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DIY wood fired pizza oven


oscarsdad
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12 hours ago, oscarsdad said:

yes, I am sure Italian would argue about authenticity. That one pictured was a first go with a simple dough. We will also be trying sourdough base as my wife has got really good at sourdough bread. Plus we need to experiment with different base thicknesses to get the balance of practicality (ie being able to get the pizza on and off the peel) and crispness.

Living where we do with all of the surrounding villages having Stilton creameries in them it’ll be a spicy fallow mince and Stilton pizza with home grown spinach I want to try! 

Re the peel- save yourself the effort and buy off amazon 3 or 4 pizza pans. The ones with holes in the bottom. Make the dough and put the bases on there. You'll be able to make as many as you need and have them ready to slam in 1 after the other. No launching pizza off peels required. Saves time and effort. 

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7 hours ago, GingerCat said:

Re the peel- save yourself the effort and buy off amazon 3 or 4 pizza pans. The ones with holes in the bottom. Make the dough and put the bases on there. You'll be able to make as many as you need and have them ready to slam in 1 after the other. No launching pizza off peels required. Saves time and effort. 

I agree it would be easier but would also mean that the pizzas are no longer in contact with the stone floor so not stone baked anymore. 

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2 hours ago, oscarsdad said:

I agree it would be easier but would also mean that the pizzas are no longer in contact with the stone floor so not stone baked anymore. 

Agree with you on this, I tried the pizza pan idea and found it was just not the same, ok for a roman style pizza but just does not work for Neapolitan style which is what the wood fired pizza oven is best at due to the high temperature.

I have two wooden peels which I use for launching pizzas, a light dusting of fine semolina is all that is needed to stop sticking. you can also have extra dough stretched out ready to go.

If I remember I will take plenty of photos and do a write up of the whole process I use for the food section next time I do pizzas.    

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I've not noticed the difference myself. Just an awful lot easier launching a pan into the oven than trying to launch one off the peel. Not such an issue if its just the 1 pizza but 3 or 4 and I find the pans a must and when I mention lighting it people come out of the woodwork to have one so it's normally 3 or 4 at least. They are about 1mm thick with holes in and the base is unaffected. I do like a thin base though and add olive oil so I guess I'm more roman than neopolitian in my pizza. 

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On 07/04/2021 at 07:41, oscarsdad said:

I agree it would be easier but would also mean that the pizzas are no longer in contact with the stone floor so not stone baked anymore. 

Just scatter a handful of polenta onto the peel before you put the dough on it and make your pizza.

They slide off easily and the polenta gives a nice texture on the base.

You dont want to be using pans when youve made a proper oven.

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3 hours ago, Pangolin said:

Just scatter a handful of polenta onto the peel before you put the dough on it and make your pizza.

They slide off easily and the polenta gives a nice texture on the base.

You dont want to be using pans when youve made a proper oven.

That's what we do ... with a number of peels to 'keep 'em coming' ....

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A354EC96-4664-4EDE-AE2A-33DFDB90F425.jpeg.8299a438c2bc9e7132f55322e7259d75.jpegSecond run today, pizzas were cooking in about 40 seconds....I think I perhaps had it a bit hot as my laser thermometer goes to 600C and it went higher than that and just said “high”! 

A slight hairline crack has developed as a result of such high temperatures and my lack of patience using it before it’s completely dried out but I don’t think it’ll be an issue. Will leave it now, render it and then leave it a good 6-8 weeks to thoroughly dry out. 
 

The chimney stainless has gone a cool colour so it was certainly hot as steel needs to be 423C to do that. At least I know the wooden base and the garden fence don’t catch fire now. I had a couple of logs in the mouth of the oven to warm, a good 15cm from the fire and they caught so got added earlier than planned which is why it got a bit too hot. 8387C87A-A4EF-42BF-9194-16991562228F.jpeg.1af41ebdb89f58e1fe8d4bafc3b186cc.jpeg

Cooked some pork and black pudding sausages in a cast iron skillet in there as pizza topping before putting pizzas in and they only took about 5min before being done ready to break up as a meaty topping. 
 

The wife had a lake of local Stilton on hers so I’ve got the mouthwash out for her before bedtime. 
F95E9731-161E-466A-926B-61639A19BAE1.jpeg.44ff983f2494550571e30278ef839b61.jpeg

Cant work out how to rotate images on iPad 😤

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17 minutes ago, GingerCat said:

Unless the render is 8 feet thick I don't think it will take 6-8 weeks. 1 should do or you'll miss the summer

 

Possibly, but I don’t think the concrete / perlite has completely dried yet as there is still moisture being driven out by the heat, if I render it and more moisture driven out it’ll crack the render. 

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57 minutes ago, GingerCat said:

You'll get little hairline cracks no matter how long you leave it. The pearlite should prevent 99.9% of the heat reaching the render. My pearlite is maybe 2.5 inches thick and rendered on top. I gave it a week. The render reaches 40.c when the fire is 1150.c

That’s good to know, the dome on mine is at least that thick, the crack isn’t severe and I think structurally ok especially with the chicken wire inside. The inside of the dome was well over 600C but can’t measure any higher than that, outside of the dome was 25C. There is definitely still some moisture in the concrete / perlite as there was condensation under the base where I have an air gap intentionally. We also have some smoke (and I think some steam still) escaping through the dome where it’s found a path through presumably tiny gaps between large perlite particles so I didn’t want that to blow the render off. 
 

Good to know though as means we don’t need to leave it as long before pizza again, just to let the render and paint dry. 

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  • 4 months later...

An up date on my pizza oven. I gave up on building with brick as the two types i had both fell apart when left in my multi fuel house stove, I eventually bought a kit from kilnlinings which seems to work well, I also moved the whole thing outside with the opening inside, beefed up the foundations and applied a thicker coat of fireproof render, this of course means the flue is now also outside, Initial results are pleasing although bread looks like it might be a bit more of a challenge. great fun though. Pizza was great !

537851944_IMG_0604(1).jpg.19f9189e14872e3349434691309d66bd.jpg  

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