gemellocattivo.com

Ok....that guy is just barbequing a steak, the fire I make is at least 4X what that guy used, much much hotter, the oven floor would be 750F and the steak would be charcoal in 8 minutes. That explains the moving the fire around to heat the oven....its probably more efficient like that but I promise you the taste of the food is very different. When its HOT, the sugars caramelize and you get a flavor that you really can't duplicate any other way and it doesn't matter what you're cooking, it will taste different than anything you've had, I promise. Olive on everything not bread too, it just seals the flavor in when it hits the heat.

Next time you guys fire up the oven and you thing its ready, throw a couple more pieces and send me a pic....and I'll tell you add more wood. Get the oven HOT, dome burned clean and the floor to at least 600-650, 750 would be better. As I said, I know its wasteful...but man is it good.

As for building, it pretty important the floor is well insulated. the door insulation helps it stay hot for roasts or bread if you do that stuff, but the floor insulation is critical to even heat.

Have you found this forum? Some useful stuff, but also a few guys that post alot of BS.....lots of oven builds to look at though
https://community.fornobravo.com/

mine is here
https://community.fornobravo.com/forum/good-background-information/brick-oven-photos/408068-will-an-oven-fit-looks-like-yes-pa-build

The floor is pretty good since he used large 16" square pavers, then a layer of the heat resistant mortar, then fire bricks, then I know you are not supposed to do this but he troweled another layer of the mortar over the fire bricks. He's a young guy that has never built much before and started without me thinking it would be easy.

I'll check out the links. We have been using an infrared pyrometer and making sure the floor is over 425f and the inside of the oven turns white.

The roof right now is corrugated steel with bricks on it so the top is not insulated well at all. I'm going to help him build a mold and make a proper dome top using a mixture of the heat mortar and vermiculite that a lot of people use. I have a whole bunch of rock wool insulation to use in the middle layer.

425 floor temp is worthless, seriously, you can't cook a pizza with that....add a LOT more wood. you need to get the floor up to .....at least 500 for pizza and that will taste more like it was cooked in a normal oven

The floor sounds like a problem honestly. The is a lot of thermal mass and it sounds like no insulation at all? What is normally done is you mix pearlite or vermiculite (from the garden center section) with portland cement and form it at least 2" thick (3-4 is better) then lay the fire bricks over that if you want it to heat quick, or pour a 2-3 slab over it and fire brick over that if you want it to hold more heat for bread and such and don't mind slower heatup....but it always starts with at least 2" of insulation.

I don't think I've seen a dome cast with verliculite in it? Mine is brink so I don't pay a lot of attention to the cast stuff, but I only remember ever seeing 2-3 cast high temp cement (they have a "homebrew" they love on the forum, cheap to make), then vermiculite or ceramic insulation over that, then whatever to seal it.

after I posted my note about 425f being worthless I started to thing about how the "right" way to use a woodfired oven is a lot like a discussion about the right way to use a grill....there will simply never be agreement

Pre-Covid I used to pick up wood at a little stand down the road, and burn the oven then the firepit to finish off the night but haven't done that now so its been quite a while. Now you have me ready to get a cord of wood delivered...I miss using it but more miss the party and day drinking that normally goes with, once the oven is hot it cooks fast so we usually do a mini-buffet kind of thing with pans of different things over a couple hours, then pull what's left of the fire into the fire pit and do so bread or similar to have by the fire. It's more an event than an oven. Lana and I got out 1st vaccine shots but I know she's very concerned that the kids can't get shot so not sure when the next REAL oven use will be but may do a practice run or 2 in the meantime.

I've got some cracked stucco that is concerning Lana who like everything to look new at all times....I may have a look at that and hope it doesn't involve a full restucco

Torn into the oven's stucco today and as I feared a small exploratory hole at a spiderweb defect became much bigger. I had to build out the base to match the dome that turned out larger than I'd expected and just didn't get the layers bonded very well it looks like. I'll make sure the surfaces are left rougher and use bonding agent this time....live and learn.

Here is the stacked over as it currently exists. Not ideal or professional but having fun trying different configurations by stacking the bricks differently and trying differ heights etc.

It may not be idea but has been cooking some pretty good pies. I did put my hand underneath the fire brick and the pavers they are on after a couple hours and the bottom of the pavers do get warm so I'm sure there is heat loss, don't know how big a problem it is or just add more wood. Once we get the floor up to temp it does seem to stay at temp.

The vermiculite mixed in with the mortar seems to be the most common way for the domes if bricks are not used. Less money and light enough you can pick it up and lift into place. You build a mold then mix the mortar with the vermiculite and pack it over the outside of the mold, then put a layer or insulation covered with chicken wire and then top that with stucco. vermiculite handles high heat really well. I have used it doing glass blowing. You can drop molten glass in it and it doesn't phase it.

I'm having trouble uploading the photos? I'll play around with the file size.

I shrank the photos, I think they were too large.

we talked about insulating the top or just covering the whole top with brick but worried the metal would get too hot and collapse in. Pretty redneck but it works for now.

Works is all that matter. Just looking at it the front opening appear large compared the the oven size as does the flue.....which again means bigger fire I guess. If under the floor is not too hot to hold a hand on that I guess its fine....but 425 seems quite a bit cooler than you want...how long does it take to cook a pizza? At that temp...6-8 minutes I'm guessing just like in an normal over? When we cook inside we set the oven to 500 and cook 6 minutes, we don't use the stone we have because we honestly can't figure out how to use it, it only helps if its preheated then how do you get the pizza on it is a question we have no answer for. Outside its 2-4 minutes depending how hot the oven is....550F is around 4, 700 around 2-3, 800 it just burned on the bottom before the top is cooked. It definitely easier to cook at 550, but it tastes better, at least to us, closer to 700, it gets a sweetness to it so the kids prefer and ask for us to us the wood oven.

I had at mine with a grinder yesterday. The plan is to use fiberglass tape and acrylic bonding agent on the oven and in the stucco base to patch the cracks then a fresh coat of color on the whole thing so its back to looking new.