First firing

[cobblerdave]

Re: First firing

Gudday
A couple of handfulls of charcoal from an earlier fire in a tin chuck in a tablespoon shellite ( lighter fluid) shake and pour out dampened charcoal... burns like a champ!
Why shelite.. got sent the shelite instead of a special thinners by a supplier told me it was not worth while sending back. Original I read in forum used kerosene but a tablespoon at a time with 4ltrs to go a recon I got a few good fires and no kero smell

Regards Dave

[OscarA]

Re: First firing

I used one of these as I was having trouble lighting my oven

Weed Dragon Propane Torch Kit - All Natural Chemical Free Weed Control & More. The perfect weed burner for home and garden.

I bought it 6mths ago as an impulse buy after reading a few posters on this forum using them.

[OscarA]

Re: First firing

I have been drying my oven out slowly over the last few weeks mainly using heat beads. I've fired the oven up 3 times now with wood the last time being Friday night. I cooked a roast pork which turned out great except the crackling didn't crisp up which made my wife a little sad .
What I found was that after having the oven firing with a medium fire for about 2.5 hrs i had the floor ranging from 350c right next to the fire to about 220c near the entrance, walls were about 350c and top or dome around 450c.
I took most of the coals out and let the oven equalise a little then chucked the roast in. After two hours it was ready but the oven did cool down considerably. I didn't take a reading of the top of dome but the floor had a even temp of around 180c and the walls around 180-190c. So going by those readings the oven wasn't anywhere near full temp and more than likely still a little wet.
I'm finding the oven easy to lite now and if using dry small pieces of wood I get very little smoke. I also found once the fire is well lit not to throw to much wood in at once or she'll start to smoke so 2-3 pieces at a time.
I'm desperate to seal the dome but am holding back a little longer as I want at least 1 more good firing before doing so.
All up I've probably done 8 firings with head beads and 3 hotter firings with wood.

[david s]

Re: First firing

Oscar,
What you have described concurs exactly with my experience with new ovens. You will now find that every time you fire it (for three or four times) you will notice an improvement in performance, which indicates that it is still purging moisture.
Regarding the pork roast, did you allow it to come to room temp before placing in the oven? A roast will bring the oven temp down, so you can place it a little hotter than you would think. In the case of pork this higher temp also helps to raise the crackling. Also did you make lots of cuts in the skin and rub salt and oil into it? This helps raise the crackling too.
Try baking bread you will become addicted to it. It is so good. If I only want to cook a couple of loaves I give my oven one hour of flame (from cold) wait for the flames to die, then remove some coals or push them aside and throw the bread in. Works for me, doesn't take too much time and uses very little fuel. If you cook baguettes you can throw them in at much higher temps because the heat can penetrate to the centre of them easily.
Dave

[brickie in oz]

Re: First firing

I usually keep a fire going when I do a roast, it adds more flavour with the smoke.
Cover the meat with foil for half the cooking time then remove to crisp rotating the meat every so often, great for crackle.

[david s]

Re: First firing

When you say "keep a fire going" do you mean leaving the coals in or do you mean flame, ie door not in place.

[brickie in oz]

Re: First firing

When you say "keep a fire going" do you mean leaving the coals in or do you mean flame, ie door not in place.

Usually a small fire, it may die down to coals, if it does I usually get flames going to crackle.

I put fire bricks in front of the fire to temper a little if its too big, they are removed if it dies down.

You can see the bricks off to the side in the pic.

:-Edit you can see the firebricks in the second pic when I bakes some pides.

[OscarA]

Re: First firing

Oscar,
What you have described concurs exactly with my experience with new ovens. You will now find that every time you fire it (for three or four times) you will notice an improvement in performance, which indicates that it is still purging moisture.
Regarding the pork roast, did you allow it to come to room temp before placing in the oven? A roast will bring the oven temp down, so you can place it a little hotter than you would think. In the case of pork this higher temp also helps to raise the crackling. Also did you make lots of cuts in the skin and rub salt and oil into it?

Hi David, yeah i'm fairly sure my oven still needs moister purged and like you say with each firing I can see improvements. I'm doing another one today as I have a day off. I'm not sure what I'll cook probably pizza or maybe a few steaks over my tuscan grill. I'm keen on using it so that might be a goer.

My wife organised the pork which she bought from Woolworths just prior to cooking so it was cold but not overly. I asked her about the crackling and she says she did oil and salt it and it came pre cut so all good on that front. I believe the problem was the oven never had that initial higher heat that pork requires.

I usually keep a fire going when I do a roast, it adds more flavour with the smoke.
Cover the meat with foil for half the cooking time then remove to crisp rotating the meat every so often, great for crackle.

I'll give that a try I do like the smoke flavor.

Usually a small fire, it may die down to coals, if it does I usually get flames going to crackle.

I put fire bricks in front of the fire to temper a little if its too big, they are removed if it dies down.

I have some left over bricks so they now have a new use, thanks.

[david s]

Re: First firing

Oscar,
The characteristics of a WFO are perfect for pork, high heat to start and raise the crackling, then a slower rate to penetrate into the middle. We use a meat thermometer probe to test when it's done they are very good.

[david s]

Re: First firing

Never put the flame out by putting on the door. When you reopen it there is likely to be a dangerous reigniting.

[OscarA]

Re: First firing

Thanks guys some nice tips and I'm sure I wont mess the pork up next time. Cooking in the oven is a learning experience for me and when cooking the roast I was worried I might burn it which is why I waited a little until temps settled before putting it in. I se now that was a mistake.

I lit the oven up again yesterday and I can now say my oven is working around 90% it's just about there. I lit it around 1.30pm and started cooking pizza around 6.30pm so that's a good 5hrs of heating.
Yesterday was the first time I saw the dome clearing and was quite excited by it as I hadn't seen signs of it yet.
the temps at 6.30pm were floor 350c wall 450c and top of dome 550c+ I also got a reading OH over heat thermometer maxed out at 550c.
I did notice that the temps settle a little when the fire died down for example the top of dome settled to around 480-490c and floor around 300-320c.
I didn't get the 90sec pizza more like 5-7 min pizzas but quite frankly I prefer it as it gives me time to move it around and not burn it.

I also took readings of the outside dome. Outside brick wall of my home (a part that wasn't in the sun all day) was 22c. Oven, the side that didn't have the fire against it 25c the side with the fire 29c and top of oven 34c. You can see from these readings that some heat is escaping but I would be surprised if this wasn't normal. The oven had been on 7 hrs when these readings where taken and considering the internal temps are so high I was happy with it's performance.

I took a few pics which shows the dome clearing. All up I think it was about 70% cleared which is a huge improvement over previous firings.

[cobblerdave]

Re: First firing

Gudday Oscar
looks great your ....ovens getting there and the tuckers getting there! Pork roast are hard one... the temps needed to make the crack on the skin is much higher than what is needed to get a moist roast. The local sanger shop drops the pork in the deep fat fryer to get the crackle then in the oven to finish the roast. so crackle the skin in the first firings then drop the temp in the oven for the cook. Now that can be a few hours between so the roast has to sit in the fidge waiting.
We are all worried about smoking out the neighbours...if the wood you using smokes a bit when you replenish the flame put the next lot you'll need in the entance to the oven by the time you'll need it, it be good and toasty and ready to burst straight into flame with minimal smoke. This is especially good with less than dry wood.
With pizza cooking it important to have some flame in the oven when cooking so you need a couple of smaller pieces of wood in the corner burning say 2/3 the way up the dome. This does a number of things...gives you the smokness to the pizza, use your best smelling wood...gives you the burst of heat to puff up the pizza... and finally replenishes the heat to the hearth floor. you can the cook multiple pizza without draging the coals across the floor and waiting.
Hope you find somthing here that helps
regards Dave

[OscarA]

Re: First firing

Hi Dave, I'm lucky that my neighbors are great but I still worry and don't want to push it so I do my best to keep the smoke down. In a wet oven with less than perfectly dry wood it's not easy I have been doing what you say about keeping the wood next to the entrance to heat it up. I have also been using the residual heat in the drying process to help dry wood for the next firing. All up I'm happy with the progress. I can see how little smoke the oven will produce when fully dry and perfectly dry wood is fed into it which is a relief.
The less effect the oven has on the neighbors the more use it will get.

Thanks.. Oscar