January 18, 2016 - 12:56am
Alan Scott WFO here in NZ - any experience?
Hi
As an enthusiastic home sourdough baker I'm excited about the prospect of taking the next step in my journey. I'd like to construct a wood fired oven based on Alan Scott's method outlined in his book. I'm keen to here of anyone else here in New Zealand who has done this and to get tips on sourcing material and maybe even some skilled labour.
Any help greatly appreciated
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A great site for information is www.traditionaloven.com heaps of info alternative materials great ideas etc . Rado is an Aussie in Queensland. We bought his cd and built an oven to his design and it works very well here in Perth.
regards Derek.
Hey Derek I have looked at Rado's website and it looks very informative. I don't know how to compare his ovens to Alan Scott's Are you using yours to make bread? I'm concerned that a good pizza oven may not be a good oven to make sourdough which is my passion. Are you using your oven to make bread?
I was fortunate enough to be able to persuade a number of people at the TAFE college where I was working that a wood fired oven would be a great asset. The building students who were high school students that attended 1 day a week for try a trade were given the task by the senior lecturer as the build encompassed a whole raft of good things for them to do with concrete slab and suspended slab, brick block laying, arch building thermal insulation and chimney building as well as rendering. The fact that they were in only once a week also gave everything time to cure nicely.
The oven has been used for both bread and pizza, If the Hospitality students are going to use the oven for Pizza I try to have a batch of bread to follow as the oven is just right for the bread, the oven will hold 18 x 500g loaves if loaded well.
Now that I am retired it is my intention to build another oven or two, 1 at my cousins vineyard down south and the other most likely at my daughters property.
I am very happy with the oven and it is just great for bread.
below is a link to an old story with pictures of the oven when Ross and I caught up for a bake in the WFO
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/17836/yozza-and-rossnroller%E2%80%99s-great-wood-fired-oven-adventure
II do have some other pictures but they are on an old hard disc from my previous computer.
kind regards Derek
Thanks Derek
I've continued to read the information from Rado's website and I've now paid a donation and downloaded some oven plans. The 3G MTO looks perfect for what I need. I'm amazed at how much dough you can fit in your wood fired oven! Which of Rado's plans did you follow and did you use the standard dimensions? Our oven project is part of a bigger house renovation and clearly I might not need the one or two wide ovens I was planning for the kitchen! At the moment my standard bake is only two loaves once or twice a week but that's only because of the practicalities of baking in small kitchen oven. I'd love to be able to make more, experiment more and give away more of my product!
Thanks again for your thoughts
I will have to check my cd , I know when they were building the oven Peter the technician laid out the floor plan of the chamber on the wood working benchs prior to the students getting stuck in, it turns out we could have gone on brick deeper. Peter was extremely interested in the build and checked everything before the students had a go that way he was able to answer any queries they had. Peter was even thinking of making these ovens as a job when his hours were cut back at work. Unfortunately Peter became very ill in a short time and passed away quite quickly with a brain cancer . The oven has a couple of plaques attached to the front acknowledging the students involved in the project build as well as Peter and Grant the senior construction leader who also unfortunately is no longer with us following a Cowards punch incident from a domestic argument with a neighbour. Both men were great supporters of the oven build project both great human beings and both much missed, but remembered with the dedication plaques.
Just checked the disc ours must be the swishy
kind regards Derek
if you have a look at this article it shows some pictures with the oven in them
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/17836/yozza-and-rossnroller%E2%80%99s-great-wood-fired-oven-adventure
regards Derek
Hi S/D NZ
I found some more pictures of the Tech's oven previously posted in an article that may be of interest to you
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/42684/my-third-woodfired-oven-bake-getting-there
kind regards Derek
hey, did you end up building your oven I'd love to come and take a look?
Sam
Hi Sam
Expecting delivery of my oven next week. I decided to get someone to build for me. Unfortunately it's impossible to find anyone in NZ with experience building outdoor bread ovens. The I found Fuera Pizza Ovens. Elliot the owner was very enthusiastic about building a bread oven for the first time. Armed with the RADO plans and the Alan Scott bread book he came up with a design that incorporates the important parts of both - thermal mass and insulation especially. It's been built offsite and will be craned into my back yard in the next week or so. So far, it's had a few fires inside to help dry out the masonry. Elliot reckons its performing really well but the proof will be in the bake. Will post more reports (and pictures) when it's up and running.
Incidentally if anyone has a recommendation for the type of firewood I should feed it I would be interested. Ideally hot burning with minimal ash.