Polito oven build in Melbourne

[david s]

I buy from Bidvest and have found them pretty hassle free. After trying a number of different brands I now use Lettiza bases which are easily the best I've tried. For a party greater than about 40 I prefer to use par cooked frozen bases. They are not quite as good as freshly made base, but make life easier if you have a lot to do and I always get compliments about them.

https://www.lettiza.co.au

I also buy my Allied Mills pizza flour from Bidvest too, way cheaper than 00 flour from the supermarket.

[Kkcache]

Just one thing I'd like to share as well. I've had mixed results on pizza dough (dead yeast on first attempt and others have been ok'ish). Still working on it. I did however try the frozen dough disks from Sugo Tu (which I bought from Costco) and they were quite good. At $15 for 4 dough balls its not a sustainable solution. However, I bought a box of their "food Service" carton which has 40 frozen dough balls from Bidvest, at a cost of $44. At $1.10 each ball, I now have 40 sitting in my freezer ready to be thawed out if people come over. I figure it's convenient.

I thought I would share. I think they are in QLD if anyone is up there so you can buy direct - setting up an account with Bidvest was bit of a journey.

[Kkcache]

I'm in Melbourne so I went to Melbourne Fire Brick company and bought them. They are from Slow Food and Hand Forged. Great products I have to say.

I also bought a smaller Pizza turner which I also put a handle on (it was only 700mm long - but at $17 I was not going to argue). I also made a pan hook as well as I plan on cooking roasts as well as pizza - I bought the s/steel rod for $10, had it bent up for $20 and put a handle on it for $10. It's a cheap way of getting the same result.

The peel from Slow food and hand forged is the round one so it work really well to turn pizza's as well. The small one ir really nimble though and can also work when stoking the fire or moving the fire around as well.

[Steady]

The photos look good Kkcache - are the oven tools from slowfoodandhandforgedtools.com.au? if so any comments? if not where?

[Kkcache]

[Kkcache]

First cook done. Great experience but bad yeast. Hahaha. Will try again this weekend. Here are the photos of my final oven and stand.

[Steady]

The photos on your last 2 posts are not displaying for me Kkcache.
Good luck with and enjoy your first cook

[Kkcache]

[Kkcache]

[Kkcache]

Not as yet. I've been curing it and finalise the outside of it. This weekend I expect to cook food. It is performs really well in terms of heat retention and getting to temp really well though without the need for a lot of wood. Very efficient.

[Steady]

Your oven looks good Kkcache, have you been able to cook anything in it yet?

[Kkcache]

[Kkcache]

I have cured the oven over a week with great results. I also discovered a trait of my oven; it gets quite hot around the manifold and just behind the arch. In fact, with the oven Rabin at 500+ deg Celsius the outside of the oven next to the manifold gets to 120 degrees C. With the oven at 400 degrees, the same area was around 90 degrees.

So I made the decision to add a layer of perlite render approx 20-30 mm thick. Hopefully it should help substantially.

I have now also rendered the whole oven with acrylic render ready for texture coat and it looks fantastic.

I also discovered that the only texture coat that is rated up to 90 degrees is Dulux Acratex. That's next.

[Kkcache]

The flue is. I don't believe the manifold is though. It should be fine as its under cover

[david s]

I hope it's made of stainless steel.