jons
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Posts: 41
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Post by jons on Feb 16, 2019 23:25:02 GMT
Fired the oven up properly tonight to cook some pizza and then bread with the residual heat. Learnt quite a lot in the process. To get the oven hot enough for pizza requires almost constant attention. Didn’t have it hot enough at first but the second batch was better. Managed to get a loaf of bread cooked afterwards. The oven is still hot and I’m curious to see how much heat is retained overnight. Here’s a couple of shots from this evening’s cooking...
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Post by oblertone on Feb 17, 2019 10:54:18 GMT
Without flipping backwards to see, you really need an insulated door 'push-fit' between the oven chamber and the vent to conserve heat overnight. As an interim measure before I had my door made I just stacked bricks across the opening which worked to an extent. Although my oven opening was rectangular which helped.
The most fruitful part of building a wfo is now beginning as you'll learn how your oven reacts, how long it takes to cool and what you can do on that heat gradient.
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Post by simonh on Feb 17, 2019 11:43:17 GMT
The heat profile will change when then oven cures, and again with the weather. I can mostly leave mine, just returning every 30 minutes or so to top the wood up while it heats up to temp.
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jons
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Posts: 41
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Post by jons on Feb 18, 2019 11:45:16 GMT
Without flipping backwards to see, you really need an insulated door 'push-fit' between the oven chamber and the vent to conserve heat overnight. As an interim measure before I had my door made I just stacked bricks across the opening which worked to an extent. Although my oven opening was rectangular which helped. The most fruitful part of building a wfo is now beginning as you'll learn how your oven reacts, how long it takes to cool and what you can do on that heat gradient. The door supplied is insulated but the seal isn’t great. I may need to use some oven/fire rope. The door sits in front of the vent but I have fitted the flue with a damper. The oven stays hot for a good few hours but has cooled down to just warm by the morning. Takes between 45 and 60 minutes to get up to temperature which I’m happy with. Maintaining the temperature requires attention to the fire fairly frequently which is what I expected. As you say this is now a learning process which I’m looking forward to immensely. So far so good.
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Post by simonh on Feb 18, 2019 19:34:13 GMT
60 minutes to get up to temp? Lucky you, mine takes about 2-2.5 hours, though it is still over 140c 12-16 hours later.
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Post by oblertone on Feb 19, 2019 10:44:35 GMT
Likewise, I always light the fire 3hrs before I want to cook anything, and having grown accustomed to the foibles of my WFO I watch a particular spot on the entry arch to see when it goes 'soot free', then I know it is ready for garlic bread. Depending on your level of insulation a little gap around the door my not be a bad thing despite what the purists say. My door allows enough air flow to keep the fire just alight all night; you will of course need to fuel it up before putting the door on. In the morning I clear the embers which brings it down to bread making temp (220c), after that it's perfect for a long slow roast at <200c.
ps - I always do a couple of bases spread with garlic butter to take the sting out of the oven floor before any pizza. Try two blocks of Feta, chopped up and sprinkled with chilli oil and flakes in a fireproof dish placed just inside the entry. Marvellous when spooned on to the garlic bread.
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Post by truckcab79 on Feb 19, 2019 17:32:07 GMT
Looks like you’re already getting plenty of use out if it. Have to say I’ve only done pizzas in mine thus far. This year I need to get more adventurous with it.
As far as the time to cooking temp is, yours is in line with mine. An hour is plenty to get it hot enough to have cleared the dome.
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jons
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Posts: 41
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Post by jons on Feb 20, 2019 8:24:53 GMT
Looks like you’re already getting plenty of use out if it. Have to say I’ve only done pizzas in mine thus far. This year I need to get more adventurous with it. As far as the time to cooking temp is, yours is in line with mine. An hour is plenty to get it hot enough to have cleared the dome. A lot of my motivation came from pizzaovenchef and mannafromdevon on youtube. Check them out if you haven’t already... really good oven / food short videos
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jons
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Posts: 41
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Post by jons on Feb 24, 2019 22:23:18 GMT
Seems dry enough now so painted the oven over the weekend. A couple cracks have appeared in the render radiating from the flue. I’ve filled before painting. I’ll keep an eye on things but suspect that the area around the flue is going to need the most maintenance because of the temperatures it can get to.
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