Dave's Pics of Progress

[dusty]

Re: Dave's Pics of Progress

Dave,
Congradulations! It is inspiring to see the thing fired up. Your fire pics helped me to see the light at the end of my arched tunnel. And what a great looking pizza! How lond did it take to cook?

dusty

[sarah h]

Re: Dave's Pics of Progress

Wow, it all looks soooooo good!! Must have been a great feeling to watch that first pizza sizzle and munch down on that first bite. What's next?

Sarah

[asudavew]

Re: Dave's Pics of Progress

Dave,
Congradulations! It is inspiring to see the thing fired up. Your fire pics helped me to see the light at the end of my arched tunnel. And what a great looking pizza! How lond did it take to cook?

dusty

Thanks Dusty!

The first one took about 4-5 minutes.
I don't have the dome insulated yet, and I was totally unprepared for the amount of wood the fire consumed. The dome was glowing, but I know the floor wasn't charged enough yet. It seems to work best with 1.5 to 2 inch branches. I didn't have enough that size. When I threw the larger logs in... although they would catch fire. They just wouldn't produce the heat.

This weekend I'm gonna wrap a blanket around it and fire it up again with smaller branches.

It's sure is a learning process.

and I thought I knew fires.. cuz I am an avid camper.....

Lots to learn.

[asudavew]

Re: Dave's Pics of Progress

Wow, it all looks soooooo good!! Must have been a great feeling to watch that first pizza sizzle and munch down on that first bite. What's next?

Sarah

I was afraid Sarah. Fear of going to all this "trouble" and expense and then thinking.... "I've cooked better pizza in my oven."

No worries there... although it wasn't perfect, and the oven should of been hotter, the pizza was awesome.

I did used canned sauce, but some of them are pretty good.......
But,I must say, I have been doing my homework here, and I make my dough a lot wetter and retard it for a day. Things I never did before. The techniques make great pizza.
I still haven't ordered Caputo flour, but I will soon.

I wanted to work with local stuff in the oven so that I could appreciate the difference.

Thanks for keeping up.

I like watching your progress. Exciting huh?

[Kemo]

Re: Dave's Pics of Progress

I wanted to work with local stuff in the oven so that I could appreciate the difference.

Dave,

If you want to try local ingredients, here is my dough recipe with ingredients from HEB that I have had pretty good success with:

17 oz King Arthur all purpose flour
9 oz water
12 oz bottle of your favorite Beer x 2
1/2 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt
1/2 TBL spoon Olive oil
1/2 packet of Instant yeast

Heat the water in a cup for 30seconds on High in the microwave. Take a sip of Beer. Remove and check the water with finger to make sure its not too hot. if it hurts like fresh coffee its probably too hot should feel about as hot as a nice hot shower. add the sugar to the water followed by the yeast. Wisk for a minute or two untill the water starts kinda foaming. Take a sip of Beer. Add this to the rest of the dry mix hopefully in a mixer followed quickly with the oil. after the mixing process and the kneading, split the resultant dough into 2 equal balls. Into tupperware with light coat of oil on the bottom overnight. Finish off first Beer and move on to the second one.

This makes 14"-16" pizza just fine! AND...it holds up real good to stretching and tossing. Just make sure you let the dough come to room temperature for at least an hour before working with it. I have had real good results in my kitchen with this ratio. Hopefully it will get you close to what works in your kitchen. A 5lb bag of this flour is less than $3 and makes close to 10 pizza dough balls. not a bad bang for the buck!

thanks for posting, your project along with others is keeping me motivated!

[rlf5]

Re: Dave's Pics of Progress

Wow Kemo, your recipe follows a lot like most of mine. Same goes for laying bricks on my dome...

[Frances]

Re: Dave's Pics of Progress

After a couple of glasses of wine, I started thinking about what you said on Sarah's thread that your oven needs a lot of wood to get up to heat, and that you would have left out the cladding if you had known... what I wanted to say is that that will probably change dramatically when you add the insulation. Right?

So hey, get going already! We're all waiting to see what happens to your oven before we take the next step

[gjbingham]

Re: Dave's Pics of Progress

I agree with Frances. I think the insulation will cut down your firewood consumption too.

Fresh ingredients are the key to great food. Only used prepared sauce if your too pushed for time to do it the Italian way. (and don't forget the Olio de Oliva)
George

[asudavew]

Re: Dave's Pics of Progress

Dave,

If you want to try local ingredients, here is my dough recipe with ingredients from HEB that I have had pretty good success with:

17 oz King Arthur all purpose flour
9 oz water
12 oz bottle of your favorite Beer x 2
1/2 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt
1/2 TBL spoon Olive oil
1/2 packet of Instant yeast

Heat the water in a cup for 30seconds on High in the microwave. Take a sip of Beer. Remove and check the water with finger to make sure its not too hot. if it hurts like fresh coffee its probably too hot should feel about as hot as a nice hot shower. add the sugar to the water followed by the yeast. Wisk for a minute or two untill the water starts kinda foaming. Take a sip of Beer. Add this to the rest of the dry mix hopefully in a mixer followed quickly with the oil. after the mixing process and the kneading, split the resultant dough into 2 equal balls. Into tupperware with light coat of oil on the bottom overnight. Finish off first Beer and move on to the second one.

This makes 14"-16" pizza just fine! AND...it holds up real good to stretching and tossing. Just make sure you let the dough come to room temperature for at least an hour before working with it. I have had real good results in my kitchen with this ratio. Hopefully it will get you close to what works in your kitchen. A 5lb bag of this flour is less than $3 and makes close to 10 pizza dough balls. not a bad bang for the buck!

thanks for posting, your project along with others is keeping me motivated!

Does it work if you double the portion of beer?
Just curious..

I will try this recipe this weekend. I usually make dough by sort of measuring... So I needed a written recipe!

I had been getting 25lb of bread flour at Sam's four about 5 bucks.
But alas... they stopped carrying it.. Poor me.
So KA it will be.

By the way Steve, my HEB carries the San Marzano variety canned tomatos.
The brand name is CENTO and they come in a yellow 28oz can. Awesome for pizza or pasta!

Give em a try if you can find them.

Dave

[asudavew]

Re: Dave's Pics of Progress

After a couple of glasses of wine, I started thinking about what you said on Sarah's thread that your oven needs a lot of wood to get up to heat, and that you would have left out the cladding if you had known... what I wanted to say is that that will probably change dramatically when you add the insulation. Right?

So hey, get going already! We're all waiting to see what happens to your oven before we take the next step

I am curious as well Frances... I am gonna patch those cracks tomorrow(I got busy yesterday)... Then I will throw my blanky on my baby.
And fire it up on Friday night!!!~

I will try and make a good judgement about the cladding. But I thought about this too, and if you are gonna bake bread or slow roast meats, I would go with the extra cladding.

My two cents.

Hope the weathers going good for ya.
I'm waiting on pizza pics.

[asudavew]

Re: Dave's Pics of Progress

I agree with Frances. I think the insulation will cut down your firewood consumption too.

Fresh ingredients are the key to great food. Only used prepared sauce if your too pushed for time to do it the Italian way. (and don't forget the Olio de Oliva)
George

I didn't forget the olive oil on my second pizza bake. ! I remembered at the last minute thanks to you.

I did however forget to pick up a few more cans of Marzano tomatoes....

But I won't forget before the next bake.

Thanks George! Are you closing in yet? Literally...

Dave

[rlf5]

Re: Dave's Pics of Progress

Dave

HEB also carries its own brand of organic San Marzano tomatoes. They are supposed to be imported from Italy. The have the D.O.P. stamp on them as well.

[gjbingham]

Re: Dave's Pics of Progress

You already saw my closing.

My pizza sauce recipe is done from memory and kinda changes every time. The San Marzano tomatoes are supposed to be the best. I've never used them. If I can get fresh Roma tomatoes, I put them in a food processor and make sauce out of them (better if you blanch and remove the skins and seeds), then simmer for 30 ish min. with Oregano, sugar (just a pinch), plenty of Basil, garlic (garlic, garlic) , S &P to taste. In a pinch, I use canned tomatoes, diced, Italian style with herbs already added, then put it in a food processor and add all the other ingredients as well. Just a thin layer on the pizza with a moderate amount of mozzarella, then whatever else you want. Eggs, peas, artichoke, sausage....(the list is incredible, and includes almost none of the norms in the US) are all very common in Sicily.

My fav is a more greek style with Mozzarella, Fetta cheese( and oz. or two crumbled), Kalamata olives, Parmesian (a little), red onion which carmelizes really nicely in a hot oven, and olive oil at the end of course.

Try that sometime. I'm miles behind you before I make my first.
George

[asudavew]

Re: Dave's Pics of Progress

George,

I will have to try that.

Sounds awesome.

I may have missed something.... were you born in Italy or did you live there before... Sometimes I feel so uncultured here... (is that a word)?

But I do, at times, feel like I live in such a small box. Is it just me?

The next pizza.......... I'm making it like you do George. By gosh.. it better be good! I am always up for new stuff.

Got a recipe for smoked salmon or salmon pizza?

Thanks in advance!
And please send me one of those huge Steelheads. I accept C.O.D. Please place it on dry ice.
Or you could just invite me sometime for fishing...........I can dang near catch my hat with my fly rod. Tough sport to learn.

I want fire pics George.

Good luck man!

Keep the patience. Slow going from here.

[jwnorris]

Re: Dave's Pics of Progress

I agree with Frances. I think the insulation will cut down your firewood consumption too. <snip> George

In addition to the improvements to your firing that insulation brings, as you drive the last bit of remaining moisture out of you oven, the overall performance of the oven just gets better and better. And just because it looks dry, doesn't mean it is.

J W