short rest on the table, pretty much as soon as they're sliced

The last few straggler pieces are the post dinner snack in front of the fire...

I will take better notes next time...hearth temp throughout and time to cook...might have to bribe an assitant to take notes....

[Xabia Jim]

Re: Driving heat across the cooking floor

I started with a standard thickness floor (firebrick) that is about 6cm thick. After my first firing I noticed the bottom of the hearth was about 350 degrees. So I used some thin red construction roof? tiles for a shelf and stuffed in a layer of Arlite/Expanded clay balls. This gives me another 15 cm of mass...about 11 cm of the insulation layer and 4 cm of the tile. Now I do not see the underside of the hearth very hot until it has been firing a while.

After pizza night....We cooked the chickens yesterday morning, had the lamb/potatoes/tomatoes with friends and then heated it up a bit to make two rounds of bread...5 loaves and a bunch of rolls. (BTW the german caraway rye was so dense I couldn't cut it with a bread knife so I got out the slicer and thin sliced it...great texture a flavor.)

This morning the oven was still 200 degrees and I was wishing I had something to slow roast....now 10 or 11 hours later the oven is 160 degree hearth with a 175 degree dome.....could still put in that goat shoulder!!!!

[james]

Re: Driving heat across the cooking floor

Jim,

It's fun learning about a new oven. How thick do you think your cooking floor is?How hot is your oven when you are cooking your pizzas? And how long do they take to bake?

Inquiring minds want to know...
James