Pizza Oven Utensils

[lamby]

The oven construction is well underway,
Starting to think about what utensils I'll need, peel etc. There are some kits on flebay but what are you guys using, what are the must haves?
Cheers
Lamby

[ducky]

Welding gauntlets are a must have for me. If you need to put your hands inside the oven you'll need them. At £3 a pair It's a no brainer!

[oblertone]

Big peel for putting stuff in, small (round) peel for turning pizza, some sort of brush or mop for cleaning the hearth; and a bit of iron for fire management. I use a piece of roofing iron, 3' long with a right angle to a 6" blade, 'tis a most useful thing.

Edit: Apparently the correct name is a Roofing Strap as sold by Jewsons 

[chas]

A bit of straightened fencing wire 18" long, loop handle at one end, short right-angle hook at the other. If you have one of those stand-up s/s oven thermometers, you can push it into the oven centre with the roofing strap and hook it with the wire to get it out of the way.

Chas

[cannyfradock]

Lamby

I have a slightly different set-up as I give Clay oven building courses, and oven management in a pre-built, pre-fired oven is the second part of my course where a dozen students get to bake 1 or 2 pizzas each in rapid succession but the principles are still the same.....

A wooden pizza paddle is a must for me for forming the dough base on. I recently bought half a dozen from "WHAT" at £3.99 each. IKEA also do them at about £5.99?.....in the large supermarkets they normally sell just the Jamie Oliver range.....at silly prices. Also on-line prices are often £15 upwards. I then hold the ready made pizza on the pizza paddle in my left hand (I'm right handed) and with my right hand shuffle it onto a short handled pizza peel for ease in placing it in the oven. (I then set a digital timer for 50 seconds)...when this bleeps I start turning the pizza with a long handled 9" pizza peel. When the pizza has been turned (between 90 secs and 2 mins....it's time to take it out.

I use a long handled 12" pizza peel to move my embers around. This is one I've come across a solely use it with coals/wood.

A grid is another to think about.....like an old fashioned cast iron fire-grid to keep your embers to one side. It is also handy to be able to toss the occasional log behind it to keep that flickering flame going when baking pizzas. Reclamation yards usually have tens of dozens of these at fair prices.

A thermal probe built into your dome....or even the oven door will be an asset when baking bread. You can get thermal surface lazer guns on line for about £15 quid.....and are brilliant to see the actual temp of the oven floor and dome....but will only give a reading of surface temp.

Terry

[yorkshire]

Terry, what or where is "what"?

Thanks

Adam

[cobblerdave]

G'day
I don't use a brush in the hot oven for a number of reasons.
Natural bristle brushes burn and don't have a long life at all.
Metal brushes are dangerous as it only takes one bristle to come lose and get in a pizza. The results would not be good.
To clear the oven floor of ash I use the large metal peel. And slap it down on the hot hearth floor the ash get lifted and the hot gases from the fire take it up the chimney. Do that twice with a pause in between and the floors clean
Regards dave

[ducky]

I use a length of 15mm copper pipe to blow air into the fire if it needs it either during lighting or if I have let it die down too much before adding another log. I also use it to blow ash off the oven floor once I've pushed the fire to the back. Like with cobblerdave's method, the ash then goes out the chimney on the thermals.

[ducky]

No one has mentioned a bottle opener. It's thirsty work cooking in a wood oven! Definitely a must have item!