Help Please - about to start work!!

[mmmhumous]

Re: Help Please - about to start work!!

Did two batces of dough:

1. James'/FB's
500g 00 flour (from supermarket)
325g water
3g yeast
10g salt (more like 1g in our case, we don't eat a lot of salt).

2. Heston Bhlumenthal's
Pretty similar to the FB recipe except:
hydration level of 55%
less salt, and also some malt syrup (we used marmite in place of these)

Not much to tell them apart (HB's was slightly darker).

00 flour is definately a must! much better mechanical properties and texture than with standard bread flour and far easier to handle too.

[mmmhumous]

Re: Help Please - about to start work!!

Put another 17 pizzas through the last night - enough to keep my team from work going.

Few new recipes etc:

Did a Spicy meat feast - pepperoni, salami, chorizo tobasco but more importantly one homegrown habenera chilli (scotch bonnet). Not so much spicy as strangly numbing... recommended before a trip to the dentist! (very nice too if you like it hot).

Did two sauces:

1. 2 tins (2x400g)Tesco's finest cherry tomatoes (drained),
1/2 tube tomato puree
fresh oregano

Blended and uncooked

2. 2 tins (2x400g) Tesco's chunky chopped italian tomatoes*
5 cloves garlic finch chopped
fresh oregano
Balsamic vinegar 50-100ml (ish) - 3 big glugs
Brown sugar 3 desertspoons (ish) - 1/2 handfull

Garlic sweated in some olive oil, vinegar added, rest of ingredients blended then added and the whole thing cooked down.

*(80% w/w tomato, so didnt need draining - most tins are only 50-65%)

Both sauces were really good and quite sweet. now tried all of the tinned toms in Tesco - the cherry toms are by far the best for pizza base. (If you don't like sweet, go for the chuncky chopped italian ones.

[Frances]

Re: Help Please - about to start work!!

Wow, you're really getting going with this pizza thing! I've never done 17 pizzas in one go... (yet)

And the sauces sound great... makes me realise I should experiment more.

How is the oven performing? Are you happy with the retained heat and everything?

[mmmhumous]

Re: Help Please - about to start work!!

Wow, you're really getting going with this pizza thing! I've never done 17 pizzas in one go... (yet)

And the sauces sound great... makes me realise I should experiment more.

How is the oven performing? Are you happy with the retained heat and everything?

Yep not really tried anything else in it yet other than pizza - think Acoma was right about the 1-5 firings per month though... more like per week at the moment!

Oven ssems to be doing well. I had been worried that the hearth was too thick and my take too long to heat through, but only takes 1.5-2hrs to fully heat up. It's very hurngy though, takes about 10Kg of wood to become "pizza ready." Haven't really looking into the heat retention yet - I know ~12hr after firing it drops to 40-50?C. Something to look into when I get a thermometer.

More experiments on sauce to come (just bought all the brands of tinned tomatoes we could find in the local delis and Waitrose's own brand italian plum tomatoes - Heston Bhlumenthal reckons they rival the San Marzanos).

My thoughts were it's worth getting the sauce and dough right given the amount of time spent on the oven!

[fig man]

Re: Help Please - about to start work!!

I see from your 'photos, your oven is built very close to your boundary fence. Have you had any problems with heat transfer on to the timber fence panels with your firings to date?

I have now started to build my oven and following advice from my wife, (need to blame somebody), I have set mine out a similar distance from my neighbour's fence, - it's a little too late to change now as the base is now built and the concrete slab is in position.

I am a little concerned however that I will damage the timber panels on the fence when I use the oven.

Graeme

[dmun]

Re: Help Please - about to start work!!

The only part of the oven that will get hot if it's insulated to recommendation is the area around the mouth of the oven. The sides and back shouldn't be even warm to the touch.

Around here, anything but a fence has to be five feet from the lot line: something to keep in mind if you need to entertain the building inspector.

[Ed_]

Re: Help Please - about to start work!!

Around here, anything but a fence has to be five feet from the lot line: something to keep in mind if you need to entertain the building inspector.

They told me three feet here, so it does vary. Definitely something worth knowing!

[mmmhumous]

Re: Help Please - about to start work!!

I see from your 'photos, your oven is built very close to your boundary fence. Have you had any problems with heat transfer on to the timber fence panels with your firings to date?

I have now started to build my oven and following advice from my wife, (need to blame somebody), I have set mine out a similar distance from my neighbour's fence, - it's a little too late to change now as the base is now built and the concrete slab is in position.

I am a little concerned however that I will damage the timber panels on the fence when I use the oven.

Graeme

No problems to date - hottest part of the wall only gets up to 40-50?C (and that's only after 4-5hrs of firing). Just make sure you insulate well (I went for 4 inches of loose vermiculite between the back oven wall and the back encolsure wall.

[mmmhumous]

Re: Help Please - about to start work!!

Some more Photos now that the plants have recoved from the deluge of brickdust and mortar.

[egalecki]

Re: Help Please - about to start work!!

It looks wonderful with the plants "recovered". I envy you your artichokes! Can't grow them here unless you try to fool them into being an annual, and I haven't had luck with that!

[mmmhumous]

Re: Help Please - about to start work!!

It looks wonderful with the plants "recovered". I envy you your artichokes! Can't grow them here unless you try to fool them into being an annual, and I haven't had luck with that!

Thank's Elizabeth. They're into their 2nd year now - We got about 10 ping pong ball sized globes last year and we've had about the same number of proper sized ones so far this year.

Have you tried starting them off in pots inside/in a green house? (not sure what the weather is like in Virgina, but it seems to rain a fair amount on TV/Movies - so I'm guessing it's similar to the UK lol).

[mmmhumous]

Re: Help Please - about to start work!!

Finally fixed the fire damage last month:

[mmmhumous]

Almost finished!

Re-roofed the oven this afternoon, so not much left to do. should be done in the next few weeks yey!!

[mmmhumous]

Re: Help Please - about to start work!!

First fire of the year. Chimney pot, ridge tiles and final few bricks mortared into place:

[james]

Re: Help Please - about to start work!!

It's time to start thinking about cooking, pizza, spring..... Looking good.
Enjoy!
James