BA's Dome! Let the games Begin!

[smuth10]

Re: BA's Dome! Let the games Begin!

Bill, I am glad you put this out there. I would also like to use my oven to smoke a lot of food and I was curious to how this was going to work out. Sounds pretty straight forward to me. Have you done anything larger, like a pork shoulder or ribs? Did you soak the larger wood first? I am assuming you would just need to throw small pieces of wood on the fire from time to time to keep the smoke going for those extra hours. I just need to get my hands a good smoking rack.

I am also thinking about pouring a concrete top for mine so I am curious to see your results. Please keep us updated with details on this.

Thanks, Scott...

[Bandrasco]

Re: BA's Dome! Let the games Begin!

Thanks Scot,

I've made ribs a few times and they've come out great. I just got the oven to a nice temp of about 350-400, placed the water try/drip pan in place, set up the rack, placed the ribs on the rack and let it go. I'm still experimenting but what I've found is that these ovens are very forgiving. I don't know if what I'm dong is correct or not but I judge my cooking like I judge wine. If I like the way it tastes then it's good. I've had ribs on for a few hours and some for 4-5 hours; all came out super fantastic!

I haven't soaked the wood as once you place the door on it cuts down the oxygen supply down enough that it causes a tremendous amount of smoke. At least with the wood I've been able to get my hands on which has been just oak. I haven't tried anything more flavorful yet but I'm waiting to find a good suppler. So far the oak has been awesome. I normally have a pile of coals the size of a half of a basket ball then place a few fresh sticks on the pile once I've moved it over to the side. It smokes for hours and doesn't get too hot. The oven hold the temp so well I really don't mess with it too much. I take a temp reading on the arch fire brick (the inside arch) and if it drops below like 300 I open the door for a few minutes to get the coals to flare up and then shut it for the remainder of the cooking. I haven't had to put more wood on yet since there's been plenty of smoke and coals. The smoke penetrates so deep it's amazing. I'm guessing it's due to the high moisture content and intense amount of smoke but I'm no expert so who knows.

Thanks again and I'll post some pics of the top once I get to it.

[Les]

Re: BA's Dome! Let the games Begin!

Bill,

Do you close your door tight or keep it cracked open a bit?

[exceloven]

Re: BA's Dome! Let the games Begin!

Bill,
I too have slow cooked ribs and pork shoulder and they turn out perfect. You are soooo right about the ovens being forgiving. I can put a pork shoulder in for 6 hrs or 9 hrs and its turns out just as good.
I really want to start using smoke, but I here's the problem I have run into. I usually smoke my meat about 225 degrees. When my oven gets to that temp (second day) there is not enough heat to smolder the soaked wood chunks I put in. So, the meat falls off the bone but no smoke flavor, which is really the most important part. IMO. Any thoughts?

Mark

[Bandrasco]

Re: BA's Dome! Let the games Begin!

Bill,

Do you close your door tight or keep it cracked open a bit?

Hi Les,

My door is not an official door really. It's medium gage stainless steel plate that I cut out to use until I actually make a door, after I actually make a counter top . So, I push it up against the bricks but it has gaps so technically it allows air to enter which I'm sure is why the coals keep burning... I'm embarrassed to post a picture of it, it was at one time the drip pan to an old grill I had. I hate to throw out stainless steel ya know? It works good for this kind of cooking. I also have a door made out of 1.25" soapstone. It sits flush and tight. It absorbs a lot of heat during firing as I place it back about 4". Once to temp I can put it in place, then my stainless steel door and it will retain heat for a very long time. One day I'll make an insulated door....

Thanks Les,

[Bandrasco]

Re: BA's Dome! Let the games Begin!

Bill,
When my oven gets to that temp (second day) there is not enough heat to smolder the soaked wood chunks I put in. So, the meat falls off the bone but no smoke flavor, which is really the most important part. IMO. Any thoughts?

Mark

Hi Mark,

As I said, I'm no expert but every time I've smoked in this oven the meat has fallen off the bone. I don't get the oven too hot. In fact I just get a good fire going; just enough to have the oven at around 300f wall temp and then shove the fire over to one side. When the drip pan goes in with water it starts to steam in about 5 minutes. The racks are about 4" of the floor and are directly over the water tray. When I hit the meat with the infrared thermo to get a reading it's around 185-220f, the water tray is around 200-220f. the smoke is so thick and man o man does it get into the meat. I'll post a picture of my set up but don't laugh; it's not FB worthy yet.

Thanks Mark,

Bill

[MetalHead]

Re: BA's Dome! Let the games Begin!

Great Thread !! More front to back reading.... I was planning a place on my patio for a smoker, but after reading this thread I think I'll test my skills with the oven first.

I was thinking of jcg31 outer glass door with vents.

http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f9/glass-door-view-5169.html?highlight=glass+door

You could make a "Smoker" door with these kind of vents on the inner most door. Say one vent on top and one vent on bottom that are adjustable like on a cheap square grill. Then you could throttle the fire in the oven to get temp and smoke.


Would also be a good way to "pause" your oven without killing the fire. Just pull the "Smoker" door back off and poof fire returns full blast.

[Bandrasco]

Re: BA's Dome! Let the games Begin!

Great idea Metalhead.

I've toyed with the door idea a bit and haven't decided what to do. I'd ultimately like to make a door like JC's but that's very low on the priority list.

I'm approaching my one year anniversary with the oven and it has out performed all of my expectations. My only reason for not using it as much as I'd like is the cost of wood. I am absolutely amazed/disgusted at how much it costs for good dry wood; heck, even bad wet wood. I need to find a place where I can take my son, truck, and chain saw and cut up a bunch of wood for the winter months. Last year I went through 2 full cords of wood. I could have almost build another oven for the price I had to pay.

Thanks for the tip on the door. I think I might tinker with that a bit today.

Take care,

[MetalHead]

Re: BA's Dome! Let the games Begin!

Yeah I can see all of us WFO folks hopin for bad weather and we then run around the city with a chain saw picking up down wood off the side of the road.

Rain is killing me today!!! It rained like crazy - filled up my big wheelbarrow overnite!!! Maybe I can squeeze in a few hours!!!

[RTflorida]

Re: BA's Dome! Let the games Begin!

Bill, check your private messages in regards to wood. I'm sure it is still there...I can even run down and check if you are interested.

RT

[Bandrasco]

Re: BA's Dome! Let the games Begin!

After rave reviews on the turkey cooked in the pizza oven last Christmas I decided to cook two for this Thanksgiving. I cooked the traditional honkin bird in the kitchen oven that came out fantastic , and then I smoked one on the pizza oven. I still cannot believe how easy it is to cook in the pizza oven. It doesn't matter what it is it always comes out better than expected.

I started the fire around 830am, had a good roaring fire for a few hours and just when the top of the dome started to self clean I knocked the inferno down, pulled the larger logs out and left a nice pile of embers/coals glowing. The temp averaged around 650f. After I moved the coals to the left side I let the oven rest for about 40 minutes so it could adjust itself to an even temp all the way around. Then I placed a 15lb bird resting on a roasting tray with foil covering the entire surface along with an inch of water in it to the back right side. I placed another water tray in the center of the oven with about 2" in it. (Glad I built the larger oven). After that I simply tossed a few handfuls of Publix bought hickory chunks 'DRY' on the pile of coals, place my ugly stainless steel door in front of the opening leaving just about 1/2" gap on the bottom right of the doorway. Within seconds moist thick smoke was billowing out of the door and chimney. I opened the door up after 1 hour, pulled the bird out, filled both trays up with water, tossed another pile of chunks on the bed of coals and shut the door. 2 hours later I uncovered the bird. Surprisingly the bird was already caramelized from the smoke and looked incredible but the bird was just at 150f. One hour later it was done and the bird came out. It looked like it was over cooked but that was just the smoke on the skin/surface. After pulling the skin off (too smokey/spicy for me) I started carving and man o man was it awesome! the smoke had penetrated so deep it was a third way through the breast. The meat was falling apart, and had the best flavor. My family has already requested that the large Christmas bird is from the pizza oven .

Here are a few shots.

Ready to get started.

Fire burning nicely.

Now that's a fire!

Hard to see but the smoke is super thick.

[Bandrasco]

Re: BA's Dome! Let the games Begin!

[ATTACH]16109[/ATTACH] Smoke is going strong.

[ATTACH]16110[/ATTACH] Tried to show it swirling up the chimney.

[ATTACH]16111[/ATTACH] This was the larger one in the oven. I love the drumstick!

[ATTACH]16112[/ATTACH] She ain't pretty but there were hardly any left overs! The meat was so tender; at first glance you'd think this would have been dry. Next time I'm not going to heat up the oven as much and try a lower temp/longer cooking. I think if I get it around 400f and then keep the coals going like I did I could maintain a 250-300f oven for a longer period. I'm also going to try one without any smoke; just retained heat.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

[Dino_Pizza]

Re: BA's Dome! Let the games Begin!

Hey Bill,
That smoked bird looks so good! Thanks for showing us how to do it. You make it look easy.
Did you have any issues with the smoke from the heat-up wood vs the hickory you added later? I mean, how much smoke did you get from your oven coals? Did you pull out most that was unburned and left mostly red embers? My one attempt at smoking came out with the not-so-pleasant, strong, you can taste the blackness, smokiness.
Sounds like you had one of those great Florida-warm thanksgivings. Glad to see enjoying your beautiful oven. Cheers, Dino

[mfiore]

Re: BA's Dome! Let the games Begin!

Looks Great! I didn't realize you could get that much smokiness with meat covered in foil. I thought it had to be exposed.

Thanks for posting.

[Bandrasco]

Re: BA's Dome! Let the games Begin!

Hey Dino, thanks! I mainly use red oak to heat and cook in my oven. The smoke it produces I actually like better than hickory but it may be on the spicy side for some.

After I got the oven hot enough I pulled out the large logs. If you look at the pictures of the wood stack before I got started you'll see the ones I am referring to. They're huge. I had a pile of embers about 10-15" wide, 20" deep, and 5-7" high along with many end pcs of smaller logs that weren't totally burned. I have talked to a few guys who got their oven too hot and when they put the chips on the coals and shut the door the heat immediately incinerated the chips giving off a very unpleasant taste. They said it tasted like they cooked with some sort of pine...? I've had that happen to dry oak after the dome is white; anything you send in turns to flaming gas immediately so maybe thats what happened .

BTW, you can see in the pictures my attempt to create an old world countertop. I used concrete with multiple pigments, aggregate, shells, etc. Not so bad but I'll probably change it at some point.

We had a cold Thanksgiving. It was 50f when I went out and barely got into the 70's. Yikes!

Thanks again; I'll be cooking another bird in 25 days!