A new Folly at Full Moon Farm-- build thread

[rwiegand]

Slowly climbing up the learning curve. This side is looking a lot less "rustic" (though the intent was for it to look rustic, there are limits!). Lessons for today are 1) lay out a lot more stone to choose from, and 2) be more aggressive about trimming off odd bits that throw the courses way out of line or leave big gaps that can't be matched.

[rwiegand]

At long last another work day sandwiched among the vacations and family visits. (plus a fair amount of dithering while I worried about not knowing how to do this)

So today I began applying the stone veneer to the base, it will also cover the upper part of the house. Not perfect, but not as bad as I feared. I started on the back side, which pretty much no one will ever see, now I have a much better idea of how the process goes and what to be vigilant for in the layout. The actual application is simple, the trick and the artistry comes in picking through the pallet of rocks to find the ones that will fit together harmoniously. (My harmony is a little out of tune!)

I really want this project to be done done before the snow flies! Only one more vacation trip planned between now and then, just hoping for some more lovely fall days like today.

[UtahBeehiver]

It seems that once the ovens can cook pizzas, the finish work on the project comes to a halt........LOL. Congrats on you guys first pizzas.

[shanxk8]

Congrats on the first pizza! We actually did it first pizza tonight as well. It was long wait but worth it.

Will get to posting my photos later after I have time to shrink them for the forum.

[Gulf]

Congratulations on the first pizza. I'm glad that you are also using the retained heat for some "food"!

[rwiegand]

First Pizza Report!

Well I probably jumped the gun a bit, but I couldn't wait any longer. Floor temp was a bare 650, the walls and dome were 800+. I used a lower hydration dough (60%) than I do in my inside oven (67%), which hits 500 on a good day. The pizzas took ~3-1/2 min to cook. The dough poofed up nicely and was crisp on the bottom and a nice light brown when it came out. My only real objection was that there was a pool of liquid in the middle of the pizza that made everything soggy after a couple of minutes.

I didn't use quite my standard ingredients, I splurged on mozzarella di bufala for this special occasion, but it came packed in brine and was very wet. I also used some mushrooms on the pizza which also add moisture. Tomatoes were DOP San Marzano by Afeltra, courtesy of a gift from a friend via Eataly. I usually use Strianese DOP San Marzanos. The Afeltras actually seemed as though they had more solids.

I've had similarly wet pies in Italy frequently (is that the intended outcome?), and have it sometimes in my inside oven if I put too much tomato on. Is it just too much of too many wet ingredients? Will cooking hotter and shorter be better or worse for this? I try to be pretty sparing with my sauce, you can still see the dough through the sauce-- I used about half of a 400 g can to make three 10-12" pizzas, so ~ 67 g or a little over 2 oz of tomatoes per pizza. My grandmother used to just take a piece of cut tomato and rub it over the bread, so perhaps a visible amount is too much!

Next time I'll go back to the ingredients I have more experience with and see how they work out. The crust was better than anything I've done inside, so that's a good start. I'm sure it will get better with practice!

I'm going to put a Caribbean-spiced pork shoulder in the oven overnight once it has cooled down some.

[WarEagle90]

Wow, that is some nice looking rock. I am quite envious of your access to that kind of stone . Your going to have a helluva nice oven when complete.

[rwiegand]

The sides will be "New England Ledge stone" veneer (real stone, not concrete). I've also got thicker green slate slabs to sit on the small ledge around the building and make an apron on the front.

[WarEagle90]

I like the accent row in the slate. Won't be long now. I bet you can already smell those pizzas cooking. You have probably stated this previously but I am too lazy to go back and look .... what are you going to put on the sides of the enclosure and hearth stand? I am trying to decide whether to enclose mine or not. I will put a roof over it at a minimum but a full enclosure would be a lot easier for me than trying to render the dome in something that looks good. I'm just having a hard time convincing myself to enclose all that hard work

[rwiegand]

Roof going on today. I really like it! A few conniptions from getting the flashing bent and soldered, but I think it will work out.

I've also been continuing with conditioning fires. Temps have been pushing up to 650+, the dome almost cleared after a few hours the with the last fire. I'm perilously close to being able to make a pizza.

[rwiegand]

The great thing about being retired is that every day is Saturday!

I left the electric heater in the oven while we went to VT, the temp was up to 275 last night when we got back. Ready to switch over to burning some wood now I think.

The slate mission was a total success, pictures to follow. Tomorrow's task is going to be sourcing some copper flashing and drip edge.

[WarEagle90]

I almost forgot you were building an oven. I got caught up with the picture of your shop That looks to be one fine place to spend a Saturday afternoon or even a whole weekend. The oven looks great and the enclosure is coming along nicely. The slate roof will be a nice finishing touch to the build.

[rwiegand]

At this point I'd love to finish one oven, much less four! I'm now in dread that someone will ask me to make one for them and I'll have to tell them that even at minimum wage I'd have to charge $25K!

[fox]

looks great!
I like to start off the drying process with BBQ bricketts suspended on a cake cooling tray or similar to keep the coals off the floor.
If I am around all day, I will keep that going all day and then start adding sticks on top of the coals to get a bit of flame on the second day.
Third day I just use wood.
I might be over cautious but it takes me around a week of fires before I have built the fires up too one hour with a big fire.
Then the next day I am ready to max out with a two hour fire.
Good luck.
My first oven build (I have built four) has only one hairline 6” crack after around 60-70 fires.

[rwiegand]

Electric heater seems to be doing its thing-- the oven was a uniform 165 deg last night, this morning it is 175. I'm liking that the dome and floor all are within a degree of each other. I just hope the heater doesn't decide to melt! I'm hoping this will bake a lot of the water out. Thought about using a gas burner, but they produce a ton of water as they burn, and that seemed as though it might be counterproductive inside the oven.