My New Pizza Oven design

[Paul Bacino]

I have been amiss from the Boards, over the last month. But feeling better and time to share ,again.

Rotuts and I kinda went around on this idea in the oven. Was to place two steels, in the oven.

So I took my ceramic stone, placed some bricks on the side ( wrapped one for reflectivity ) and mounted the MC steel on top. I'm using my Genesis Weber gas grill for the heat source. I pre-heated the grill for 45 mins. The ceramic deck got about 575 F, the interior cavity showed about 650F and the top was @ 475F.

My pizza dough was 300g AP flour 65% hydrated 1t turbinatio sugar, 1t yeast, 1t salt, 1T olive oil and 1t Baking powder ( Yep ). I let the dough slow raise about 4 hrs

First attempt:

Was a simple hamburger and asiago, I used my homemade slow cook red sauce on the bottom

4 mins to get the above result

My final attempt of the day was to let the deck cool and make.

Ham and Egg Pie--I used Benton's Country ham, farm raised egg yolk and Sage

6 mins here

Over all not to bad of a run , on cooking pizza. A few things.

I'll use 00 Caputo flour next, I'm planning on turning on the IR burning to get more top heat too

[rotuts]

ive been waiting for this. Now your Cookin w Gas!

a couple of Q's

bottom layer: is that stone on some sort of pedestal?

upper weber area: what's the rectagular item with the mesh?

have you had any rust issues with the MC steel? do you treat it as cast iron?

eventually if you go past a HD or building supply place get some fire bricks they will last a lot longer that the red bricks which are not that safe they say for high heat.

congratulations! looks like a great pizza oven you could even add some wood here and there for 'smoke'

Kudos your Way

stay well. i look forward to the Beef p0rn.

read more carefully : you got an IR gizzmo. snappy. my weber is too old for that.

Edited July 5, 2013 by rotuts (log)

[Paul Bacino]

RT,

My ceramic pizza stone ( it does have an elevated metal stand)--I got it from a local cooking store, ie like Williams and Sonoma. I have had it for yrs and I use it both indoor and out, it can withstand all the heat and placing cool dough upon it hasn't cracked it yet.

The Weber has an IR rotisserie burner..that is what you see above. In my first attempt, I didn't turn it on , but I think i will . It seems the pizza could use more top heat.. to get more of the leopardization.

Thanks for the Tips!! Yeah.. gonna fire up the smoke box for sure sometime.

Happy Holidays

PB

btw no rusting yet..

Edited July 5, 2013 by Paul Bacino (log)

[rotuts]

do you think the IR will heat the MC steel hotter? Id like to hear about that.

maybe i need one of those IR thingies from Thermapen to play with.

this set-up would be good for free-form bread with some height adjustment.

careful with those red bricks.

[Paul Bacino]

Oh yeah...the IR element would be like turning on the broiler. in the oven. I spec..but we'll see.

I look forward to trying it...but it works..off and on. Kinda crazy

Also

These bricks. Are really old and I have been using them yrs.

[rotuts]

Artisan Pizza and Crusty Bread ..... In the Summer !

all you need is your Induction 'burner' out there and you are set!

(F.D. when its 90 Ive baked bread outside .... but in my Bread Machine )

have to make some Induction Pasta when T > 90. outside.

[Paul Bacino]

Here is a better idea what this can do..

These are three hand tossed..

But this is near perfection for me!!

All Pizza were slow raise with 65% hydrated Caputo flour..

[rotuts]

they look fantastic. love those bubbles. problem solved.

Edited July 7, 2013 by rotuts (log)

[Ashen]

I have been amiss from the Boards, over the last month. But feeling better and time to share ,again.

Rotuts and I kinda went around on this idea in the oven. Was to place two steels, in the oven.

So I took my ceramic stone, placed some bricks on the side ( wrapped one for reflectivity ) and mounted the MC steel on top. I'm using my Genesis Weber gas grill for the heat source. I pre-heated the grill for 45 mins. The ceramic deck got about 575 F, the interior cavity showed about 650F and the top was @ 475F.

My pizza dough was 300g AP flour 65% hydrated 1t turbinatio sugar, 1t yeast, 1t salt, 1T olive oil and 1t Baking powder ( Yep ). I let the dough slow raise about 4 hrs

9213344773_ab9158ad37_h.jpg

First attempt:

Was a simple hamburger and asiago, I used my homemade slow cook red sauce on the bottom

9210076451_be862af544_h.jpg

9212851654_1a4758e254_h.jpg

4 mins to get the above result

My final attempt of the day was to let the deck cool and make.

Ham and Egg Pie--I used Benton's Country ham, farm raised egg yolk and Sage

9210447725_c843e795a1_h.jpg

6 mins here

Over all not to bad of a run , on cooking pizza. A few things.

I'll use 00 Caputo flour next, I'm planning on turning on the IR burning to get more top heat too

wow that is too cool.. it is almost exactly the same setup I use on my charcoal BBQ except I have a pizza stone on top instead of the metal.. I am thinking of switching that up to copper and placing charcoal on top as well to get some more top heat.

[rotuts]

PB has definitively raised the Pizza Bar with this work.

not to drive the Egg Crowd Crazy. ....

[furzzy]

PB has definitively raised the Pizza Bar with this work.

not to drive the Egg Crowd Crazy. ....

Fantastic! Just ought hubby a BGE last week...we're having guests Tues for a "make your own" pizza night. I made the dough today & will get all the toppings ready before people come Tues - I'll try to take pics!

[MasteringTheFlame]

Wow, your three hand tossed pizzas look great. I love homemade pizza, but I just haven't been able to get my crusts the way I like. Yours is looking awesome.

[Paul Bacino]

So..this season-- I'm thinking of topping my steel with hot wood coals...to add just a bit more flavor and heat..can wait for spring..ciao

[rotuts]

Spring? why? right now is good. the P. will be that much more tasty.

get some kid to plow you out.

always nice to have a path to the BBQ.

best BBQ of any kind is in a snowstorm. not so good in pouring rain.

good idea on the coals. but dont let it ruin that steel. Im guessing the steels home is the BBQ.

pic would be good. start to finish. a yard stick to see how much snow you got also good.

[Paul Bacino]

RT

WE have no snow, just bitter cold. Single digits and below!! LATELY

The real problem, Im dealing with is high winds. 30-50 mph winds.

But yes anytime is Pizza Time

PB

[rotuts]

Yar. 4 degrees here and some plowing to do, sometime before spring.

no BBQ here either.

Edited January 22, 2014 by rotuts (log)

[scott123]

From the few people that I've seen put wood coals on top of metal ceilings, the results have been disappointing. They have typically been a single layer of coals, though, so perhaps a mound of coals might make a difference.

If you really want to increase top heat for a more balanced bake, do three things.

1. Nix the brix. In this kind of setup, bricks act as heat sponges and suck up a huge amount of heat. You can offset this tendency by extending the pre-heat, but it will take a minimum of 2 hours to fully saturate them. It's not easy finding ways to support a ceiling with less thermal mass, but if you want to maximize dome and hearth temps with normal sub 1 hour-ish pre-heats, you don't have a choice. Save the bricks for a wood fired oven.

2. Move your walls away from your hearth. Heat rises. In your system, the heat is flowing up and around the oven 'box' and then up and out the top of the cooker. The bottom stone blocks the heat from below from reaching the dome. If you want to maximize dome heat, you want to push the support walls out and leave a gap for heat from below to flow into the oven chamber. You should also further encourage heat to flow through this gap by covering the grill area outside the walls with aluminum foil.

3. Lower the ceiling. With the kind of small pies that you are making, you can easily launch with as little as 2" of vertical space. This proximity will go a long way in bolstering top heat.

You might also experiment a bit with the rotisserie burner. There's a really good chance the IR burner will give you more top heat than the steel is capable of providing. It's uni-directional, and requires lots of turning, but that's no different than the uni-directional IR in a wood fired oven and the amount of turning required there.

Btw, Caputo pizzeria flour is notorious for making crusts with stale textured exteriors with 4 minute bakes. You can offset this propensity to a point by using plenty of oil, like you've been doing, but it's still not the ideal flour for this bake time range.. It's really only ideal for sub 90 second Neapolitan bake times. Since you most likely won't hit that kind of bake time in this setup, I encourage you to stick to malted American flours.

Also, a 4 hour ferment is anything but slow. If you want to maximize flavor, you'll want to dramatically dial back the yeast and ferment the dough for at least a day, preferably two. 4 hour ferments are only for amateurs. With you level of expertise at toppings, I would expect you to want to maximize crust flavor. A longer ferment will also increase digestibility, which, for malted flour, is typically not that critical, but is a big factor with unmalted Italian flours. A 4 hour Caputo dough, even a high oil 4 hour dough, will have a tendency to sit extremely heavily in your stomach.

Lastly, this can get a bit subjective, but red sauce really belongs on pasta, not pizza. Because pizza has a thin layer of sauce, the brightness of uncooked tomatoes is key. If you drive that brightness away with cooking, the tomatoes will disappear into the background.

[haresfur]

If you really want to increase top heat for a more balanced bake, do three things.

1. Nix the brix. In this kind of setup, bricks act as heat sponges and suck up a huge amount of heat. You can offset this tendency by extending the pre-heat, but it will take a minimum of 2 hours to fully saturate them. It's not easy finding ways to support a ceiling with less thermal mass, but if you want to maximize dome and hearth temps with normal sub 1 hour-ish pre-heats, you don't have a choice. Save the bricks for a wood fired oven.

Soft firebrick will be strong enough to support the steel without having the thermal mass of regular brick and certainly can take the heat. You could also use shelf stilts used in kilns but they would be easier to knock over.