D105 Pre-Cut brick kit build in Tassie

[Steady]

Funny you should say that - Man versus food is on as I type.....

[Steady]

6th curing fire today 29th Aug.

When I pulled the tarp off this morning there was no condensation inside the oven or on either side of the steel door. There was just a tiny bit in one spot on the outside of the dome where the tarp was touching. Previously the outside had quite a bit. The weather is ok and I should be able to keep a decent size fire going for 6-8 hours today and again tomorrow. Following Gulfs advice I have put a row of bricks across the enterance to try and get more heat in the floor. I have chicken wings marinating in the fridge following cobblerdave's recipie above. Lamb roast defrosting for tomorrow.

Happy days

[Steady]

7th curing fire 30th Aug

8am this morning the oven was sitting at 150 deg C at the top of the dome and 120 on the floor. I lit a small fire and left it small until 2.30 pm.
I put the tarp on about 9pm last night to keep the dew off - 12 hours into a fairly hot burn - the outside and supporting slab was no more than 10 deg c above ambient. This morning when I pulled the tarp off the under side of the supporting slab was 55 deg in places and I have a few extra cracks in the out side insulating render and on the outside edge of the supporting slab. I had a good look around the inside with a torch and cannot see any internal cracks.

I kept a small fire going all day and cooked some pizza at a low temp (approx 260 floor - 320 dome) and finished with a roast leg of lamb with veggies for dinner

Yesterdays chicken wings were a hit. I only had regular plain flour for the pizza dough, I mixed it Saturday and left it in the fridge overnight - it was ok but I need to get myself organised and find some 00

I think I will be away with work a bit over the next 2-3 weeks so it may sit for awhile before my next fire - hopefully the remaining moisture will wick into the now dry substrate and I can drive a little more out next time.

Photos tomorrow

[Wozza]

So good when there is actually food in the oven. Only my second curing fire today and not much over 100 but I put in last nights left overs to warm up and warm was all it got, but goddam, I'm using the oven. Maybe Dave's chicken wings sometime soon.

[Steady]

Some photos from the weekend - Saturday, the brick wall across opening to help get some heat into the floor

[Steady]

French dressing chicken wings

[Steady]

First attempt at pizza- all 3 tasted wonderful - garlic n cheese, a version of margarita and the margarita with some ham.
The oven was not hot enough and I didn't use the right flour but man were they good - happy days

[Steady]

I cleared the dome today and cooked some good pizza :-)

I have photos to post later but essentially I got some strong flour and mixed it 2 days ago and left it in the fridge until this afternoon and then divided it up into 7 x 250g portions, gave it a quick knead and left it for a few hours to prove before using it. I was very happy with the crust. The one issue I seemed to have was getting the pizza off the peel in the oven - I had no trouble making a mess - mini bocconcini seems to be made in a ball just to roll off and burn on the oven floor .....

[PizzaCharlie]

Is your peel metal or wood?
I got both but find the pizza slips off the wood peel much better than the metal.

Make sure you dust your peel with flour or semolina.

[UtahBeehiver]

+ 1 on the wood peel for loading, metal for turning and unloading.

[Steady]

At the moment I only have an aluminium one - I was dusting it with flour but I think it conducts heat so quickly that it made the pizza stick. I will see if I can find a timber one

[cobblerdave]

G'day
If all else fails and it does stick lift the edge and blow underneath to loosen then keep shaking till its in the oven.
Make a wood one. 10 mm ply short handle rounded edges are only needed once in the oven move around with your metal one.
Regards Dave
Ps I like rice flour it doesn't burn and give you pizza a black bitter crust on the base.

[Steady]

Work has kept me away from my oven and this forum - time to catch up with some photos from the 5th September

[Steady]

More photos from the 5th

[Wozza]

+2 on the wooden peel. I bought 4 cheap and cheerful ones for the pizza party on the weekend. People made them directly on the peels in the kitchen (get that rolling pin away from my dough!) and rotated them out to the oven. One comes out, into the oven it goes, peel back to the kitchen, use the aluminium peel for turning and fine tuning and then onto a plate and the next wooden peel is ready and waiting.

Only problem was lack of experience of any of the helpers in getting anything like a decent pizza shape (like I'm an expert!) and the thickness varied from paper thin to 'who-ordered-the-focaccia?' Each pizza was named after the outline of the country it most resembled. Had quite a few Africas, a couple of Australias (yours look vaguely Australian, Steady) and even one Cuba. Shamefully that was mine but I plead at least half a dozen Coopers in my defence. Luckily no map of Tasmania.

Realised after we'd finished that I hadn't taken one damn picture. Ah well - next time when I'm a little less stressed...