36" Pompeii low-dome in Livermore, CA

[JRPizza]

Larry, nice looking pizza! If you don't mind me asking, what recipe are you using for your dough, and what approximate temps are you running on the floor when you are cooking the pies?

[Larry P]

For some inspiration, we're rolling in pies now. Still dialing everything in, but I'm better every time.

[Larry P]

I've been laying low for the past few weeks. The tile I wanted for my dome was special order, with 5-6 week lead time. Those are still at least a few weeks away, but I did spend some time this weekend, rendering a coat of SBC onto the walls of the stand. I'm still not 100% sure how I'm going to finish it - either field stone or a mix of stucco and fieldstone. I also have the problem that the rest of the outdoor kitchen will butt up against one side of the oven, so I can't finish the base yet. But anyway, the stucco coat on the base was another big step forward in aesthetics:

[Larry P]

Larry that pizza looks amazing! Cant wait to be able to cook in mine, still lots to do but your sharing on this forum encourages all of us.
thanks
Ivan.

Thanks!

Looks like my tile work will be on hold for a couple weeks due to needing to special order tiles. In the mean time, I'll finish rendering the walls on the stand, get some field stone for the stand, and probably another render coat on the dome.

In the mean time, here's a Pizza Margherita from last night:

[ivancito]

...and a pizza. This is our riff on the Bianco Rosa. Bianco's has red onions, rosemary, Parmigiano-Reggiano, evoo, and pistachios. We add mozzarella, and this time, beet greens, just because my wife was washing them at the time I topped the pizza. I wouldn't do the beet greens again. They turned bitter in the heat.

Larry that pizza looks amazing! Cant wait to be able to cook in mine, still lots to do but your sharing on this forum encourages all of us.
thanks
Ivan.

[JRPizza]

If you want to overkill it you can thru bolt like I did . I cut slots in the threaded end of the bolts so I could hold them while I torqued the nuts if they tried to spin, or to remove the plate at some future time if needed. I'm sure inserts are adequate and have been used by several builders, but I didn't want to risk splitting a brick with an expanding fastener, and I tend to overbuild sometimes. In hindsight removing the adapter isn't going to happen as it is locked in by the cap bricks, but I'm not worried about the fasteners working loose.

[Larry P]

Larry,

What did you use to attach the chimney anchor plate to the brick?

I have that same plate and am curious if the firebrick itself will support it or if I should place some anchors into the brick along with a mortar bead to join the brick with the plate.

Thanks.

I used 4 sleeve anchors specific for bricks, like these: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Red-Head-...0113/100190001 (be careful with the torque - it doesn't take much).

...and set it in this mortar: http://www.homedepot.com/p/DAP-10-1-...8854/205030320

Even so, the plate was still able to flex a little. If I was doing it over again, I might try to wedge it between some bricks like others have done. When I rendered the dome using Surface Bonding Cement (fiberglass reinforced) I continued to build the cement over the plate which you can see in my latest pics. It's very solid now. We had 50mph winds last week and the 3' stack wasn't moving at all.

[Saluki]

Larry,

What did you use to attach the chimney anchor plate to the brick?

I have that same plate and am curious if the firebrick itself will support it or if I should place some anchors into the brick along with a mortar bead to join the brick with the plate.

Thanks.

[Larry P]

It's raining today so I'm off to Import Tile in Berkeley to start looking at tile. The only thing on my mind is, do I do another coat on the dome before starting to tile it? The shape could be smoother, but I'm not sure it matters once it's under tile.

[Larry P]

We've switched to cashews for pesto which are great. Walnuts are common too.

[JRPizza]

We were getting the big packs at Costco, but I'm not sure where they were coming from. My wife started using pistachio's too - they are great fired with some garlic and hot peppers.

[Larry P]

Makes me feel lucky all the pine nuts I have eaten in the past and never had a problem.

You and me both. For a while I had heard it was coming from Chinese pine nuts which are sold at Trader Joe's, and as long as you stick with Italian pine nuts you're ok, but now I think there's no evidence of that.

[JRPizza]

No - never use a pizza pan, unless I'm doing a Sicilian/Detroit style pizza. You're probably seeing the plate on which I set the pie, after pulling it out of the oven.

I think it was an optical illusion
Pine mouth is a new one to me - I had to google it. Makes me feel lucky all the pine nuts I have eaten in the past and never had a problem.

[Larry P]

All the hard work pays off, now the good eatins start. Like the pistachios, we use pine nuts so this is a different spin.

I like pine nuts too, but I'm leery of them after a friend came down with "pine mouth" which lasted for months. So now I avoid them unless they're from a source I really trust (which is pretty much nobody).

The idea for pistachios comes from Chris Bianco, one of his signature pies http://www.pizzeriabianco.com/

I should add we put on the pistachios near the end of cooking; otherwise they'd be little balls of charcoal.

[Larry P]

Larry, I just noticed you are using a pizza pan, do you cook all your pies that way?
PS, nice job on the stucco.

No - never use a pizza pan, unless I'm doing a Sicilian/Detroit style pizza. You're probably seeing the plate on which I set the pie, after pulling it out of the oven.