Bread/Pizza outdoor oven

[kevinmoelk]

Howdy folks. Plans are going through for me to move back East... not exactly finalized, but whitling away the details. So with that in mind, and having 57 acres at my disposal, I'm thinking of other structures I'd like to build. Pretty much got the sauna design down pat. The one I'm working on now is an outdoor area with a BBQ grill, an area to sit and hang out... maybe a fire pit on one side and my newest thought AN OUTDOOR BREAD/PIZZA OVEN!

Has anyone built one of these?

-Kevin

 

[nshif]

Havent built mine yet but heres a link to some good info.

http://heatkit.com/html/bakeoven.htm

 

[Gooserider]

This seems to be a pretty definitive site on the topic of bread / pizza ovens - Extensive forums on design, construction and use... It is run by a company that sells them in different forms, but it seems they are also very dedicated to the style in general and are supportive of folks that "roll their own" regardless of whether they use the company products or not.

Formo Bravo

Gooserider - who thinks it's a great idea, if only I wasn't a low carber who mostly doesn't eat bread products...

 

[kevinmoelk]

Thanks guys... I did browse both places. I'm leaning much more towards a 3rd world type of stove. Just a simple cob design with a fire brick floor or something like that. I'm not into the huge expense of a pre-fab unit.

During my recent trip to Maine I went to a pizza place called "Flatbreads" and was inspired by the idea. Of course, their oven was HUGE. The pizza was some of the best pizza I've had in a long long time. Makes me miss the east coast.... no good pizza once you get off the eastern shore states.

 

[Nofossil]

When you talk about BBQ, I trust you're including a smoker. I recently discovered that half my life had been wasted because I had never done honest-to-goodness smoking. I have now seen the light, and I take it as my personal mission to help others on the path to enlightenment.

Plus, beer never tastes as god as when consumed in combination with a nice smoked hunk of meat.

Figuring out what you want to do is a nice problem to have. Only too glad to help. On-site visits can be arranged ;-)

 

[My_3_Girls]

Thanks guys... I did browse both places. I'm leaning much more towards a 3rd world type of stove. Just a simple cob design with a fire brick floor or something like that. I'm not into the huge expense of a pre-fab unit.

During my recent trip to Maine I went to a pizza place called "Flatbreads" and was inspired by the idea. Of course, their oven was HUGE. The pizza was some of the best pizza I've had in a long long time. Makes me miss the east coast.... no good pizza once you get off the eastern shore states.

A better pizza has never been made.... and the "scenery" is cool too!!

 

[My_3_Girls]

When you talk about BBQ, I trust you're including a smoker. I recently discovered that half my life had been wasted because I had never done honest-to-goodness smoking. I have now seen the light, and I take it as my personal mission to help others on the path to enlightenment.

Plus, beer never tastes as god as when consumed in combination with a nice smoked hunk of meat.

Figuring out what you want to do is a nice problem to have. Only too glad to help. On-site visits can be arranged ;-)

Make the pizza oven with a pass thru chamber/channel into a smoking area,and then into a small stack chimney. Kind of like Brother Barts' backyard smoker.When you want to use it to cook a pizza, don't put any meat in the smoke chamber, and when you want to smoke meat, put meat in the chamber and no pizza in the oven section..... or...... yeah, you see where I'm going - no sense wasting wood.. .Thin crust pizza probably takes 3 to 5 minutes to cook in a 900 degree oven, so you'll have a snack while waiting for the 250 degree smoker to finish that brisket in 10 hours

 

[My_3_Girls]

Blame Gordosoft for this:

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-build-a-Pizza-Oven/

 

[kevinmoelk]

Hey thanks my3girls! Very informative and cool stove too, though I don't like the base of the stove, but that is besides the point. I've also been checking out the forum link Goose put up and that's been good too. I've also ordered two books from Amazon on the subject.

AND since I'm a hearth.com member of course I've been thinking of a way to incorporate a glass door from a woodstove into the oven... how cool would that be! Not to mention the probe thermometer. These outdoor oven guys haven't seen anything yet, lol.

-Kevin

edit: laughing at myself for instinctively typing "stove" instead of "oven" in the second sentence.

 

[IIFAST4U]

I know this is an older thread any more on this idea? Did the oven ever get built?


Shawn

 

[Gooserider]

Haven't seen any mention of it. I have a stove that I want to turn into a Brother Bart smoker within the next month or so, but if needs to work it's way up the list a bit. I may throw another Hearth Party this summer, would try to have it done in time for that.

Gooserider

 

[IIFAST4U]

I would love to have a brick oven for pizza and bread. I really did not like the one that was on the instructables link. I would rather build my own than to get a prefab style. just thought maybe wrenchmonster had built it since his last posting.


Shawn

 

[My_3_Girls]

I've been talking about it with a few of the neighbors. My recent thought is to make it out of some concrete well tiles. Put one on a good base, fill it with concrete, top with firebrick, and add another with a hole cut out of the side. Add a cap for the top, and start cooking - I just don't know if the concrete will take the heat of a fire built inside it.

 

[IIFAST4U]

What about using the red brick that was used for many years for fireplaces? make a basic box with them line it with firbrick and go?

Shawn

 

[Gooserider]

No personal experience, but what I've read is that materials other than firebrick may work, but a lot of them had a tendency to "spall" where the heat would cause little fragments to split off the surface of the walls - since I don't want to add that sort of "crunch" to my food, I'd be tempted to stick with the firebrick / fireclay type materials.

There seem to be no rules on the outside shape, but some of the stuff I've read suggests that the dome or arch interior is needed for reliable structural support and also acts as a sort of "lens" to push the heat back down to the food. The Forno Bravo people seem to feel that the dome gives the best overall results in terms of useable cooking space, and is better at heating quickly and reaching high temps. I'm not sure I'd want to do the pre-fab approach, but I'd be inclined to stick with their basic design idea unless I was given a really good reason to change it.

Gooserider