How hot can a standard gas oven get?

[PapaJon]

Jon, we have members here who work with 2.5" vertical spaces, but I think it takes some practice to work in those kinds of quarters. If you can work with this comfortably, I think your top browning issues should be over.  You won't be able to do Neapolitan with your setup, but you'll be in good stead with all the other styles.

Scott, just to clarify you are referring to what appears to be my max temp right?

If that vertical space ends up being too cramped, I'd give another thought to putting the cordierite on kiln posts on the floor. The nice thing about kiln posts is that they make them in 1/4" increments so you can fine tune your vertical opening to your heart's content.

Yeah, that might be where I end up going.  That said, ignoring the ceiling (quarry tiles) and the gap between them and the cordierrite, how close do you think I can get the stone to the bottom of the oven and be ok?  The shortest kiln post I saw was 1/2".  My question stems down to shrinking the size of the oven in an oven as much as possible. If I'm able to go with very short kiln posts I could drop the quarry tile layer down another notch or two.

650 is a little too high with 1" cordierite and malted flour. I would go lower- 625, possibly even 600.

Would you happen to recall the bake times for these last set of pies?

Scott, you are hitting on what I've come to learn as being a difficult part of this set up.  What I am dealing with is an obviously inaccurate dial (550F = 650F and beyond), the thermal probe is located in the isolated upper region of the oven, and last but not least the nice thermal mass of the stone and tiles makes it difficult to accurately adjust the temp down to the desired range.  Thus part (not all,... definitely not all) of the contributing factor(s) behind my failed baguette attempt.

[PapaJon]

BTW, I got one of the flour samples today, and according to FedEx I will receive two more tomorrow.  Note the size...    

[scott123]

Scott, just to clarify you are referring to what appears to be my max temp right?

Jon, with the quarry tiles blocking the thermostat and your oven generally running a lot hotter than normal, I'm relatively certain, should you wish to take the risk, you could hit Neapolitan temps for the hearth.  With cordierite, that's probably around 750. But the ceiling, though... Neapolitan oven ceilings get very very hot and there's also a lot of heat coming off the burning wood to the side.  With the heat source on the bottom of the oven and the cordierite hearth in the way, I'd be surprised if your quarry tile ceiling hits the same temp as the hearth below.

I don't know, maybe you could crank the hearth to 750, bake the pie for about a minute and then, with a metal peel, lift it up a fraction of an inch and 'dome it' against the ceiling. I think that's a bit of a long shot, though.

That said, ignoring the ceiling (quarry tiles) and the gap between them and the cordierrite, how close do you think I can get the stone to the bottom of the oven and be ok?

I think that the closer you bring the hearth to the heat source the quicker it's going to pre-heat, which, in turn, might give you a larger discrepancy between the ceiling and the hearth.  You could, in theory, pre-heat the oven until the hearth is a bit above the target temp and then turn the oven off, allowing the heat to travel upward to the ceiling.

What I am dealing with is an obviously inaccurate dial (550F = 650F and beyond), the thermal probe is located in the isolated upper region of the oven, and last but not least the nice thermal mass of the stone and tiles makes it difficult to accurately adjust the temp down to the desired range.

Your oven was a bit wacky to begin with.  Now that you've block out the thermostat with the quarry tile ceiling, the thermostat is completely useless.  I think it's pretty safe to assume that when you turn your oven on, the bottom burner will stay on for a very long time.  You should be able, with some trial and error, to let the clock do the work for you.  Turn the oven on, wait 20 minutes and then take temps of the bottom of the hearth, top of the hearth, quarry tiles, as well as the oven ceiling. Try 30 minutes. 40 minutes. 50 minutes. You may need to turn the oven on for a while and then off for a bit, so the ceiling can draw some heat from the hearth. There will be a magical number of minutes of either oven on, off or both that gives you that perfect pizza baking temp.

Bear in mind that opening the door to take temperatures will allow heat to escape, so, if, say, you hit the target temp at 50 minutes after opening the door at 20, 30, and 40, you should probably try 40 minutes with the door shut the entire time.

[PapaJon]

Thanks for all the answers Scott.  I'm thinking I may unhook the probe (easily done) and see about poking it through a gap in the quarry tile ceiling.  The whole timing the oven thing might have worked for Varasano, but that might be a little too complicated for me.  I might resort to that in the end, but will make it a last resort if possible.  I've given my wife a bit of baking fever too and now she will be wanting to bake breads so hrm... I have some figuring out to do.

[scott123]

BTW, I got one of the flour samples today, and according to FedEx I will receive two more tomorrow.  Note the size...    

You can't beat free flour, but 150 lb. of unbromated 13.6%-14.2% protein GM flour... I don't know. It'll be a big step up from KABF, but I still have my hopes pinned on bouncer for the unbromated crown.  Go to the bakery department of your local supermarket and ask them for large covered plastic buckets.  They may have only one bucket lying around at a time- keep going back for more. The sooner you get the flour into air tight containers, the better.  As it is, you'll probably see an infestation before you'll be able to use it up. If you've got a big freezer (or know someone who does), that would help, even if you can just freeze it for a couple weeks to kill off any eggs.

Maybe you can find someone else from the forum who lives in your area and see if they'll purchase a bag- and then take that money and get some bouncer 

[scott123]

Thanks for all the answers Scott.  I'm thinking I may unhook the probe (easily done) and see about poking it through a gap in the quarry tile ceiling.  The whole timing the oven thing might have worked for Varasano, but that might be a little too complicated for me.  I might resort to that in the end, but will make it a last resort if possible.  I've given my wife a bit of baking fever too and now she will be wanting to bake breads so hrm... I have some figuring out to do.

Repositioning the probe might work, but I would still get into the habit of being trigger happy with the IR thermometer. I'm not proposing a fact finding mission, just narrowing in on the right amount of time to hit the target temp- you might be able to figure it out in a single bake. I can pre-heat my soapstone to 525 for one hour, come back, and the entire stone will be around 530.  I'll then turn on the broiler, and, once it's red hot, launch the pie.  Both the hearth and ceiling are at exactly the temps that I want them to be.  But that's an electric oven with a broiler element in the main chamber. With your setup, even with a repositioned probe, it's still going to take some hovering/trial and error to get it to perform exactly the way you want it to.