36" pompeii in WI in the winter

[Laurentius]

Re: 36" pompeii in WI in the winter

Thanks for your advice. I'm definitely going to try splitting my wood smaller. And just for clarification......I'm a geek not a Greek. I love Greek food also. Greek yogurt with honey... Yum!

~Aaron

I think "ATHENS", confused him, I know it did me!

[AaronTheGeek]

Re: 36" pompeii in WI in the winter

Aaron,

Iv'e been around ovens a long time about 40 years, I built my first 30 odd years ago.
We didn't have any insulation so to speak so we had to adjust the fires on each oven (they are all different) to suit, getting the floor and the dome at the same temp for baking is always a chellange at first but then after a while you will work out your oven, each time the fire and the oven will be different so just adjust as you go I am sure you will work it out.

Aaron, I have a few Greek mates here in Australia they are all good blokes, like the Italians there were a lot of Greek families that came to Australia in the 50's and 60's they are well known in the country for running cafe's and fish and chip shops.
I always remember Easter at those Greek families they did the best lamb on a spit I have ever had, and thier Mums, Dads and sisters sure could cook some good tucker.

WD

Thanks for your advice. I'm definitely going to try splitting my wood smaller. And just for clarification......I'm a geek not a Greek. I love Greek food also. Greek yogurt with honey... Yum!

~Aaron

[AaronTheGeek]

Re: 36" pompeii in WI in the winter

No problem Laurentius.

Hi Aaron,

When your oven is hot enough and the fire has burnt down to just hot coals the dome won't be getting any hotter as the fire is not active enough but the floor will stay hotter as the coals act in two ways they are still heating the floor but at the same time acting like insulation preventing the floor from starting to cool.
At this stage most people would just remove the coals put the door on and wait for it to equalise.
I use a method where I rake the caols out over the floor and then throw in some really small twigs or pieces of wood that would catch fire quickly to get an active flame to heat the dome a little more, the floor won't get any hotter as the caols are acting as insulation as soon as the flame dies down then I clean out the oven and wack the door on.

Aaron, some people don't clean out there ovens say after cooking pizza because they don't intend to be baking bread and then next time build a fire on top of the old coals this can cause the opposite effect the coals act like insulation and stop the floor from getting hot enough.
Give my method a try I think you will be happy with the result, there is no nead to change anything with your oven.

WD

And one other thing when I am heating my oven to bake bread I don't use any large pieces of wood I keep an active fire going with smaller pieces you know keep it raging that way you will also have less ash or coals at the end preventing the problem we talked about.

Yes, I think you have a point here. My wood could be dryer too which would help keep the flame hot. I still have not had time to fire the oven yet....hopefully next weekend.

~Aaron

[Laurentius]

Re: 36" pompeii in WI in the winter

Hi Aaron,

Apologies. Sometime when people keep posing questions without trying simple solutions in between questions, it gets to me. We're trying to help.

[AaronTheGeek]

Re: 36" pompeii in WI in the winter

Hi Aaron,

Doesn't your oven have more mass in the dome, than the floor? If I cool my oven by allow the door to be open, then seal the door, after a while the heat will stabilize. My dome never get cooler than my floor until all of the heat has dissipated from the oven. Instead of thinking, why don't you do some physical test. Since you asked this question oven a week ago, you would have valuable solid data by now! Don't you think????

You must have a short fuse today. It was only 4 days ago that I asked the question. I haven't had time to fire my oven once since then(It's busy season right now for me). I am planning on trying some things when I do.

[Laurentius]

Re: 36" pompeii in WI in the winter

Hi Aaron,

Doesn't your oven have more mass in the dome, than the floor? If I cool my oven by allow the door to be open, then seal the door, after a while the heat will stabilize. My dome never get cooler than my floor until all of the heat has dissipated from the oven. Instead of thinking, why don't you do some physical test. Since you asked this question oven a week ago, you would have valuable solid data by now! Don't you think????

[AaronTheGeek]

Re: 36" pompeii in WI in the winter

Hi Aaron,

I think your solution is exactly what you do not want to do. Additional mass means that the floor with sustain heat even longer. The best solution is to wait until the floor cools. If you're cooling by opening the door, leave it open for an additional 15 to 30 minutes, to see what happens. Try to be methodical in finding solution to problems.

I can let it cool longer, but the floor and dome cool at about the same rate so that by the time the floor is cool enough, the dome is too cool. Which is why I have to mop a lot. Yes more mass would retain heat longer. But wouldn't it also take longer to heat up so that the floor heats at about the same rate as the dome?

When you fire your oven how much time goes by between raking out the fire and bread baking?

And do you have a good insulated door?

I typicaly rake out my oven and do not bake bread until the next or second day after a full saturation of my oven.

Chip

When firing the same day I let it cool anywhere from 1 to 2 1/2 hrs.. I tried baking the day after a pizza meal and that worked great. I think firing the day before would solve my problem, but I can only bake on Saturdays during the summer so that isn't a good option for me. I'll have to try a longer cooling/equalization period and see if that helps. Like 5-6 hrs..

I have a porthole door with 2" of Calsil insulation.

Don't do anything drastic to your oven.

I'm not thinking of anything necessarily permanent. I was hoping there was some sort of tiles that I could cut and lay on the floor. If I didn't like them I would just pull them out.

~Aaron

[rsandler]

Re: 36" pompeii in WI in the winter

Chip's question hits it on the money--how long are you letting the oven cool and equalize before you bake? If I'm baking on the same day as I fire, I find I get burned bottoms if I bake within an hour of removing the coals, and more like 3 hours is better still. The brick temperatures will equalize themselves, given enough time.

[david s]

Re: 36" pompeii in WI in the winter

Aaron,
Don't do anything drastic to your oven. Perhaps the floor is better insulated than the dome as you suggest, but there are other solutions. Maybe your dome still contains some moisture and is bringing its temperature down faster than the floor, in which case the remedy is to do nothing but keep using it. When cooking bread I'm a bit lazy and rarely saturate my oven with heat, then wait until it cools to bread baking temperature. I simply give the oven one hour of flame, pull out most of the coals, throw in the bread and seal up the door. Because my oven is small I usually only cook two or three loaves at a time. Yes, my floor is usually hotter so I place the loaves on trays and this is enough to prevent burnt bases. Using this regime I can put on a batch of dough at the same time as lighting the fire and be ready to bake in one hour.

[mrchipster]

Re: 36" pompeii in WI in the winter

Hello all,

It's been a while since I've posted here. I've been enjoying my oven a lot. Everyone loves my pizza and ciabatta. After baking bread for a while I've come across and issue I would like some advice on.

When baking bread in my oven I have consistently had to battle an overly hot floor. It is always too hot relative to the dome temp requiring me to do a lot of mopping to cool it. I've tried different amounts of heat loading to no avail. I think one of the reasons for this problem is that I have 3" of CalSil insulation underneath which is more than the usual 2". (It's great for pizza) I have been thinking of somehow adding a 1/2" of mass to the top of the floor to better balance the floor to dome mass ratio for baking. What is the recommended way of doing that? Is there some sort of tiles I could cut to fit?

Thanks,
~Aaron

When you fire your oven how much time goes by between raking out the fire and bread baking?

And do you have a good insulated door?

I typicaly rake out my oven and do not bake bread until the next or second day after a full saturation of my oven.

Chip

[Laurentius]

Re: 36" pompeii in WI in the winter

Hi Aaron,

I think your solution is exactly what you do not want to do. Additional mass means that the floor with sustain heat even longer. The best solution is to wait until the floor cools. If you're cooling by opening the door, leave it open for an additional 15 to 30 minutes, to see what happens. Try to be methodical in finding solution to problems.

[AaronTheGeek]

Re: 36" pompeii in WI in the winter

Hello all,

It's been a while since I've posted here. I've been enjoying my oven a lot. Everyone loves my pizza and ciabatta. After baking bread for a while I've come across and issue I would like some advice on.

When baking bread in my oven I have consistently had to battle an overly hot floor. It is always too hot relative to the dome temp requiring me to do a lot of mopping to cool it. I've tried different amounts of heat loading to no avail. I think one of the reasons for this problem is that I have 3" of CalSil insulation underneath which is more than the usual 2". (It's great for pizza) I have been thinking of somehow adding a 1/2" of mass to the top of the floor to better balance the floor to dome mass ratio for baking. What is the recommended way of doing that? Is there some sort of tiles I could cut to fit?

Thanks,
~Aaron

[AaronTheGeek]

Re: 36" pompeii in WI in the winter

I just thought I'd share something that I did to keep my oven intact while moving it. Since the dome isn't fastened to anything to keep it from sliding, I began to worry about it when moving time came around. It probably wouldn't slide anywhere as it weighs around 1600#, but I just wanted something to give me some peace of mind. So I drilled a 1/2" hole up through the support slab and CalSil near the center of the oven floor, and removed the brick above it. I then slid a 1/2" threaded rod through the hole and clamped down a couple of 2x6 lumber pieces on top of the oven floor. This served to hold the oven floor and dome in place while it was being moved. It might have been totally unnecessary, but like I said, it just gave me some peace of mind. So take it for what it's worth.

I'm also including a pic of some ciabatta I baked last night. Not bad for my second try at WFO baking, right?

~Aaron

[AaronTheGeek]

Re: 36" pompeii in WI in the winter

Aaron,

I found a lid just like Chips so I am following suit. Are you using the port hole door for the lower baking and roasting temps, ie 400 degrees? Just curious on how high a temps the pyrex lids are good for.

I used it just after pizza the other day with temps around 750f and it was fine. I will try it at higher temps when I get a chance.

~Aaron

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: 36" pompeii in WI in the winter

Aaron,

I found a lid just like Chips so I am following suit. Are you using the port hole door for the lower baking and roasting temps, ie 400 degrees? Just curious on how high a temps the pyrex lids are good for.