anything but pizza...

[bookemdanno]

To whom that may be able to help...

Up until last evening i've only had raging pyromancers fires, at full chat, to rip out pizzas in super quick time, and one overnight "Burned" Boston Beans, which i must say was still amazing!

Last evening i attempted a Beer Can Chook.
Fired up "Pele" my oven, and left her for an hour to consume the wood i loaded. After an hour i had 350c odd, but still more fuel left.
Panicking due to the hungry family converging on the raw chook, sitting astride a can of beer I pulled out all the burning wood, waited and then put the bird in. Closing the door to a wonderful sizzle...
I'll confess, that my oven hasn't had much use this far and probably still suffering from winter damp, so the heat bled out rather quickly for only an hours firing, resulting in an almost cooked chook after an hour and a quarter and 150c remaining.
I'll confess to my sins........



I had to finish it off indoors!

I'm thinking that my still damp oven, is partially to blame for heat loss, and my early relationship with Pele in temperate cooking, but after my little story, my question is this...

When you've done a Beer Can Chook, or any other form of quick fired roast, did you, or can you advocate some form of fire still burning within the oven and simply position the offerings in the best place, monitoring occasionally, and leave the door open?

I was thinking that, i could chuck in the chook, and come back after a while to a done bird, but maybe i needed a longer burn to soak the oven with more heat for that method.
With a faster cook required, keep the heat source going?

I just need a pointer, as all our ovens have different characters, but i'm sure work to a similar theory.
Thanks y'all...

[minesamojito]

I almost never use a door for a roast or beer can, just keep the fire ticking over, you'd need a longer soak to keep the temp up for longer and shut the door, mines a couple of hours to do this.
Cheers
Marcus

[Gaelceltic]

I'm hardly an expert and still experimenting, but I have done quite a few chickens with beer bottles lately, as it's been very popular with friends and neighbours, and folk keep saying they had heard all about it and would love to try it.

I have the fire going for a good hour to an hour and a half, then push all the coals to the back of the oven. I usually do a couple of small chickens, a tray of baked or potatoes for roasting, and a couple of trays of veg for roasting. Takes about an hour, with the door closed and chimney lid on. (My oven is a typical Cypriot kleftico oven and is quite big). Larger chicken take about an hour and a half.
Forgot to say that this is using the upside down fire method, which definitely heats up the oven, or mine anyway, a whole lot quicker.

I had a similar disaster to you, but for a different reason. Too much wood was put on the fire initially, and too much smoke, resulting in an undercooked very smoky flavoured chicken. I ended up finishing it in my halogen oven.

[jwyno]

I always keep a small fire going at the back of my oven. Like the others, i push the wood to the back and then I drop in small logs to keep it going and have the beer can chicken as far from the fire as possible but no door.

I also poke 8-10 rashers of streaky bacon in the neck end of the chicken and drape this down the side of the bird as this partly protects the chook skin from burning but also self bastes the bird as well. The added bonus being you get some lovely crispy bacon to

If the fire does get bigger then if needed, i drop a bit of tinfoil over the chook but leave the sides open so the smoke can still flavour the bird so no loss of any smoky flavour.

So far....thumbs up from all who munch thereafter.

Good luck
James

[nixie]

I also failed to finish last nights lasagne in the WFO and too must confess my sin of finishing it off indoors

My problem I think was that this was the first fire after insulating and doing the outer layer so heat had not built up that well.

[rivergirl]

I sometimes brine mine overnight which does protect it from drying out . I also sometimes lift the skin and put sliced lemons or mushrooms etc between the skin and the meat. I had an amazing disaster with a tray of toms last year ! Cremated does not come close !!

[mannafromdevon]

Hi Bookemdanno,

different heat sources have different characteristics:

1. stored in in your oven material gives fantastically stable and even heat. It's great for roasting as long as there is enough heat stored to sustain temperature for the time it takes to roast your bird. Most ovens should do this easily once you figure out how long it takes to fire them up to the right level of stored energy. Once you got it at the right temperature and have taken the fire away you can put your bird in and leave it pretty much unattended.

2. Burning wood gives unstable and uneven heat. As it dies the temperature drops and the temperature inside the oven differes depending on distance from the fire/door. If roasting with the fire burning you'll need to be all over you chicken, covering and uncovering, turning upside down and end to end. This works fine for quick cooks like kebabs, burgers etc, but is stressful way to roast a chicken. Think of this as spit roasting, turning the bird almost constantly.

3. Glowing embers are fairly stable but uneven. You chicken will need turning at intervals. It's a good compromise if you don't need to fully fire up the oven which may be the case if you just want to roast a chicken. Fire up the oven well to start with to get some stored heat and burn off soot, this will give more stability.

2 and 3 will both provide some smokiness to your meat. 1 will not.
In all case the air temperature higher in the oven will be greater than the air temperature at the bottom. A chicken standing up on a beer can will experience significantly different temperatures top and bottom. I usually spatchcock chicken so it lies flat on one level.

have fun

David

[tonyb]

The lack of temperature control is a weakness of a wfo and one I've discussed on here before. There is a tendency to see wfos through somewhat rose-tinted glasses as the answer to a maiden's/cook's prayers. Want to cook pizza? A wfo is unbeatable. Want to grill food? As good as a standard bbq. Want to bake bread/roast/slow roast/dry food? All can be done in a wfo but to be guaranteed successful it must be done using mainly retained heat or retained heat plus some 'live' heat. For some of these tasks the reality is that a bbq/smoker/kitchen oven might be a better method if its more about the quality of the food rather than 'show'.

The key to good cooking with a wfo is to understand what a wfo is and how it works and to work with the wfo rather than against it.

Don't get me wrong I love my wfo and am always interested in getting more from it. I just think we wfo owners need to stand back occasionally and smell the coffee, (or maybe that should be smoke )

[bookemdanno]

I agree Tony, i love the "trial and error method" for most things, with cooking at the top of the list!
I initially thought about loads of Thermocouples in my oven, but then decided against it, as the basic "raw-ness" and feel was something i wanted more.
I just wanted to get some confirmation about my own theory, to try to avoid cremating too many free range chooks!
There's a lot of gained experience in this place.