Cloita's 42" Pompeii in Plainfield, IL

[cloita]

Re: Cloita's 42" Pompeii in Plainfield, IL

Made it! Rushed home from work tonight, threw some leftover pork butt in the slow cooker to heat up, and cranked out the last two bricks and cladding for the dome!!! I can't believe my next step is curing, seems like forever ago i was just pouring the structural hearth...

[cloita]

Re: Cloita's 42" Pompeii in Plainfield, IL

any recommendations on securing the anchor plate? was planning on tapcons but wasn't sure what type of high heat caulk or mortar should be under that metal.

[cloita]

Re: Cloita's 42" Pompeii in Plainfield, IL

Also, should I bother cladding the entryway? i'll have to pick up another bucket of mud to do it, but figure it needs it just as much as the dome.

[texman]

Re: Cloita's 42" Pompeii in Plainfield, IL

cloita
I used tapcons and a refractory caulk called either Kaowool or Inswool for the seal around the plate. Be careful drilling the holes for the tapcons or you could knock a brick loose. You could also use your mortar to seal as well. It will get hot there, but nothing like the dome. Most of hot gas is heading out your chimney. Several builders have added another course of brick on top of the base. See Russell's build, he did a good job on that. I wouldn't clad the vent. If you want to control some heat loss there, use some of the insulating blanket. If you are going with an igloo, you will probably have another layer of stucco/brick/flagstone to cover that for appearance. If you enclose it, it will be covered.
you have done a good job on your build and seems really fast as long as it has taken me. Cure it slow.
Tracy

[cloita]

Re: Cloita's 42" Pompeii in Plainfield, IL

Thanks Tracy, you've pretty much reaffirmed my plans so I'll run with it on the anchor plate. Time to pick up a boatload of blanket and chicken wire.

TO THE REFRACTORY STORE!!! =)

[cloita]

Re: Cloita's 42" Pompeii in Plainfield, IL

Day 1 and 2 of curing fires:


And of course it freakin rains so i had to build a flimsy tarp stand to keep it off the dome:


To 400 degrees tomorrow!

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: Cloita's 42" Pompeii in Plainfield, IL

Jonathan,

Been gone for a week but here is the refractory sealant I used for my anchor plate and thermal break. Sets up hard and according to the MSDS it is pretty safe stuff.

[cloita]

Re: Cloita's 42" Pompeii in Plainfield, IL

Thanks Russell, I got something like that from the chimney supplier where I purchased my Duratech.

Been working my way through the curing fires, we hit high 500s yesterday. Cooked a bit!

Chicago style deep dish:


Stuffed thick cut pork chops:


Thanks everyone for the input over the past few months, finally getting to use this oven feels great. Now to finalize the enclosure!

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: Cloita's 42" Pompeii in Plainfield, IL

Looks yummy,

Did a 2nd cure fire with charcoal yesterday and it hovered around 250-300F. Going to do anothter tonight.

[cloita]

Re: Cloita's 42" Pompeii in Plainfield, IL

good luck, i haven't picked out any cracks yet. i'm almost out of wood though, hopefully the landscape place has good dry wood in stock

[Dino_Pizza]

Re: Cloita's 42" Pompeii in Plainfield, IL

Great job Jonathan. I like your vent transition area. I'm sure it vents smoke very well. And the corner mount on the oven looks good too. Cast iron cooking is a good idea during the slow curing fire stage although I assume you are up to full temps by now?

I think the "blue-tarp" stage is the worst part of the whole wfo building stage so we can't wait to see the enclosure.

-dino

[cloita]

Re: Cloita's 42" Pompeii in Plainfield, IL

Thanks Dino, I used your thread for a lot of my design ideas. The draw is excellent with a 4ft pipe on top. I've had about 5 full temp fires including one in the rain last night, talk about stressful!

Here's some of the latest pictures:


Learned to trust the oven with chicago style deep dish pizza - if the top is dark after 20 minutes, the bottom is dark too!


And my masterpiece so far, bone-in pork roast with sage, cloves, oranges, potatoes, onions, and moscato:


I'm waiting on materials to get the enclosure started, running out of time before Chicago winter. Big rush now!

[MAD1]

Re: Cloita's 42" Pompeii in Plainfield, IL

Pork Roast Looks Outstanding.... I just made a successful porchetta! I want to try Dino's skirt stake with spinach, cheese, roasted red peppers basil. Looks awesome!

Mark

[Dino_Pizza]

Re: Cloita's 42" Pompeii in Plainfield, IL

I agree, that pork roast looks great.

Don't forget that some of your best roasting will come from overnight or even the next day AFTER you've fired the oven. We just made a 10 hour slow roasted pork shoulder and did it the next day from a "light" pizza firing so the temp was just high 200's and coming down which was perfect for it.

I don't know if you have an insulated door yet but once you do, you'll have 2-3 days of cooking (if you plan ahead, which we mostly forget to do )

Mark: I'm about ready to make that skirt steak again too.

[cloita]

Re: Cloita's 42" Pompeii in Plainfield, IL

Thanks Mark, did you get a whole pig for porchetta or a scottish shoulder or other?

And no door yet Dino so I'm stuck with the one-shot cooking at the moment. I have a 22.5" bullet smoker to do my overnights in until then!

Aaaand thanks to both of you, skirt steak is now on the menu... =)

No progress on the enclosure yet, still waiting on materials.