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I've been using the oven for 3 years now, its working great with very little maintenance needed. The pile of firewood under the tarp to the left is enough for about azillion firings. The pile of firewood on the ground under the oven is what I use for a typical firing. You can see the steel plate roof that I added to protect the oven from the rain.
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Many folks have asked about what I finally used for my oven roof. Being an
enthusiastic scrounger/recycler, I found a heavy steel plate conical room from
some type of farm structure on an old abandoned farmstead, and dragged it home.
I made three bumps of cob on top of the oven to support the roof a few inches
away from the top. The steel is heavy and just sits on top, held by its own weight.
It works great to protect the oven, and looks cool when smoke from the fire is
spilling out around it. My idea of a concrete roof would have probably worked
OK, but I would need a gang of strong youths to pick it up and place it on top.
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We are ready to light the fire. You can see that the clay around the doorway has
crumbled away some. It is a bit fragile, getting broken off when putting in chunks of
wood or scraping out ashes. I have had to add a new layer of clay when the gap around the
door became too big, but only once in three years. I have also quit using the stovepipe shown
on page 3 - I found it burns just fine without it, the front of the oven is stained black
with soot though. When you first start the fire, the inside of the oven gets covered with
black soot too, but as it heats up to cooking temperature, all the black soot burns away leaving
the orange clay color that you see in these photos. This is one way to know if it is hot enough
to cook - the black soot should be gone from inside.
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I usually let the fire burn for around 2 hours. If you keep it going longer, it seems to hold the heat longer, but a 2 hour burn is about the minimum to cook a bunch of pizzas or bread. It works best to let the fire burn down to coals, then add another pile of wood, 4 or 5 or so sticks from an inch in diameter to just smaller than your wrist, and let them burn down. I usually re-load the fire this way maybe 4 times in the course of a 2 hour burn. Near the end, let the fire burn down to coals and spread them out evenly over the floor to give a nice even heat, and let it soak for 10 or 15 minutes.
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When your ready to cook, scrape all the coals and ashes out. I use a flat-ended shovel to pull out the remaining coals, then a then swab the floor with a wet rag on a long stick to sweep out the ash. Everything is cooked right on the firebrick floor. The oven will be very hot inside now, and it should rest for a while to even out the heat and cool down a little. There are various ways to tell if it is the correct temperature for baking, and the correct temperature depends on what your going to bake. For cooking pizza you want it hot! I usually let it rest about 15 or 20 minutes with the door off after removing the ashes. If you can stick your closed fist in the oven and hold it for a slow count of 6, then its ready for pizza. Keep a close watch on the first pizza to make sure its not too hot - It will take only 3 or 4 minutes to cook! I use a wooden "peel" to slide the pizza in and out. It takes practice to get that raw pizza to slide evenly off the peel and onto the firebrick floor - eat your mistakes! After the pizza goes in, the wooden door goes on to hold in the heat.
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Here it is, hot and bubbling. I always make lots of different pizzas, one after the other. Since they take so little time to cook, you can a number of different style topping for different people's tastes, all hot and ready quickly. My favorite topping is sliced tomato (no sauce), with artichoke hearts, mozzarella, and wild mushrooms, drizzled with olive oil.
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I also like to bake bread in the oven - it turns out nice and crusty, you can't buy it at the store like this. The oven needs to be a bit cooler for baking bread than for pizza. Even cooler yet is good for cookies or brownies, or a dessert of baked pears with butter and brown sugar. We have not cooked many main dishes - had a nice chicken once. But I'm sure it would work fine for roasts or casseroles.
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