Firing up the v1.0.0 backyard pizza oven for the first time, I guess I went too hot too fast. Fortunately I can scavenge another rock from work and try again.
In a proper wood-fired pizza oven, the fire is on the same level as the pizza. The only time I’ve seen this design is from ignorant DIYers on YouTube. It seems like a terrible idea and you’re just going to keep getting the results you’re having. It’s inevitable.
Just build a bed of bricks, and a dome of bricks above it, and put the fire on top of the bricks, and the radiant heat will cook your pizza.
Front fell off. That’s not very typical, I’d like to make that point.
another rock from work and try again.
Bro…
Expect the same result, every stone will eventually pop. That’s why it’s “brick oven pizza” and not “stone oven”.
Eventually the one on the bottom will break too. Which will be a much bigger issue.
I blame the name “pizza stone” when it’s like, clay or one specific mineral. You can’t just grab a stone and cook with it
Meh. If I get a few decent cooks from it, its good enough. There’s zero cost involved. And if/when the bottom goes out we’ll scrap it and decide if its worth the trouble to do something more permanent.
You’ll have better luck with concrete pavers. They will still crack eventually at pizza oven temps but they should last longer than natural stone, especially if you keep them dry.
I made a similar mistake once building a fire pit in the yard. Filled it with rocks from a creek nearby. I eventually had to redo the project because every time it got to temp, little bombs went off.
As added caution to anyone reading this, river rocks can and will explode violently, and have been known to kill or seriously main you depending on where the shrapnel lands. Be safe out there.
It’s like microwaving an egg. There’s moisture trapped in there, and the gases can only expand a bit before the rock gives.
Dangerous egg.
Not just river rocks.
Grab any random rock, it will explode at a certain temp, and a certain temp raise over time.
There’s so many factors it’s almost completely impossible to tell when it will happen, but it will happen eventually
That’s why you use lava rock. It’s basically tempered and won’t explode.
Lava rock all I use after that event. School of hard knocks sucks sometimes.
Are you just using slate?
You could throw a 3/8ths sheet of steel in there for much better heat transfer and reliability.
Yeah, 2" piece of bluestone. My concern now isn’t just stability. If there’s water in any of the brick or other stones, the same thing could happen.
Yeah so you gotta do a very long, slow heat up. Then if it gets rained on, cooked again.
The other issue with stone that I’ve experienced is that it takes a very long time to reheat/ heat transfer. You end up loosing a lot of heat capacity each pizza you cook. Then it takes a very long time for it to get back up to heat. First pie is often a throw away because its so hot it burns instantly (metal grill grate can help with this), the second pizza is great, and by the third and fourth the stone has lost so much energy its not cooking well.
If you are insistent on stone/ wood fire, look at the italian designs. Instead of the fire being below the stone and relying on convection, they put the fire on top. They use a volcanic clay to form their surface and has lower heat transfer, but it doesn’t have the scorching issue some modern synthetics have.
I’ve tried all of these and I just use steel any more. Way more reliable. Way more durable. Way faster to get started. Way faster to shut down. I do have to adjust my burn a bit in terms of style because I do lose energy between pies, but I can kick out a pizza about ever 10 minutes from my oven.
I don’t really have the time, money, or room for a proper Italian design. My hope here was to get better than my oven. So your cooking surface is straight steel? Im not opposed to trying this.
Right here:
https://lemmy.world/post/17827945?scrollToComments=true
I’ve taken it much further than this, and if you are interested I can do an “update” post, because while I haven’t made any more changes to the oven, I have made some more changes to how I throw and burn the pies.
I just did a friends wedding yesterday using this set up. 16, 16 inch pizzas, in about 3 hours. One hiccup was that some rain came through, and that suuuuucccckkked the heat right out of the oven (since its all metal). Like, i had the temperature cranked after the rain (which is usually ~1100 degrees), and like, it didn’t even cook. I had to pull that pie and burn the oven for almost 20 minutes to get back up to temp.
On Saturdays, I take my rig to the side of the road (well not last Saturday -friends wedding and all), and I sell pizzas from 12- sunset down by the local beach. Pretty much sell out. And I feel like I’ve got the burn figured out to the point where, I don’t really mess up pizzas any more, and like, its always a 8/10 - 10/10 crust.
Like I said, if you want a more detailed breakdown, I’d be happy to put up another lemmy post updating my progress with that oven. It was a little pricey, and at first I didn’t like it, but now that I’m burning on steal, not stone, and I’ve got it “figured” out, its fine.
OK, this is rad. I’m not there yet but im seeing a path forward. I’m gonna try out some concrete pavers and work on dough. If the fam gets into this, your project will be the way I go.
But you have enough time to redo it again and again as you do it wrong every time?
So I’m gonna try the concrete pavers. If that doesn’t work, we’ll just go back to using the stone in the oven. Maybe look for a used ooni.
Im not sure why people are getting so bummed at me for trying a diy way yo do it. I said I’d try a couple of times, not suffer the rest of my life blowing up rocks weekly.
You’re trying to reinvent the wheel and people are telling you it should be round so it actually works and you’re refusing to listen.
It’s an oven, something that has existed for thousands of years at this point, the technology is mature and well understood at this point, if people are telling you you’re wasting your time using things that will blow up in your face maybe you should have the maturity to just listen for a second.
I’m not refusing to listen, and I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel. I’m talking to a dude in this thread about his mods to an oven. I’ve read about concrete pavers instead of blue stone. It’s an interesting home, diy project I’m hoping to have work a handful of times. I’m not trying to abandon my kitchen and feed my family primarily from this. It’s a weekend project, not a life-or-death endeavor. The cost of a real brick oven is more than we’re willing, or able, to spend for something that will get used maybe 2 or 3 times a year.
And at the end of the day, I’m outside having fun moving rocks around with my kids.
No point in arguing with Penny wise pound foolish people whether it’s time or money
Could you post the plans you use?
https://lemmy.world/post/29504105/16995944
See above.
“Fire brick” is a thing and the only kind of brick you should be using. There are loads of instructions and videos online that will tell you what materials will work. Don’t chance it.
Firebricks are well worth the price, at the very least they shouldn’t explode on you randomly. Mate built a dome pizza oven out of them & it was amazing.
