Author Topic: Wood Burning pizza oven (Read 80307 times)

pizzanapoletana · « **Reply #40 on:** June 29, 2005, 06:42:51 AM »

Giotto

Why are you saying that the floor need less temperature then the rest of the enclosure (dome??)?

A Neapolitan oven has a very low dome and therefore high "sky" temperature and needs a strong floor to balance that.

skitchmo

How is your building work progressing?

Any picture to share?

Ciao

giotto · « **Reply #41 on:** June 29, 2005, 07:00:32 AM »

pizzanapoletana

I've seen the variation here and I noticed the opposite variation in VPN temps (listed out at Forno Bravo) listed as:

- Cooking surface temperature: 485C about.

- Oven dome temperature: 430C about.

Good to know its not a problem with your design.

pizzanapoletana · « **Reply #42 on:** June 29, 2005, 04:51:58 PM »

Thnaks for clarifying.

I am quite sure that the listed temperature are not accurate.

Anyway, It is not my design, but it is the true neapolitan oven design as well as passed on since 1700's.

giotto · « **Reply #43 on:** June 29, 2005, 06:57:18 PM »

Thank you for the correction. I had meant to give you the spec anyways. The numbers to give a uniform pizza in 60-90 seconds are under "5) Cooking." A cooking temperature is given (495C or 905F), and then the breakout I extracted: http://www.fornobravo.com/vera_pizza_napoletana/VPN_spec.html

pizzanapoletana · « **Reply #44 on:** June 29, 2005, 08:48:16 PM »

I know the document very well.

I was the one complaining to the Italian ministry to modify part of it and in fact they did and the latest version (in Italian) has been modified.

There are still few mistakes, however you need to understand that the document is meant to be a guideline not a recipe.

Ciao

skitchmo · « **Reply #45 on:** July 10, 2005, 10:43:44 AM »

Pizzanapoletana,
My work is progressing slowly since I am also doing a deck simultaneously. There is also this pesky problem of also working (so I can afford to by concrete, firebricks etc). Here is a pic of the excavation:
(http://)
I have finally come to terms (designwise) for your specs on vent size and would like to post a picture of my "mock up" soon or your review, if you wouldn't mind. Thanks,
Skitchmo

giotto · « **Reply #46 on:** July 19, 2005, 10:41:25 PM »

Nice job on the site! Very easy to navigate with clear efficiency in mind when reviewing products and other topics.

I noticed the smoke stack in the back... I was under the impression it was to be near the front. What is the weight of the mobile design and availability/approx cost for the states?

brazilian pizza · « **Reply #47 on:** July 23, 2005, 04:38:09 PM »

Dear pizzanapoletana

I m going to build a pizza oven in my house and your draw oppened my eyes.
I d like to know if can i build my oven using only reflatory concrete like the casa oven.

tks.

Brazilian pizza

brazilian pizza · « **Reply #48 on:** July 24, 2005, 03:16:45 PM »

OK.

i m not sure if my bricks will resist high temperature. i got it easily, but i realy don t know.
What about granite bricks? it s possibile? I got some of 20cmX10cmX5cm.
at least. can i use any kind of clay bricks or only reflactory? help me please.
I m in doubt cause i got a lot of option in my city.

tks :D

Lithium · « **Reply #49 on:** August 11, 2005, 09:51:26 PM »

Hello all,
Well I wish I found this site earlier, you all have a lot of good information here. If any of you have the time, I would like some advice on my wood burining pizza oven. I recently completed a wood burring pizza/bread oven based on the “The Bread Builders Book” which was very useful. The oven works great under certain circumstances, but I am having a few problems, which you all can shed some light on. First, here is an overview of my oven, with pictures and the build process: http://www.lithiums.com/pizza/index.html . Any comments on design flaws that you see form the picture would be useful before I build my next one. You can see I am not a skilled mason, but it was a great learning process and it is very strong, just not pretty.

The oven works great if I can get a nice strong fire to stay burning for several hours, and when I start cooking, the first few pizzas are nice and crisp on the bottom and cook in 2-3 minutes, but then hearth starts cooling off relatively quickly (from 800deg to about 400deg) when the fire dies down. I feel my biggest problem is the moisture in the wood, and not being able to maintain a small fire in the back while I am cooking, (I think because of the moisture from living in Florida?). Because of this, I am thinking about using charcoal for maybe it is easier to keep burning and to move around, or is it toxic in an oven like this. Would this work or is it a bad idea, or do I just need to buy properly seasoned/dry fire wood instead of chopping my own wood? Anyway, if anyone has tips on how to best heat an oven like this for ~2 hour cooking sessions, please let me know because I am currently having to re-establish a large fire for several minutes in between pizzas to re-heat the bottom. I am confused because as the pictures show, I have a large amount of thermal mass and insulation. Thanks.

~Shea~

Bill/SFNM · « **Reply #50 on:** August 12, 2005, 12:00:43 AM »

Lithium,

In my experience, you need to keep a nice fire burning throughout the cooking process, not just to maintain the temp of the brick, but also to radiate heat onto the top of the pie so that the whole thing is done as quickly as possible. Oxygen can be in short supply causing the fire to smolder. I refuel with a few small pieces of log rather than a single larger one. A fire off to one side rather than in the back may burn better.

Sometimes all a smoldering fire needs is a flame to reignite it. I use a propane torch (aka cactus burner) to throw some flames onto smoldering wood and that does the trick in an second or two. You'll be able to bake pies all day long if you maintain a small fire after the oven gets up to baking temps.

Hope this helps.

Bill/SFNM

Randy · « **Reply #51 on:** August 12, 2005, 07:35:45 AM »

I was looking at your website and noticed in one of the pictures of the fire in the oven a board half burned. I don't know what type of wood the is but a word of caution about using soft wood like pine.

Randy

Lithium · « **Reply #52 on:** August 12, 2005, 07:53:17 PM »

Thanks for the input. So it sounds like small pieces of properly seasoned/dried hard wood is my best bet. What about charcoal, will that work at all?

~Shea~

pizzanapoletana · « **Reply #53 on:** August 13, 2005, 04:10:28 AM »

I would not use characoal.

If you read this post from the beginning, you will have all your answers on the design flawn and why not using charcoal.

Ciao

piroshok · « **Reply #54 on:** August 20, 2005, 08:15:27 AM »

In the past I have had a clay oven and had refractary brick as floor the rest of the brick just normal construction brick and I did cooked the most wonderful pizzas and suckling pigs
I've come across a site showing similar ovens here http://www.pasqualinonet.com.ar/El%20horno%20de%20barro.htm
You may need to translate this pages for details

ToddZ · « **Reply #55 on:** August 28, 2005, 12:23:07 PM »

just Googled to your exchange on this topic...good stuff!

I am going to build one of these and was wondering if anyone had any plans, specs, or procedures that would help guide me through?

There's some good info througout your posts, but, was hoping to get a little more of a step by step...

Thx

Lithium · « **Reply #56 on:** August 28, 2005, 09:09:27 PM »

I put some pdfs of partial plans on my page that I used, but I mostly used the Bread Builders Book you can get on Amazon as talked about above.

http://www.lithiums.com/pizza/index.html

BTW, I now fully appreciate the difference in properly dried wood. I heated the oven last week with better fire wood, and even after the fire went out, I could cook pizza for hours, and bread up to 10 hours after the fire went out!

~Shea~

pizzanapoletana · « **Reply #57 on:** August 30, 2005, 08:23:48 AM »

What I call pizza should only be cooked in the neapolitan style oven described earlier in this post, for 45-90 seconds, with a full flame. Cooking a pizza after the fire has run out means having a different finish product.

One last note:

The picture posted by me earlier in this thread are of an oven built by someone that had never laid a brick before.

Repguy · « **Reply #58 on:** August 31, 2005, 09:50:28 AM »

You should look at buying a pre-fab oven. They have more thermal mass, more head space and state of the art ceramic, stone technology than the had built ovens that won't hold temp during times of high production. I have seen many places that have hand built ovens and their pies don't look so good. As a matter of fact at the ny pizza show last year, caputo didn't even bring an oven because they know it won't hold up. They cooked in one of the pre fab ovens that was there and were making really nice pies.

pizzanapoletana · « **Reply #59 on:** August 31, 2005, 04:18:05 PM »

I can judge a pizza cooked by a fellow pizzaiolo to see if the "not looking good pizza" is due to him or to the oven. So to answer your question I have never cooked a pizza in a woodstone, but I have seen several pizza coming out of it with some expert pizzaioli behind the peels (including STrada in UK). That oven cannot produce a Neapolitan pizza and that is what make me an expert.

Now looks at the pizza baked in Naples or mine baked in London and compare them to any pre-fab or coal oven... no context.

More head space is a fault in neapolitan pizza production...

The ovens in Naples work from 10.00 am to midnight at full regime and never loose temperature. between 1200 and 1500 hours and 1900 and 2300 these ovens work at a regime of 200 plus pizza an hour, and you tell me they do not hold up the temperature?

Finally, Caputo could not bring an oven inside the Show, because the fire wood was not allowed as it was a close space, and they did not have a flue system.

Just to clarify my poiunt to you, as probably you may get me wrong:

I am talking about authentic Pizza Napoletana production at all the time of my comment on the ovens. If any on this forum needs a different oven to produce any other form of pizza/focaccia, then they can consider all other option.

Author Topic: Wood Burning pizza oven (Read 80307 times)

piroshok