After I got knowledge of the Forni a Legna oven through my previous post, I decided to order one. The alternatives were very few, so it seemed like the most ideal solution for my needs. A week later it arrived in my parents driveway. Unfortunately I live in an apartment and can't use anything but gas when grilling, so it can't be at my place. Luckily my folks are very cool, and don't have any problems with housing my latest fetish, and as it doesn't way that much, I will be able to transport it from garden to garden pretty easily.
Setup was pretty easy. The floor wasn't as level as I wanted it, but I fixed it by placing some small spaces under the bricks to level it out. As it was my first time with a WFO it took some time to figure out how everything worked from setting the fire to launching the pizzas. Luckily my girlfriend is a former scout, and her family runs a pizzarestaurant with a WFO, so she knows her way around it. After the fire had set, the oven was about 400 celsius, which is ok when I think of the wood I used wasn't ideal. Next time I will be using beech which probably will result in even more heat. The floor was about 450 degrees after we moved the fire to the side.
The top doesn't get that hot, since it's made from metal. This also means that it doesn't radiate heat the same way that a brickoven does, but again, that's one of the compromises I had to deal with with this oven. It all ended pretty good, and I got away with making 6 pizzas through the night in the first attempt, so it's definately approved. The outside of the oven doesn't get that hot. The sides were about 50 celsius, and the bottom was 5-6 celsius
So I'm pretty happy with the investment so far, but as I mentioned, I still have a lot to learn. Some of the things I learned from the first time:
- Use beech, ash or oak tree for the fire
- Invest in a small turning peel. I used one of my old peels to turn, but as it's square it doesn't work that good
- Invest in a chopping block for the wood - I actually ended up cracking on of the stone tiles in my parents garden from chopping the wood.
- The oven comes with a small metal device to keep the fire locked in one place - you can probably see it in the pictures. Unfortunately that made it almost impossible to get color on the pizzas - so the next time I won't be using it when trying to make neapolitan styled pizzas.
There's place for improvement, but now I've taken the plunge into WFO's
