39" (100cm) Pompei Oven Build in Belgium

[Kvanbael]

I got so much information, confirmation and encouragements from this forum.
So I want to share some action photos, hoping to inspire someone else to start building.

Last weekend we made pizza and today was a bread-baking day.

[Petter]

Pieces of art! Both the oven and what comes out of it!

[UtahBeehiver]

Sure some nice looking bread.

[MarkJerling]

I got so much information, confirmation and encouragements from this forum.
So I want to share some action photos, hoping to inspire someone else to start building.

Last weekend we made pizza and today was a bread-baking day.

Lovely looking bread! Yum!

[JRPizza]

I'm really impressed with your bread pics, especially the interior of the loaf in post #47. I bake sourdough once a week but have not had luck using my WFO as I don't bake a big enough batch to get proper steam. If you get a chance please post your sourdough recipe and a description of how you bake it (eg, do you add water for steam). I know you would probably rather bake bread than post about it but any tips would be appreciated

[Kvanbael]

Sure think JRPizza, the recipe is hereby attached! (Not for beginners though).

To answer your immediate questions: 6 loafs and a tray of boiling water.

Surely that's a lot, but we cut them in parts, bag them up and put them in the freezer. We defrost in microwave to eat usually the same day. This works so well that even the bread we plan to have the morning-after sometimes gets frozen overnight.

[Kvanbael]

It's been almost two years since we completed the oven. Every 3 weeks at least we fire her up for a batch of sourdough loaves. These baking weekends have become a joyful routine. For your enjoyment, we combined footage from several of those weekends to document the entire process in an 8min video. I hope you enjoy. The fire starts at 4:00, but you don't want to miss the magic hands working the dough, belonging to my better half.

PS: I shared the video last week in another thread, but somehow it got overlooked. In the meantime it got English captions so I guess there's a good excuse to repost :-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7f45nL9vE8

[UtahBeehiver]

Kvanbael, Thanks for sharing, the sour dough looks really great!

[Sixto]

.

PS: I shared the video last week in another thread, but somehow it got overlooked. In the meantime it got English captions so I guess there's a good excuse to repost :-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7f45nL9vE8

Fantastic video, made me look at your build thread, and I really enjoyed hat too, I could have sworn the oven was a prebuilt unit, it looked so good on the video... now I'm even more impressed that it was DIY!!
Sixto - Minneapolis.

[Kvanbael]

Thanks Sixto. Well, that stainless steel entry was done by a professional. The rest is DIY indeed.

I have also been tracking your progress. Curious how you will approach the entry and flue.

[Sixto]

I'm wrestling with that question as I finish the dome. My oven may well be an example of how "thinking outside the box" can get me in trouble... I wish I had done it like you did with counter space on the side... The plan currently is to have the widest and tallest gallery I've seen (5" reveal) to give me room to lean into the gallery as I work the fire and pizzas... so the flue-gallery may be a brick vault with these interior dimensions: 27" wide, 16" tall (or taller) and 19" deep plus the slab below is another 8" deep. (27" from edge of slab to dome-arch, better than I thought previously) Quite a reach to the action in any case. I'm 6'-1", but not sure at all I will be happy with the contortions required to make this work... I may have to learn to cook with the fire at the back so I can reach and turn two pizzas closer to me, instead of my original plan of having the fire on the side.
oh well, live, learn, make mistakes, and maybe deal with that? Sounds like a motto I should adopt.
Sixto - Minneapolis

[david s]

I'm wrestling with that question as I finish the dome. My oven may well be an example of how "thinking outside the box" can get me in trouble... I wish I had done it like you did with counter space on the side... The plan currently is to have the widest and tallest gallery I've seen (5" reveal) to give me room to lean into the gallery as I work the fire and pizzas... so the flue-gallery may be a brick vault with these interior dimensions: 27" wide, 16" tall (or taller) and 19" deep plus the slab below is another 8" deep. (27" from edge of slab to dome-arch, better than I thought previously) Quite a reach to the action in any case. I'm 6'-1", but not sure at all I will be happy with the contortions required to make this work... I may have to learn to cook with the fire at the back so I can reach and turn two pizzas closer to me, instead of my original plan of having the fire on the side.
oh well, live, learn, make mistakes, and maybe deal with that? Sounds like a motto I should adopt.
Sixto - Minneapolis

I don't have a pic of it, but the large bakers oven in Pompeii has a very wide and tall gallery which, as you say would make working the oven far easier.

[MarkJerling]

It's been almost two years since we completed the oven. Every 3 weeks at least we fire her up for a batch of sourdough loaves. These baking weekends have become a joyful routine. For your enjoyment, we combined footage from several of those weekends to document the entire process in an 8min video. I hope you enjoy. The fire starts at 4:00, but you don't want to miss the magic hands working the dough, belonging to my better half.

PS: I shared the video last week in another thread, but somehow it got overlooked. In the meantime it got English captions so I guess there's a good excuse to repost :-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7f45nL9vE8

Great video! Beautiful bread.
I do enjoy reading your Dutch subtitles. I'm always amazed with how similar to Afrikaans Dutch is.

Kind regards,
Mark

[Mr. Slowhand]

It's been almost two years since we completed the oven. Every 3 weeks at least we fire her up for a batch of sourdough loaves. These baking weekends have become a joyful routine. For your enjoyment, we combined footage from several of those weekends to document the entire process in an 8min video. I hope you enjoy. The fire starts at 4:00, but you don't want to miss the magic hands working the dough, belonging to my better half.

PS: I shared the video last week in another thread, but somehow it got overlooked. In the meantime it got English captions so I guess there's a good excuse to repost :-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7f45nL9vE8

Hallo buurman,

A magnificent looking oven, congrats, and I love the countertops, looks really usable.
But, the diamond in this thread are your baking instructions and the video, loved it, hope to use it on my build soon!

Regards from Utrecht!

Marko