Bonfire temp???

[Foccaciaman]

Anybody got an idea of what the temp of the coals are in a bonfire pit immediately after the fire stops and the coals continue to glow. Or even the temp of the pit when the fire is low.

I have an idea I want to try out, but before I have my brother inlaw weld my new contraption together I want to know if it will be to hot or not enough.

Steve I know you have your infared tester, hows about lighting a little fire Hmmmmmmm?

[Steve]

Darn! I just got back from a camping trip where we had a bonfire going. I would have been happy to use my IR thermometer had I known. I have a feeling that the coals will be hotter than the range on my unit (it maxes out at 1000°F).

[Randy]

http://www.englishcharcoal.co.uk/index2.htm
Randy

[Pierre]

There's a surivival show in Australian Television called "Underways with Malcom Douglas". He shows survival tips in the Australian Outback. He shows how he bakes bread in a fire pit, adds some rocks, drops the dough in an old cast iron pot with a lid, or also directly on the stones. The results are quite good.

Is that close to what you are thinking of Focaccia?

Placing a pizza stone directly on the coals, or in some sort of tri-legged holder for the stone and then placing it over the coals?

Pierre

[Foccaciaman]

I'll try to describe it for you.
I call it the pizza fire shovel:
It would look like a flat shovel with three  3 inch sides and open in the front like  a pizza peel for sliding the pizza off when finished. There would be a lid that also hooked around the front enclosing the open end so that it could be placed directly into the coals.
You would have to put the pizza onto the shovel itself with a peel , but then it could be removed by removing the lid and using the shovel as the peel.

My fears are that the temp on the bottom of the shovel/pan will be to hot to cook evenly. So I am wondering if it could be on the coals for a couple minutes or maybe I would have to build some sort of stand xxx amount of height above the fire to achieve the appropriate temp.

What do you think.

[Pierre]

that sounds like a feasible apparatus.

Maybe leaving the "shovel" on the coals just the first few minutes would be enough to bake the crust and then placing it in that sort of shovel tray or holder till the toppings are done.

You might just burn the first few to a crisp untill you get the hang of it, just like Steve's Pizza Bella oven.

The gauge of metal used should not be too low (Thin) or it will warp very quickly. I think Randy has more experience with metal-work and welding, maybe he could give some tips here.....

Pierre

[Foccaciaman]

 ;DThanks for the input.

I also had thought of placing a pizza stone clamped down somehow on the bottom. However this starts to get away from the simple design I am trying to go with.
Besides I think it would also be far to heavy then to operate like a pizza peel to remove the pizza.

Idea still has some tweaking left.