Not what to cook but how to cook it.

[Willonthewall]

Hi Polly
The weather has beaten me again this afternoon - and so has a shortage of bricks
Never mind I might catch up tomorrow.
The song is "Dark Island" and was a theme tune for a 1960;s BBC series.
There are a huge number of recordings by different artists but the one I used for the video is a free download from here..........

http://donaldson.margaret.users.btop...darkisland.mp3

You can download it as an Mp3 and listen to your heart's content
If you Google Dark Island there's lots of info about the music, lyrics and the series itself.

If you visit Margaret's site here

http://donaldson.margaret.users.btop...com/page4.html

she has lots of other songs to download free - it's a great site

[Polly Fouracre]

Thank you so much, Will. I will think of you and your pizza oven every time I listen to it!

[Jillyreeves]

Great looking oven Willonthewall, I've watched all four youtube video and look forward to seeing more :-) It has made me want one too.

Thank you too for posting the link to the beautiful piece of music you use in the first video, I too was wondering what it was.

[Willonthewall]

Thank you Jilly - the weather has been foul so it's been a quiet weekend ovenwise
I too love the Dark Island. It's hauntingly beautiful and we have a friend who belongs to a local accordian group. It's incredible to hear them harmonising on it and I've been at them time and again to make a recording. There's not much music of "Celtic" style which doesn't appeal to me which is probably why I like a lot of the Saw Doctors music. It may be modern but still has underlying Celtic origins. I've even chosen the music for my next video which is vey appropriate.
It's been a case of working under cover this weekend but if my efforts come to fruition then I'll be over the moon and will have something interesting to post.
I must make an effort to get the oven finished as there are two garden projects snapping at my heels.

[Willonthewall]

The weather and "THE BOSS" on half term holiday have definitely not helped this week but I have made some progress. I've posted episode five here

YouTube - DIY Pizza Oven Episode Five

and I'm OK with the result, but if it was a school report it would probably read "Could have done better with more preparation"
Let's hope the weather fares better over the next couple of days as the half bricks are already chopped and trimmed and ready to lay for the dome itself. I've no excuse now as I have everything to hand to finish in a few days if the window of opportunity presents itself.

[Willonthewall]

I've managed to get in a couple of hours today during a break in the weather but it doesn't look very promising for the next couple of days. Never mind, it's taking shape and actually beginning to look like a pizza oven. So here's the Halloween Special.

YouTube - DIY Pizza Oven Episode Six

[Tomatoking]

Having been really impressed with the pizza ovens and the videos, it's given us an idea! We have just replaced our woodburner having taken out our old 'insert' woodburner which was waiting to go to the tip.....it already has a glass door and flue outlet, could we turn this into an outside pizza oven? What do you think? Is it a feasible option?

[Hilary B]

We have been planning a bread oven for the place in Spain. I don't think ours will be as fancy! I still need to learn a bit more about using the things. Are you intending to insulate the dome, and what with? The old (broken) one at an abandoned house a mile or so from our Spanish base is built with some bricks that are like very thick tiles (about 1½ inch by 6 by 12). These are laid so that the length of the brick makes the thickness of the wall (ie 12 inches), and the whole thing was finished with a thick layer of lime render.
Gathering ideas from many sources, we hope to start building when we go out for Christmas/New Year.....

[Willonthewall]

Hi Tomatoking.
I think it's definitely an option but it might be a case of using the front and the flue outlet and making the rest in brick. The idea is ffor the whole oven to act as a heat sink so that once it's up to temperature it can be used over a number of hours or kept up to temp with a continuous burn . If the inerior is all metal then encased in insulating bricks etc. it might just be TOO hot!
Do you have a pic or two of the old woodstove?
It seems too good to waste so I'm sure there'll be something you can do to use it as an oven.

[Willonthewall]

Hi Hilary.
I'm planning to insulate with vermiculite and glassfibre. The modern materials allow for the walls to be much thinner than the ones you describe but the idea is the same, though probably not quite so effective. You still need a good thickness of brick to store the heat but the modern insulation means the whole oven can heat up quicker, but presumably cool down quicker as there is less volume of heat storing mateial. Having said that, when you look at the oven base I have there's about 7 or 8 inches of heatstore bricks on the oven bottom sitting on an 8 inch bed of thermal insulation so the bottom will certainly retain the heat. Some of the ones I've seen on the web have a dome which is then completely encased in insulation up to 12 inches thick and these must be immensely efficient.
The way they were traditionally used was to get them up to temp then cook different dishes as they cooled. The very last being for the traditional "slow cook" much like our modern slow cookers using a lower temp over a longer time. The AGA cooker uses the same principle in a modern environment and we have one in the kitchen here. I quite fancy the pizza oven idea though as it's literally just outside the kitchen door and if it works, it will get plenty of use for more than just pizzas. We have a lot of timber here so it should certainly be economical.
I can just imagine sliding in an old cast iron frying pan of back bacon and watching it cook in no time, nice and crisp which is the way I like it.

[jayjay giant]

Brilliant mate. Really impressive !
Not the sort of thing i can knock up in an afternoon though ! Ha Ha Ha
Excellent video's too.
You really have got some talent !

Keep up the good work

All best

Jayjay

QSL M6JDB

[Tomatoking]

Hi Willonthewall, thanks for your reply, the reason we took the old woodburner out was that it was rotten in places and burning too much wood, so not much use really.
We did think we could line it with bricks and seal the holes with fire cement, so that could be an option to make a pizza oven, when we eventually get around to it we will let you know, as it seems like a fun project, when time allows!