The Fresh Loaf

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Alan Scott Oven 32x30 - Thermal mass, amount of wood and time to heat

SourdoughNZ's picture
SourdoughNZ

Alan Scott Oven 32x30 - Thermal mass, amount of wood and time to heat

Just looking for advice.  I am about to build my wood fire oven or rather I have found someone to build it for me.   They have more experience at building pizza ovens and are concerned that the concrete cladding under the fireclay  hearth and over the top of the dome will mean that it will take a very long time to fire up to temperature and use a lot of wood.  I understand that the thermal mass is important for keeping the oven at a consistent temperature over a long period and helps even out the heat distribution. 

Can anyone tell me how long they would typically need to burn a fire in their Alan Scott oven and how long it retains the heat after firing?  How much wood are you burning to get it to temperature? 

 

    

 

janij's picture
janij

You have a lot of variables there.  If we want pizza it takes about 2-2 1/2 hours to fire.  And that fire would cook pizzas and maybe a load of bread or something small.  The fire for bread when I baked for the farmers market this summer took closer to 4- 4 1/2 hours to fire but I baked 2 full loads of bread.  Things that also matter are age and moisture of the wood.  The amount of wood we use I would have a hard time estimating.  15+ sticks that are 18-24" long and say 3-4" around.  So a fair amount.  We live on a farm and trees are everywhere.  It does require some wood.

Do you mostly want to cook pizza?  You don't have to use that much mass if you don't want.

brianmckinnis's picture
brianmckinnis

If i send you my email, would you give me some advice on wood fired ovens, please?  

 

mckinnisbrian@gmail.com

SourdoughNZ's picture
SourdoughNZ

No most definitely want to cook sourdough bread.  That's the principle reason for building the oven.     I envisage baking 2-3 bakes of 6 loaves at a time. 

 

janij's picture
janij

Then you want as much mass as you can.  Have you looked into fire blankets?

SourdoughNZ's picture
SourdoughNZ

Thanks.  I'm not sure what you mean by using fire blankets.  Presumably as insulation.   The oven builder that I'm dealing with does wrap his ovens in two layers of insulation fabric but this will just stop heat loss to the environment won't it.  It won't "store" heat like refractory cement or concrete would?

PatMax's picture
PatMax

up in the winter-less north or down Bluff way ?  

PatMax's picture
PatMax

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SourdoughNZ's picture
SourdoughNZ

Auckland :-)  The summer-less north this year!

PatMax's picture
PatMax

We have more than we want in Christchurch  (Y)

_vk's picture
_vk

Recently I bought the Kiko's book on earth ovens decided to build one  for my breads. My surprise was that in tat very book he states that for my kind of use (bake bread like once per week) perhaps would be better to look at a "rocket oven". I've never heard of that before, but than I went to research in the net (already bought a book...) and I flipped to that project now...

If you wanna have a look in this option, it's a very efficient oven in therm os wood use. 

I never baked in one yet, but have seen a lot of videos of beautiful loaves...

 

 

 

http://www.woodfiredpizza.org/rocket-oven-construction.html

 

http://www.rocketstove.org/index.php/bread-ovens

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dQkPm0Lkdc

 

http://aprovecho.org