Part 8 - Fire me up!

I know I should have left this until next weekend, but being a fairly impatient kind a guy, well I couldn’t resist having a crack late morning Sunday with a short 2 hour window….

The fire was lit, and for the next hour smoked like buggery. Sydney in winter is not so bad - however I can see in the summer this is going to get interesting -  fires are quickly leapt on by the fire brigade on so I’m going to need to find a way to create a less smoky start-up. The long flue helped get the smoke up and away, which was great.

Once burning hot the outside surface remained cool for a long time. There I was thinking “wow great insulation” when the steam began to rise off the surface. The heat grew. At one point I could actually hear the water boiling inside the vermiculite, and for a while wondered if I might be picking up pieces of exploded oven from all over the neighborhood. Note to self: The insulation  mix definitely needs some time to dry - especially since Vermiculite is very absorbent and holds a lot of moisture.

Also I noticed the flue getting seriously hot and at one point a discoloration appeared on the galavised surface. I had gone for a double skinned gas flue thinking that this would work well. The discoloration turned out to be a result of the inner skin of the long extension piece. Melted. Blimey this thing generates some heat.

While the oven was heating through I prepped some dough and toppings for a very quick trial. Fortunately I had some home made tomato base in the freezer too. For the purposes of the test I made 2 pizzas in 12″ trays though in future I plan to drop the pizzas straight onto hot brick.

What a great sight to see my bubbling round of cheesiness against a glowing backdrop of embers. And the result: family and friends absolutely convinced that the last few months of pizza oven talk, might just have been worth it!

Seriously the hypothesis that wood-fired trumps everything is proven beyond doubt… if you’ve been thinking about building an oven - do it, do it, DO IT.