Hello,
I've not posted for a while - too busy fulfilling the pizza demand at our regular pop ups and parties. Five years and 600 gigs into a business that my wife and I both love running. But still prepared to admit we can always learn!
My latest obsession is fire management and it just dawned on me that I have never had any teaching in this area. I've learnt by experience and have a fairly decent handle on how to run a fire to kick out 100 plus pizza a night but I wonder if I can improve my fire management.
Often I find that if the ash bank is too 'ashy' I lose heat in the oven (we have a one metre oven floor btw) I counter this ashyness sometimes (if I have time between cooking) by breaking the ash bank down with a dirty peel, spreading the embers across the floor and simply rebuilding the bank. When this phenomenon happens I see the wall of the oven behind the ash bank is black - a sure sign it is cold and presumably stopping heat circulating around the dome. Rebuilding the back seems to give it more air and the temperature/oven starts behaving again.
In general I am just wondering whether I am managing my ember bank correctly. We operate four times a week, I empty the residual ash out at the beginning of the week. I am wondering if I should do that every night?
I also note a difference depending how I fire the oven from start. i.e. if I use small logs for the initial fire and let burn long and bright before I knock it down for service the embers tend to be less ashy and more 'lumpy' A lumpy bed is definitely better than an ashy bed. Also if I use smaller logs to fire the oven up in they sway I have a smaller bed - which I am certain is better for general heat management.
This is a complicated question - but I guess where I am going is - are there any resources for how to run a super efficient 'ember bed' (is there a proper name for it?)
We cook 12" Neapolitan btw.
I currently do three 12" in the oven at a time. Part of this question is aimed at running a smaller ash bed so I can manage four in there, to increase our throughput.
I've scoured the forum with what I thought were relevant search terms but can't find anything decent on fore management that isn't just Joe public asking how to build a fire to cook ten pizzas....
Cheers,
James.
