Author Topic: Neapolitan Style in a Mobile Turtle Oven (Read 3489 times)

acbova · « **on:** November 03, 2012, 11:05:33 PM »

I just got my first wood burning oven which happens to also be mobile. It's from Turtlerock Masonry Heat. http://www.turtlerockheat.com/bakeovens/mobile.php I decided that I would start out seeing how close I could get to a Neapolitan Style pizza. Like TXCraig my oven has a large amount of mass so a large warm up time would seem to be called for to achieve what I am setting out to do. I thought I would try to use Craig's methods as well substituting IDY for natural leavening since mine has not been fed in months.

Sandy got in the way of oven delivery and in fact I had to retrieve it so my first attempts were with dough that was 2 extra days old and the oven was not up to temp at all having heated it for only 4 hours from a stone cold state. I only made a few pizzas and had lots of dough left over.

My second attempt was 2 days later. I took my leftover dough added new flour in roughly the same proportions mixed bulked and re-balled.

The oven was still at about 300F before I started heating it. I got it to 400F with 1/2 white ceiling. I did not time my bakes but I think they were all above 2 min.

I think next time I need more heat, so I will move Pizza night to Saturday when I can preheat the oven for much longer.

acbova · « **Reply #1 on:** November 03, 2012, 11:08:08 PM »

more pics

fornographer · « **Reply #2 on:** November 04, 2012, 05:45:12 AM »

Wow! I didn't think it was possible to build a mobile Alan Scott style oven. That is some serious thermal mass. What is its heat retention profile?

acbova · « **Reply #3 on:** November 04, 2012, 09:09:34 AM »

I've not charted it but it holds heat very well. Today it says 300F.

I'm hopeful that when I get it up to temp I can have a smaller blazing fire in the back/side and cook pizzas. As it is I was happy to discover that I did not have to turn the pizza as much as I have in other ovens. Hopefully as I get the oven hotter I will have the same experience cooking pizzas.

TXCraig1 · « **Reply #4 on:** November 04, 2012, 12:21:22 PM »

Nice set-up. Watching the video was interesting. The oven construction is not what I expected from looking at the outside. I'm excited to see what you can do with it as you take the temperature up.

Craig

acbova · « **Reply #5 on:** November 18, 2012, 09:22:50 PM »

Second Party

Flour (100%):    2039.68 g | 71.95 oz | 4.5 lbs
Water (58%):    1183.02 g | 41.73 oz | 2.61 lbs
IDY (0.025%):     0.51 g | 0.02 oz | 0 lbs | 0.17 tsp | 0.06 tbsp
Salt (3%):     61.19 g | 2.16 oz | 0.13 lbs | 6 tbsp | 0.37 cups
Total (161.025%):   3284.4 g | 115.85 oz | 7.24 lbs | TF = N/A
Single Ball:   234.6 g | 8.28 oz | 0.52 lbs

I hand mixed this and bulk fermented for about 22 hours in the cooler in the garage. I then balled and put outside at 40F(?) for 17 hours then inside for 2 hours. I heated the oven for 8 hours more or less as the fire went out during church. I made pizza out in the garage and had the oven on the grass. My boys turned the several pizzas and my younger kids helped with prep.

The gauge deep in the masonry got to 700F and my bake times were around 4 min.

I think I should have had the dough balls inside all the time there was no puffy rim. I also think I need to heat longer still and pay more attention to the fire during pizza. I made 14 pizzas, for 18 people. I got up to 2 pizzas in the oven at a time.

While working on the rust I could not resist a little profile picture.

Chicago Bob · « **Reply #6 on:** November 18, 2012, 09:34:17 PM »

You gonna get a HOT shoe up there acbova!

Great pic man!

acbova · « **Reply #7 on:** November 18, 2012, 09:41:00 PM »

Ha! Still... I was curious and the roof around the stack pipe is a little hot but that's it.

Tscarborough · « **Reply #8 on:** November 18, 2012, 09:56:21 PM »

That, my friend, is a serious oven. Do you have another trailer you tow behind to bring the wood or do you just park it next to a forest? Kidding. After reading the builders website, I can appreciate exactly what they are doing and what you have bought. Very nice.

acbova · « **Reply #9 on:** November 21, 2012, 10:00:38 AM »

So feedback is that I did not have a big enough fire. Last night I preheated for tonight. I think I got enough fire this time.

Ev · « **Reply #10 on:** November 21, 2012, 10:06:14 AM »

Nice!

Chicago Bob · « **Reply #11 on:** November 21, 2012, 12:43:10 PM »

Quote from: acbova on November 21, 2012, 10:00:38 AM

So feedback is that I did not have a big enough fire. Last night I preheated for tonight. I think I got enough fire this time.

Now THAT one you can't walk on top of acbova!

Look forward to seeing the pies you bake tonight...have fun.

acbova · « **Reply #12 on:** November 23, 2012, 09:11:44 PM »

Well the pre-Thanksgiving pizzas were better but still not great so I'm going to skip them. Instead we decided to have a party to avoid black Friday.

The dough was 65% and maybe 68%. I was making dough in the middle of Thanksgiving prep so I got a little confused. Which is bad because it turned out pretty good I thought.

It was my first road trip, as Thanksgiving was at my brothers.

The oven was pretty hot as I heated it up for 4 hours. Pizza was sticking as at first we let it cook till it had a bit of color on top on one side but by then it was burnt to the floor. Turning faster seemed to resolve that.

acbova · « **Reply #13 on:** November 23, 2012, 09:57:30 PM »

TXCraig1 · « **Reply #14 on:** November 23, 2012, 10:23:16 PM »

Looks like great pies and a great time.

thezaman · « **Reply #15 on:** November 25, 2012, 06:45:14 PM »

nice looking pies! a question, could you bank your fire on the side of the oven? you would be able to take advantage of your rounded dome, and be able to see the how the part of the pie facing the oven is cooking.i like your kitchen setup a lot!!

dellavecchia · « **Reply #16 on:** November 25, 2012, 07:41:03 PM »

Now you are getting somewhere. I would suggest you either make bigger pies or reduce the dough ball size to reduce the heaviness and large outer crust. Great job though.

John

acbova · « **Reply #17 on:** November 25, 2012, 10:25:23 PM »

John, good eye. Most of these were 250 grams a step up from the 230 I had been making. Maybe I need to step down a bit or all the way to 230. I thought I needed bigger dough since to make stretching easier but another twist is that this was the first time I made pizza during the day, and it was an amazingly nice day. If I had the smaller dough balls I may have had an easier time of it.

Chicago Bob · « **Reply #18 on:** November 25, 2012, 10:32:27 PM »

Maybe try opening a 'lil colder temp. dough ball acbova....

Bob

acbova · « **Reply #19 on:** November 25, 2012, 10:35:24 PM »

I had thought about moving the fire more to one side. I was thinking at an angle wider in the back then the front taking 1/2 the wall. But I never thought of the benefit to see the pizza side closer to the fire. I shall see about that. I might get more even temps, but I was thinking at some point in the future I may want to have a slower side of the oven, but I still might get that with the side fire.

Tony