Coal Fired Brick Oven Construction

[dmun]

Re: Coal Fired Brick Oven Construction

There's two ways to put a picture on Forno Bravo forum. If your picture is uploaded somewhere on the internet, like your own website, or Forno bravo's photo log, you can just hit the "postcard" button above the text box, and paste the location (URL) in the dialog box that pops up:



Or, if you hit "Go Advanced" or "Post reply" buttons, you can upload an image directly from your computer's hard drive, and it shows up as a thumbnail image at the bottom of your posting. Below your text box will be a button labeled "Manage Attachments" from which you can browse and select an image on your computer to upload.

Good luck.

[Primo]

Re: Coal Fired Brick Oven Construction

There seems to be a question about the location of the flame in a coal oven. I'll attempt to answer that question as best I can.

First off, older coal fired ovens were in fact at one time bread ovens and built during the industrial revolution. The dominate heating fuel of the time was coal or a form of baked coal called coke, many bakeries would use either depending upon availability.

Coal ovens have a storage area just under the oven, this is not were the fire is kept. The fire is kept on either the left or right hand side of the cooking area. In the case of Frank Pepe's there is a separate door on the right hand side of the oven. The fire is started with wood and then switched to coal.

The primary difference between coal and wood as a heat source is that coal reaches higher oven temperatures while burning much slower and with less smoke. I personally know of at least one oven that was improperly loaded with enough coal to melt the support beam.

Hope this helps

[Stiennon]

Re: Coal Fired Brick Oven Construction

I had pizza at Tomatoes Apizza this past weekend in Farmington Hills Michigan (US). They have a large coal fired pizza oven. Big bin of coal built in below.

Picture at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/netman21/2960915635/

[Stiennon]

Re: Coal Fired Brick Oven Construction

Try again:

[dmun]

Re: Coal Fired Brick Oven Construction



This is interesting because it clearly shows the coal fire inside the cooking chamber, to the left. Do you think there was a shaker grate, or air intake below the coal fire, or were they just burning it on the oven floor like we do for wood?

[mjb54]

Re: Coal Fired Brick Oven Construction

I think the big advantage of coal fired brick ovens is the heat. I've been to Pepe's about 20 times, including a new location in Yonkers, NY 3 or 4 times, and the one in Fairfield, CT 3 or 4 times. A waitress in Yonkers told me the ovens are at 650 degrees, but I think that's low. When you have intense heat, several things occur; the crust gets very crispy, but just as importantly, the food starts to break down. For sausage, pepperoni and cheese especially, that means they start to sweat first. So, when you get a pie at Pepe's, you get the best of both worlds, a crunchy crust, with oil dripping off. The exact opposite of what you get when you have cold pizza or pizza reheated in a microwave. With either of those, the oil is congealed, and not sweated out, and of course the crust has lost crunch. With gas ovens, you can't get the heat. With wood, not sure, but coal burns much hotter if desired, than wood can. It's just a fact that you can make coal ovens hotter. Coal has more BTU content. 1 lb. of anthracite has 12,700 BTU's, 1 lb. of hardwood has 7,870 BTU's.