Elizabeth's oven

[krosskraft]

Re: Elizabeth's oven

Its looking great.....I'm sure you will finish it just right. Good job.

[egalecki]

Re: Elizabeth's oven

Building questions... well, your guess is as good as mine - probably better

But I do like the shape of your oven! It looks like a large beehive. What's coming over the vermcrete? You'll need to add the thickness of that to the extended arch way, too. Er, right?

Yes, I'll have to add some for the stucco coating. I need to get on that soon too, since fall is here! Cool mornings with lots of fog.

Just need to get other people to stop cutting my day into pieces too short to use...I have an hour here and 45 minutes there far too often to get going really well on anything lately. Other than being online, which I can do just fine in that kind of time.

[Frances]

Re: Elizabeth's oven

Building questions... well, your guess is as good as mine - probably better

But I do like the shape of your oven! It looks like a large beehive. What's coming over the vermcrete? You'll need to add the thickness of that to the extended arch way, too. Er, right?

[woods witch]

Re: Elizabeth's oven

wonderful job!!

[egalecki]

Re: Elizabeth's oven

Now I have to form up legs and the counter for the left hand side. That's going to be interesting...

[egalecki]

Re: Elizabeth's oven

I'm still trying to figure out the front- I need to cover the bricks from the vent with something. But then it will stick out beyond the arch. So I guess I need to add to the arch a bit. Maybe I should cut the ends of some of the old red bricks I have and use them like a facing? I could do vermicrete out to the edge then. What do you all think?

I'm going to fill in to the edge of the floor bricks and tile that- I could sit the brick facing right on the tile.

[egalecki]

Re: Elizabeth's oven

Finally got the insulation finished. Boy did making the flat sides and rounded top make it look enormous! It also took a whole lot of vermiculite. I ran out and had to get more.

[sarah h]

Re: Elizabeth's oven

Gee, I turn my back for a few days and miss a mountain of stuff!
Great oven, great food! You (and just about everyone else) are putting me to shame in the cooking department but I actually cooked two chickens too, on Wednesday - just haven't had time to post a pic yet.
I'll look forward to seeing what you do next, whether it's more cooking or more exterior work.

Sarah

[mfiore]

Re: Elizabeth's oven

The pizza looks inspiring! Thanks for posting!

[egalecki]

Re: Elizabeth's oven

FIRST PIZZA!!!!

Well, actually it's the fifth one. I was busy feeding everyone else first, as usual. This is MY first pizza.

I know I was supposed to move the fire to one side, but all I have to do that with at the moment is my mortar mixing paddle (it has a long handle and it's metal and stiff enough, and I already have it!) and it isn't good for moving to one side. It pushes back ok, though. And it rakes coals forward- I did that once to recharge the floor. I need to work on heat regulation- I didn't have enough heat on top, I think- although I did have flames licking the roof (and indeed, trying to go up the vent...)

I didn't make any calzones, although one was close! I was using my old aluminum cushionaire cookie sheets for peels and to clean off the floor- a suitable use for a horrible excuse for a cookie sheet... Thank goodness we bought a big red suede mitt Sunday at Target, or I'd be missing all the hair on one arm!

It was so exciting to have all that work turn out really good pizza! (thanks for the dough recipe, Dave, it was great)

If you look inside the oven in the first picture, you can see the heat shimmer. Pretty cool.

[egalecki]

Re: Elizabeth's oven

First food! The chicken was wonderful- I had white wine and rosemary stuffed into the cans under the chicken, which was just salted and peppered. The vegetables had rosemary, olive oil, salt and pepper, and most of them came from my garden (except for the little potatoes). It all came out well- it took a little longer than an hour.

the kids were most impressed.

[Frances]

Re: Elizabeth's oven

Oh, cool fires by the way. Fun isn't it?

You know the oven's hot enough when the you count "OneMisoohOOUUUTCH!!"

[Frances]

Re: Elizabeth's oven

Actually I have this neat idea for reducing the smoke during the start up fires - I'll let you know more just as soon as I get round to making it...

About the coals, um, this is a bit of a dirty secret, but... officially I have an old metal rubbish bin to dump them in. And an old metal shovel thing to do it with. But what actually happens is, I push them to the back of the oven (still haven't got the hang of getting them to the side) bake pizzas, close the door and just leave them in there. I know its not so good for bread baking, but my bread seems to be turning out fine, so ...

The big advantage is, when I start my next fire theres a bunch of ready made coal in there to build it on. And I rarely have to clean my oven.

So that's what I do anyway. But don't tell anyone, ok?

[asudavew]

Re: Elizabeth's oven

Thanks, Dave- yes, my outer arch is higher. I was wondering about that making the smoke worse, but I could also very clearly see that when I had a good fire going, there wasn't much smoke at all anyway. I just need to work on my pyromaniac skills so I can get a good fire going quickly instead of smoking the neighborhood to death. (no complaints so far, but you never know..)

Yeah... I used to throw all my wood in at once. Small stuff on the bottom, then medium, then big... And then I would light the bottom. Gosh would it smoke up the neighborhood.

But lately I just start a small tiny fire. When it gets going, I add medium sticks, and work my way up from there. Much less smoke that way.

It's time to go home!! woohoo
So I'm out of here, but take some pics of that poultry!

[egalecki]

Re: Elizabeth's oven

Thanks, Dave- yes, my outer arch is higher. I was wondering about that making the smoke worse, but I could also very clearly see that when I had a good fire going, there wasn't much smoke at all anyway. I just need to work on my pyromaniac skills so I can get a good fire going quickly instead of smoking the neighborhood to death. (no complaints so far, but you never know..)