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wood-fired
uilding your own low-tech wood-fired pizza oven is a substantial undertaking. But the whole process can be reduced to a series of small steps. And you dont have to build the whole thing in a weekend. It is built from the ground up, starting with the base, the cooking surface and then the dome. The oven can be built on any flat site, or even on a terraced bank of earth behind a retaining wall, as long as it is well compacted and drained properly. The oven is built with a raised, solid paver floor supported at a comfortable working height. The massive floor provides a heatbank in which the heat of the oven can be stored. While the supporting base could be built of various materials, bricks or masonry blocks are ideal. As this low-tech oven is principally unfired adobe, it is not weather-resistant and will need to be sheltered from the rain. This can take the form of a plastic or vinyl cover (the chimney can be withdrawn), similar to a barbecue cover, or a small skillion roof can be built over the oven.
Do you love cooking and dining alfresco? Then move on from the backyard barbecue and build yourself a wood-fired pizza oven
Oven door (right angle shown)
oven
AS SEEN ON
Half block
Theyll be lining up at the garden gate for a table when you stoke up your pizza oven and wonderful smells fill the air.
Diagram A
JULY 2008
heat while the oven is heating up but it also retains and returns heat to the oven once the fire is out. It is especially good when baking bread or cooking roasts.
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Paver skirt Bulk fill
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Sand
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Diagram B
300mm 5mm wedge placed at corners
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fatty, and crusher dust or stone dust, which is the finest grade of aggregate available at most landscape suppliers (less than 5mm in size). The standard mix when using plastic clay is equal parts of clay, sand and crusher dust to make up half-a-wheelbarrow load at a time. If the clay you are using is only partly plastic, reduce the amount of sand and crusher dust. To help bind the mixture and minimise cracking, add a cup full of chopped sisal fibre to half a barrow of mix. Simply cut sisal (not synthetic) rope into 25-35mm lengths and tease out the rope into single fibres. Mix thoroughly while dry and set aside half a bucket for use later on.
Remove the central supporting post only once you are sure that the hotface layer is sufficiently firm to be self-supporting. At this stage you should pull the plastic liner from the ceiling of the dome and let the whole structure dry completely. Repair any small cracks which could develop where the shrinking clay mix meets the non-shrinking paver skirt, by painting over and filling the crack with a thin slurry of 1 part clay to 4 parts sand. Its best to pass this wet mix through a kitchen sieve first.
be reapplied from time to time as the oven is constantly expanding and contracting through repeated use.
You could use the door mould as the oven door when baking bread or roasting, as the temperature is lower. Just cut 10-15mm from the base. However, as the plywood is likely to delaminate, its better to make a new one out of solid pine. If you soak the door in water before use, it will give off steam and promote a crusty surface on bread. To make a steel door, mark the outline of the outer arc on paper and draw a parallel line 10mm inside the arc. Cut the paper to the inner mark and use as a template for your steel fabricator to cut a 3-4mm steel door. Add a couple of handles so its easy to move. For a vertical door, add a base so it stands without tipping forward.
When setting the fire, you will need lots of heat to bring up the hearths temperature. For great pizzas, let the oven heat up for about an hour. The oven can reach more than 500C at its hottest! Scrape the fire to the back and away you go.
the door mould to the face of the mould. Once the dome is covered in the first thin layer of clay, beat it with a piece of timber to make the layer tight and homogeneous.
For great pizzas, let the oven heat up for an hour. The oven can reach more than 500C at its hottest! Scrape the fire to the back and away you go
Stockists: Pizza oven built by Wood Fired Oven Workshops, (02) 6494 0015 or www. woodfiredovenworkshops.com Dry clay powder (ball clay or terracotta), Walker Ceramics, (03) 9725 7255 with distributors Australia wide or pottery Supplies, (02) 8756 5900 or (07) 3368 2877. High temperature air-setting mortar and vermiculite, Field Furnace Refractories, (02) 97291799; Refractory and Ceramics, (03) 95604477; the Clay Shed, (07) 54765977; Sila Australia, (08) 9455 3133. Pizza oven temperature probes, 0-500C (BL 3), temperature Controls, (02) 9721 8644 or (03) 9687 0000. One-third cubic metre brickies sand; clean sharp sand; crusher dust; decomposed granite; cement, from landscape suppliers or sand, soil and gravel suppliers. Masonry blocks; bricks; clay pavers or tiles, from brick and block suppliers or brick and paver outlets. Compressed thick sheet (cut to size); angle iron; cement; sisal rope; plastic drop sheet, from builders hardware outlets or large hardware stores. Angle iron and steel door, from local steel fabricators. Vermiculite, from hydroponic suppliers. Stainless steel flue, from wood stove and heating specialists. Fireproof cement, from builders suppliers or refractory suppliers. Plywood offcuts, Mister ply&Wood, 1300 138 771 or www.misterplywood.com.au
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A critical final stage in building your oven is burning it in. A slow fire, burning for a few hours, will gently bake the internal walls.
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