Heat retention compared with Hearthkit

[Yahoo-Archive]

I don't have a wood oven yet but I use a hearthkit. I noticed
that after my first pizza the stone looses too much heat so I need to
reheat the stone for another 15 or 20 minutes before I cook the next
one.

Do the wood ovens discussed here have a similar problem? If so how
long do you need to wait until the floor reheats?
thanks
Ken

[Yahoo-Archive]

Ken,

NO! You get eternal pizza without re-heating the floor or dome. You
are basically "re-fueling" the floor and dome with the
fire-in-the-oven as you cook. You are putting back in what the food
and heat loss through the door and insulation take out. Your initial
firing gets you ready and the fire-in-the-oven keeps you there, so
that a well fired oven will churn them out as fast as you can make
them.

James

[Yahoo-Archive]

the ability of my oven to quickly heat the floor far outstrips my ability to quickly assemble a pizza. you won't find it to be a problem.*its hard to believe just how much heat*the oven will hold*when the walls are at 850 degrees.**my kids love to place small branches in the mouth of the oven, well away from the fire, just to see how in a matter of seconds they burst into flame.

as a matter of fact, you will find that the big problem is more the logistics of getting the pizzas assembled and into and out of the oven quickly (especially with a large party). people tend to agonize over their toppings (as the dough begins to stick more and more onto the peel). you really need to crack the whip to keep them pizzas coming in a timely manner.

Robert

[Yahoo-Archive]

That?s sounds really good. We had a small pizza party last night. I cranked out six pizzas and the first was great. The next two progressively got worse and didn?t brown well on the bottom, so I waited 15 ? 20 minutes between the others. It took almost 2 hours to cook them all.*
Ken

[texassourdough]

Re: Heat retention compared with Hearthkit

I am going to append a comment to this message so it can be found by others who may have similar problems. I have used a Hearthkit for about four years now and have not experienced problems at the level of Ken. It sounds like he may not have been fully heating the Hearthkit before beginning to cook. I find it takes at least 45 minutes at 500 with convection on to get fully hot. Yes it will cool a bit during baking but second pizzas have never had serious problems. In my experience 5 minutes of heating between pizzas is plenty... And as a wood oven user I am not casual about my crust quality so...something seems wrong with needing 20 minutes to reheat...

As a further aside, for bread making in an oven I prefer La Cloche (yes they are expensive but...) with the Hearthkit a close second. I much prefer the Hearthkit over a plain stone whether for pizza or bread. It is thicker and heavier than any stone I have seen and greatly tempers oven heat variation.

Jay