Firing a pomeii oven

[petew]

Hi,

I recently inherited a pompeii style oven and have been enjoying using it but I'm not getting as good results as I do from my Uuni. The hearth gets up to the high 300s, but I struggle to keep it there, or get it to hit 400C. Sometimes I find toppings are cooked but the dough isn't quite cooked through.

Eventually I want to add additional insulation to the dome and possibly rebuild a thicker base, but I need to wait until I've built my outdoor kitchen before I do that.

So for now my question is how is best to fire the oven in its current state. There's a number of variables I'm not quite sure about:

• Do you build your fire in the centre where you plan for your pizza to go?
• Do you move the fire to the back? To the side? Both?
• My chimney has an adjustable vent - how open should this be?
• Should the door be open, closed, or somewhere inbetween..?
• Should the flames be roaring when you're cooking, or should you just be down to embers?

Cheers

Pete

[awalker]

Jun 12, 2017 21:28:38 GMT petew said:

Hi,

I recently inherited a pompeii style oven and have been enjoying using it but I'm not getting as good results as I do from my Uuni. The hearth gets up to the high 300s, but I struggle to keep it there, or get it to hit 400C. Sometimes I find toppings are cooked but the dough isn't quite cooked through.

Eventually I want to add additional insulation to the dome and possibly rebuild a thicker base, but I need to wait until I've built my outdoor kitchen before I do that.

So for now my question is how is best to fire the oven in its current state. There's a number of variables I'm not quite sure about:

• Do you build your fire in the centre where you plan for your pizza to go?
• Do you move the fire to the back? To the side? Both?
• My chimney has an adjustable vent - how open should this be?
• Should the door be open, closed, or somewhere inbetween..?
• Should the flames be roaring when you're cooking, or should you just be down to embers?

Cheers

Pete

Will try to answer them all.

Build fire in centre where pizza will go maximum heat in base of pizza then.

Move your fire to on side other or back and keep it going.

Chimney vent fully open

Door open to get maximum air intake

Keep the flames roaring but don't overdo it just top up as required to keep the dome temp up.

If it still does not work. Try moving fire to other side and put pizza on where fire just was. Repeat for each next pizza. So you always have maximum heat under the pizza base.

Could be your uninsulated base is sucking all the heat away.

Good luck

[downunderdave]

Jun 12, 2017 21:28:38 GMT petew said:

Hi,

I recently inherited a pompeii style oven and have been enjoying using it but I'm not getting as good results as I do from my Uuni. The hearth gets up to the high 300s, but I struggle to keep it there, or get it to hit 400C. Sometimes I find toppings are cooked but the dough isn't quite cooked through.

Eventually I want to add additional insulation to the dome and possibly rebuild a thicker base, but I need to wait until I've built my outdoor kitchen before I do that.

So for now my question is how is best to fire the oven in its current state. There's a number of variables I'm not quite sure about:

• Do you build your fire in the centre where you plan for your pizza to go?
• Do you move the fire to the back? To the side? Both?
• My chimney has an adjustable vent - how open should this be?
• Should the door be open, closed, or somewhere inbetween..?
• Should the flames be roaring when you're cooking, or should you just be down to embers?

Cheers

Pete

It sounds like your under floor insulation is either damp or non existent. If damp keep firing and it will improve. If nonexistent remove floor bricks and add insulation.