A member of Peter Reinhart's bread forum posted a link to an article on how to make your oven capable of producing a great pizza published in the LA Times today. Read it here.
My wife and I use plain quarry tiles to line the rack on our oven. This works well for artisan breads as well as pizza. They are cheap and when too disreputible to use further we simply go to Lowe's and buy new ones. OBTW they will cut them for you for free so you can get good coverage regardless of your oven size.
Thanks for such a cool idea.....and thrifty too! I use a round pizza stone, but I can see how the surrounding bricks could bring more radiant heat, especially close to the pizza. thanks.
I'm not willing to cut the lock on my oven, but I had the thought this weekend that I might be able to preheat my baking stone on the cleaning cycle, then unlock it, turn it "down" to 550 and put the pie in oven. Anyone here tried that? How'd it work out?
Floyd, It is so strange...I don't know why but I was thinking the same thing just before I got out of bed this morning...and my oven does heat up to 550...I think it's been all the talk about stones lately...I do know in a WFoven you have to use firebricks if you want to raise something you are baking up off the floor...like a tin foil pan with a turkey in it on a cookie sheet. Regular bricks can explode...so Im not sure how hot the stones can be heated...but I would find out from the manufactor... just a word of caution...please be careful! Firebricks are expensive and thick but maybe they would work better than the stone!!
Our wood stove is lined with firebricks. One fell out once and we had to have it replaced. We went to a fireplace store. It was very inexpensive (maybe $2). I think it is save to use these thing in an oven. But, of course, you have to be careful both in and out of the oven. Even my turkey roaster cloche can be a real danger; I have to be careful not to burn myself, drop it, and prevent someone from touching as it is cooling down. I've developed a system to prevent accidents and there are no children in our home. I've thought about getting a HearthKit, but I only have one oven, so that would be a real pain. I'm thinking about cashing in my little 401K and buying an outdoor stove. It's only a few more months until I'm 59 1/2! --Pamela
Sounds like a very reasonable price if you only need a few...I don't have any! My daughter has a few extra she uses...she tells me they are very expensive...but thats because whole interior of her wfo is made with them...no wonder!! Happy 401K ; )
It sounds like a great way to go, but I'm not sure the oven unlocks right away. Rather, my oven will not clean for only 1 hour--I think the minimum is 2 1/2 hours. But maybe you can cancel the cleaning? I haven't tried that. That might work depending on how long it takes to unlock after canceling.
Good article about the pizza method. Mine are getting better. I have the dough down, now it's a matter of getting better at the baking method. Thanks for the original article - it's a great help in understanding what needs to happen here.
Hey everyone. I too stumbled on the article in the LA Times but wasn't too pleased with having a ton of bricks or tiles haphazardly leaning against the walls of my oven, it didn't look too pleasing imo. So I guess I was going to have to settle for a regular stone until I saw a listing on craigslist for the hard to find hearthkit. It was brand new, cheap, and what the hey it looks great in the oven. I'm baking two loaves of French bread tomorrow morning so I will update with photos and my initial thoughts on this contraption. Wish me luck!
Update-
Extremely pleased with the crust, even color all around and great spring. The crumb needs some work but that's on me. I'm gonna live with this one. Wonder how hard it would be to make since they are no longer in production... hmmm.
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It also contains a video
Forgot to include that. --Pamela
pizza oven
My wife and I use plain quarry tiles to line the rack on our oven. This works well for artisan breads as well as pizza. They are cheap and when too disreputible to use further we simply go to Lowe's and buy new ones. OBTW they will cut them for you for free so you can get good coverage regardless of your oven size.
Seems to me a pair of large
Seems to me a pair of large rectangular pizza stones will accomplish the same thing, or pretty close.
Thank you!
Thanks for such a cool idea.....and thrifty too! I use a round pizza stone, but I can see how the surrounding bricks could bring more radiant heat, especially close to the pizza. thanks.
pizza
Like Roy R I use the unglazed quarry tiles.
It's remarkable how long they hold the heat for, 2-3 hrs after the oven(550) is off they will still be hot, 5-6 hrs still warm.
This guy uses the clean cycle with amazing results
http://www.varasanos.com/PizzaRecipe.htm
Here is a little slide show of my pizza
http://home.comcast.net/~204mike/pizza.html
I see
Pretty clever cutting the lock and faking the oven out so he can use the cleaning cycle. Hum, that sounds like something I might be willing to try.
--Pamela
Pizza tricks
I'm not willing to cut the lock on my oven, but I had the thought this weekend that I might be able to preheat my baking stone on the cleaning cycle, then unlock it, turn it "down" to 550 and put the pie in oven. Anyone here tried that? How'd it work out?
same thought/caution
Floyd, It is so strange...I don't know why but I was thinking the same thing just before I got out of bed this morning...and my oven does heat up to 550...I think it's been all the talk about stones lately...I do know in a WFoven you have to use firebricks if you want to raise something you are baking up off the floor...like a tin foil pan with a turkey in it on a cookie sheet. Regular bricks can explode...so Im not sure how hot the stones can be heated...but I would find out from the manufactor... just a word of caution...please be careful! Firebricks are expensive and thick but maybe they would work better than the stone!!
Sylvia
Firebricks
Our wood stove is lined with firebricks. One fell out once and we had to have it replaced. We went to a fireplace store. It was very inexpensive (maybe $2). I think it is save to use these thing in an oven. But, of course, you have to be careful both in and out of the oven. Even my turkey roaster cloche can be a real danger; I have to be careful not to burn myself, drop it, and prevent someone from touching as it is cooling down. I've developed a system to prevent accidents and there are no children in our home. I've thought about getting a HearthKit, but I only have one oven, so that would be a real pain. I'm thinking about cashing in my little 401K and buying an outdoor stove. It's only a few more months until I'm 59 1/2! --Pamela
bricks
Sounds like a very reasonable price if you only need a few...I don't have any! My daughter has a few extra she uses...she tells me they are very expensive...but thats because whole interior of her wfo is made with them...no wonder!! Happy 401K ; )
Sylvia
Unlocking
It sounds like a great way to go, but I'm not sure the oven unlocks right away. Rather, my oven will not clean for only 1 hour--I think the minimum is 2 1/2 hours. But maybe you can cancel the cleaning? I haven't tried that. That might work depending on how long it takes to unlock after canceling.
--Pamela
Good article about the pizza
Good article about the pizza method. Mine are getting better. I have the dough down, now it's a matter of getting better at the baking method. Thanks for the original article - it's a great help in understanding what needs to happen here.
thanks for another good link
My husband just sighed when I mentioned going on a fire brick hunt.... but he's used to my "crazy schemes" by now.... Plus he loves homemade pizza!
Summer
Junk in the trunk of my oven
Hey everyone. I too stumbled on the article in the LA Times but wasn't too pleased with having a ton of bricks or tiles haphazardly leaning against the walls of my oven, it didn't look too pleasing imo. So I guess I was going to have to settle for a regular stone until I saw a listing on craigslist for the hard to find hearthkit. It was brand new, cheap, and what the hey it looks great in the oven. I'm baking two loaves of French bread tomorrow morning so I will update with photos and my initial thoughts on this contraption. Wish me luck!
Update-
Extremely pleased with the crust, even color all around and great spring. The crumb needs some work but that's on me. I'm gonna live with this one. Wonder how hard it would be to make since they are no longer in production... hmmm.