Bill's Northwest Pizza Oven

[bbell]

Re: Bill's Northwest Pizza Oven

Not a lot of progress recently just a lot of head scratching. It's amazing the little things that can slow you down.I was going to put on a scatch coat in preparation of adding the stone to the walls. I realized I should put some wood up to cover beneath the eaves first as I'll be bringing the scratch coat all the way up to the eave. Need to first figure out what lights I'm going to use, install them, pre-cut a hole in the eave trim first, before installing the trim... Anyway, need to go get lights!

In the mean time, a crowd was scheduled to come on by last night so off with the tarps and fire lit. I'll post a couple of the pics but the rest can be found following the link below.

It was a blast and way too much food!

[jrparks]

Re: Bill's Northwest Pizza Oven

Bill,
I should have eaten lunch before viewing your pictures. I now hungry!
Looks like it is going to be a great NW weekend for construction and cooking. I've been shopping for ingredients all week (8lbs of cheese at PFI) and going to make first pizzas this tomorrow!
Cheers,

[bbell]

Re: Bill's Northwest Pizza Oven

John,

Did you find the Caputo 00 at PFI as well? Great stuff.

I realized with the 8 - 10 pizzas we baked that it's the hearth temp that makes all the difference. If pizzas are the main fare than next time I'll leave the fire across the floor until we're ready to make pizza then clear it off to the side. As it was, since I cooked most of the other dishes prior to the pizza, the hearth needed to be re-heated by dragging the coals and fire to the center for a while then baking the pizzas. And cranking up the fire as well.

This AM the oven was still 425 degress and the temporary plywood door is about toast. Literally.

Enjoy!

[Dino_Pizza]

Re: Bill's Northwest Pizza Oven

Wow Bill, I see salmon, chicken in a pot, muscles and oh...was that Pizza too? It all looked seriously awesome! You can build and cook! Yours was the second post I've read this week about coals accross the oven floor affecting the temps of the pizza or food. Interesting stuff you learn when you actually start the cooking process. Thanks for sharing the great photos of the food.
Cheers, Dino

[bbell]

Re: Bill's Northwest Pizza Oven

Thanks Dino,

The cooking was lots of fun.

Here's the link to the rest of the dishes. I even forgot lamb skewers and heads of garlic that I wa going to cook as well. Next time....

Picasa Web Albums - Bill - Oven Cooking

[geisen]

Re: Bill's Northwest Pizza Oven

Bill
Did you have to soak the plank for the salmon?
Greg

[bbell]

Re: Bill's Northwest Pizza Oven

Greg,

Yes, I soaked the plank for about an hour.

[bbell]

Re: Bill's Northwest Pizza Oven

Once you're able to start cooking in the oven it makes it less important to actually finish the rest of it. Lots of fun cooking in it but it's time to get back to building it. After a long hiatus I started adding the rock exterior. The weather cooperated and the sun came out. Winter might be over...

Here's a couple of shots of the growing stone facade.

[bbell]

Re: Bill's Northwest Pizza Oven

I'll try the photos again....

[Calabrese]

Re: Bill's Northwest Pizza Oven

Hey,Bill
The rock exterior and the pizza oven look great! More importantly it looks like your having a blast with your oven. I just went through all your photos and they were all great to look at, Thank You. All those dishes look amazing, although you forgot to mention which kind of wine goes with which dish?

Regards Joe
Mississauga, Canada

[mfiore]

Re: Bill's Northwest Pizza Oven

Bill's in the Northwest. Must have been some elegant Pinot Noir from Willamette Valley.

I, too, just went through your thread and photo blog. Thanks for posting the detailed photos of the framework. Looks great. It's been bookmarked and will be referenced frequently.

[exceloven]

Re: Bill's Northwest Pizza Oven

Bill,
I couldn't agree with you more. Once I started cooking it just wasn't as urgent to work as hard on finishing it. The procrastinator in me! I've got a few things done but still have to do my stone veneer also. The cooking has been as fun as the building. Your stone looks really good. Keep going!

Mark

[bbell]

Re: Bill's Northwest Pizza Oven

Thanks Mike and Mark.

Most of the framing was copied from other builders on this site. Extremely helpful!

As to the wine - I am so open to all of it....

[Dino_Pizza]

Re: Bill's Northwest Pizza Oven

Bill, nice look with stone exterior. It looks really cool. I assume you are going to go all the way up with the stone as opposed to stopping at the "waist" and changing materials as some do?

BTW: I was looking over your steel stud framing pics and I'd like to know how you fastened your steel base plate to the cement oven base. (or is that part of your oven base something else besides concrete & block?) Thanks, Dino

[bbell]

Re: Bill's Northwest Pizza Oven

Thanks Dino. I used tap cons to connect the base plate to the cement pad. Had the same question and Les had the answer... as usual.

Stone will go all the way to the top and there will be some sort of shelf across the front.

You're almost ready to cook. Looks great.