39" Pompei build in NH

[ML38]

Joe,

Thanks for the input. How often do you give your oven a cleaning burn? My oven also clears on the left faster than the right. Interesting for sure

[Gulf]

Fairly often actually. It all depends on what temperature that I am shooting far the next day or evening. With the example above, sometimes I will go out a few hours later and close the door completely. That will allow the oven to burn all the char out and still keep the heat in for hotter cooks like bread. If I am shooting for a ham or roast for Sunday dinner (dinner is the noon meal down here) about 350 degrees I will leave the door cracked all night.However, the only time that I go to the extent of placing the the levee across the entry is after long periods not firing or after extremely wet or or humid conditions.

[ML38]

If I am shooting for a ham or roast for Sunday dinner (dinner is the noon meal down here) about 350 degrees I will leave the door cracked all night..

I hope to improve my heat retention but I don't think I'll ever get to that level. If I cracked my door open all night, I'd expect barely 200 the next day. Never tried it. I button up the oven an hour or so after my last pizza with just a few hot coals left and the oven is only 350 the next afternoon. If it never improves, I'd be fine. I don't expect many times that I'll want 3 days of cooking on one firing. I think I still have some dampness though after all the rain we've had. Not to mention its getting cold at night now. I'll have to save these experiments for next summer.

[JRPizza]

That's a fine looking door you made, not to mention the brick work on the oven
Two thoughts on your heat retention - first, how is your door constructed? Do you have enough insulation that you can use it when the oven is blazing hot? Also, if I just cook pizza and close off my oven I see temps like you do. If I fire it back up and heat soak it good, I am around 500F in the morning, and can cook a bunch of chickens in under an hour, then pork ribs or roast either later in the day or the next morning when I'm still in the low 300's. If I just fire the oven enough to burn off all the soot, the bricks still aren't heated all the way through and the temp drops off a couple of hundred degrees pretty fast as the oven equalizes.

[Gulf]

I think that your heat retention is just fine based on what you are doing. Not very long after this pic was taken is what I mean by letting the fire burn down to just glowing embers . After clearing the dome, cooking pizza, and leaving the door completely open for about an hour and a half, the oven has drawn in a lot of cooling draft air imo. And you never know, the more that I play with my oven, the more I want to learn about heat retention and shooting for certain temps hours/days ahead of the cook. Aside from the family bakes, I heat my oven for possible emergencies. In the summer and fall, I heat it prior to tropical storms and hurricanes. Just in case the power goes out. In the winter, if a freezing rain is predicted, I heat it for the same reasons.

[ML38]

Joe, JRPizza,

Thanks for all the great info. Saves me a lot of experimentation for sure. I'm definitely building an exterior door to keep out rain, snow, etc during the winter and to install ahead of storms.

JR, my door has approximately 1 1/2" of ceramic blanket between the sheet metal and the oak boards. The handles only go into the wood and a little into the insulation but does not reach the sheet metal. I do have 4 or 5 screws attaching the sheet metal to the wood along the sides. The hottest I've had the oven when I put the door on is about 525F and the wood in front ended up a little over 100F about an hour later. I'm wondering if the insulation might be compacted between the sheet metal and the wood and transferring heat more than it normally would?

Thanks again for all your help
Marc

[JRPizza]

If your door is not charring I'd say the insulation is doing it's job. I've put my door on when the oven was HOT and not had a problem cause it's all metal. That said, I think wooden exteriors may be superior as the wood provides some additional insulation and I think they may radiate less. I am planning on putting a wood veneer on mine one of these days.

[david s]

I use a wooden door with my ovens, because I like the look of them and they are traditional. Wood is also a far better insulator than any metal which is orders of magnitude greater in thermal conductivity. However a wooden door will char if left in place for prolonged time if the temperature exceeds 300C. 300C is generally way more than you require for baking or roasting. Italians used to soak their wooden doors in a bucket of water to help prevent charing. An insulating panel improves the situation, but if the oven floor is too hot then the contact with the bottom of the door is sufficient to burn the wood no matter how effective the insulating panel has been designed. What you can’t do is to place the door at pizza temperature in an effort to maintain oven temperature overnight.

[ML38]

david,

I bought a woodstove repair kit and used the rope around and under my door to create a better seal and so the wood will not rest on the brick. It's been working pretty well so far but I don't see the rope staying attached to the sheet metal long term. Already starting to come off. Need better glue I guess. The kit is designed to go in the channel around the perimeter of the woodstove door which is obviously not the case here.

As far as cooking goes, had a pizza party and cooked 19 pizzas over the weekend. was a little hectic but went really well. Need some practice maneuvering two pizzas at once in the oven though. Stuck to a single pizza most of the time.

Also, looks like my opportunity to put the finishing touches on the exterior will have to wait unless we get a warm spell in the next week or so. (see last pic).

[UtahBeehiver]

A word of caution, make sure the rope is food safe, in one of the pics you can see the fibers on the rope poking out that can break or shed off onto the cooking surface.

[ML38]

A word of caution, make sure the rope is food safe, in one of the pics you can see the fibers on the rope poking out that can break or shed off onto the cooking surface.

Thanks Russell. Hadn't really thought that through since the door isn't there when I'm cooking the pizza and when I cook in my cast iron dutch oven, it's not a concern either. I'll have to see what I can find to do the job.

[JRPizza]

I think the most food safe ones are made from nomex fiber. The product many folks on the forum use is made to replace gaskets in Green Egg type cookers.
Here is what the Nomex MSDS states:

Carcinogenicity Inds - NTP: NO
IARC: NO
OSHA: NO
Effects of Exposure: EYE: FIBER FLY AND DUST MAY CAUSE SLIGHT MECHANICAL IRRITATION. NOMEX AND KEVLAR ARE UNTESTED FOR EYE IRRITANCY.
SKIN: NEITHER NOMEX OR KEVLAR CAUSE SENSITIZATION (ALLERGIC REACTION) AND HAVE LITTLE POTENTIAL FOR SKIN IRRITAITON. CONTINUAL RUBBING OF FIBERS OR FIBER PIECES ON THE SKIN MAY CAUSE SKIN IRRITATION.
INGESTION: NOMEX AND KEVLAR ARE NONTOXIC WHEN EATEN.
INHALATION: NOMEX AND KEVLAR FIBERS ARE TOO BIG TO INHALE INTO THE LUNGS, BUT FIBER DUST AND FLY FROM PROCESSING MAY BE BREATHED INTO THE NOSE AND THROAT. WORKING UNPROTECTED IN DUSTY CONDITINS MAY CAUSE UPPER RESPIRATORY IRRITATION AN D COLD-LIKE SYMPTOMS.

[ML38]

Great! Thanks. Was just looking on the Green Egg website when this was posted. Guess I was on the right track.

[UtahBeehiver]

I am not trying to be a naysayer, just pointing out "possible" safety and health issues. Here is a link to Rutland's,(one of the major fiber gasket suppliers) addressing possible issues with various type of fiber gaskets. Take it for what it is worth.

BTW, after a couple large parties, you will figure out the sequence of cooking more than one pizza at a time. I normally will do two and sometimes three at a time, but three you really need to be on top of things or you end up with black pucks.........lol.

http://www.nakedwhiz.com/gasketsafety/rutlandgasketsafety.htm

[ML38]

I am not trying to be a naysayer, just pointing out "possible" safety and health issues. [/url]

Russell, I appreciate the comment and already bought a green egg replacement gasket. The one I have is already falling off and was wondering what I was going to do anyway.

I don't expect to be cooking for 30 people very often so I'll work on two at a time and be content with my skill set at that point.