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Backyard pizza oven

sports850

sports850

Member
This has been a bit of a slow project due to lack of time and other things but I'm building an outdoor pizza oven (brick oven or cob oven , different people call them different things) at the beach house . The brick base is 1.5m (59 inches) by 1.6m (63 inches) and the oven itself has an internal radius of 1.3m (51 inches) . The dome will be .65m (26 inches) high in the middle and the arched door is .54 m (21 inches) wide by .44m (17 inches)high at it's greatest and the base slab it sits on is .2m (8 inches) thick high strength reinforced concrete (I'm building this sucker to last) . I've scaled the plans up to suit my own needs as it will be a party oven and I wanted to be able to fit enough food (mixture of pizza's , turkish Pide's , breads and roast meats) into it for 40 or more people .

I started it a couple of months ago but finally getting time to work on it now and need to get it finished (and learn how to use it :shifty:) by the middle of next month for the little dude's 3rd birthday .

Why is everything you build a toy for kids , he just loved the bare slab for the noise it made with the truck .
base.jpg


"Can I play in the fort dad ???"
ovenbase.jpg


4" reinforced slab on top of brick piers with void filled with sand for insulation .
monument.jpg


Layer of bricks laid on their side without any mortar between them for heat soak .
domestart.jpg


(Edited for spelling )
 
Last edited:
DaveNay

DaveNay

Klaatu barada nikto
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What are the styles of pizza in Oz? What are popular toppings? Crust style? Do you cut it in triangles or squares?
 
sports850

sports850

Member
Guage I made up so each layer of bricks for the dome are at close to the right angle . Can't claim credit for the idea , it's from the book that I got the design out of .
guage.jpg


About halfway there .
progress.jpg


tougheskimos.jpg


Hope to get the dome finished and rendered this weekend then start practicing in it next weekend for the party the following weekend ....
 
sports850

sports850

Member
Dave , everything basically (though seafood and meat feature strongly) as we have a strong Italian and mediterranian influence in our food culture as well as several American pizza chains . Just the normal round pizza's cut in triangles .
 
American Woman

American Woman

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sports850 said:
turkish Pide's

I started it a couple of months ago but finally getting time to work on it now and need to get it finished (and learn how to use it :shifty:) by the middle of next month for the little dude's 3rd birthday .

Why is everything you build a toy for kids , he just loved the bare slab for the noise it made with the truck .
Click to expand...
What's turkish Pide's?
We laugh at our kids for generations now. They ALWAYS have more fun in the box their toy came in :rolleyes:
 
sports850

sports850

Member
A turkish Pide is sort of like an inside out pizza , dough is similar to a pizza dough and the traditional filling is a mix of lamb cubes , lamb mince , wine and spices that's slowly stewed for an hour and a half so it's very tender . The mixture has very little liquid when finished and is put into the center of a long strip of dough which is then folded over itself to make a parcel . Very nice .
 
American Woman

American Woman

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sports850 said:
A turkish Pide is sort of like an inside out pizza , dough is similar to a pizza dough and the traditional filling is a mix of lamb cubes , lamb mince , wine and spices that's slowly stewed for an hour and a half so it's very tender . The mixture has very little liquid when finished and is put into the center of a long strip of dough which is then folded over itself to make a parcel . Very nice .
Click to expand...
Hmmmmmm very interesting...:confused2:
sounds like a lot of bread though. I'm not much of a bread eater. Just give me a spoon to eat the insides out. The mixture sound good.:mrgreen:
 
daedong

daedong

New member
Doing well, looks great, well done, You gotta be proud of that. Bugger the kids when we going to party!

All good pizza's have olives and anchovies on them.
 
Erik

Erik

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Turkish Pide sounds like a mediterranean/greek calzone.
I love lamb when it's cooked right - like smoked with fresh ground ginger and garlic rubbed into medium deep scores
 
sports850

sports850

Member
Similar sort of thing I guess (had to google calzone to find out what it was ...) .

Daedong , hadn't realised it till I read your post but I am pretty damn proud of it actually . The party will be good , plenty of vino and pizza's etc all day while the kids run around silly with a couple of teenage girls (daughters of friends) who'll exhaust them with games .... If you were closer than SA I'd invite you .
 
Doc

Doc

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Very Kewl. What will you use to fuel the oven? At first I thought wood, but the way the blocks are set in the bottom makes me think you'll have some type of gas setup.
 
sports850

sports850

Member
Doc said:
Very Kewl. What will you use to fuel the oven? At first I thought wood, but the way the blocks are set in the bottom makes me think you'll have some type of gas setup.
Click to expand...

Nahh , just wood fired , the bricks on the base are to "soak" the fires heat and then release it over a few hours according to the book the design came from , the same with the domes bricks , their job is to absorb as much heat as possible .

No coatings on it Erik , just bare bricks . The normal house bricks are fired at 1100 degree's centigrade so are stable till that (even I couldn't get it that hot to cook in ...) temperature at least .
 
Erik

Erik

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very interested in hearing how it works out.
the logic behind my refractory question was additional mass for the heat soak as well as a better "reflection" of the radiant heat over time to keep more of it in the oven.
 
sports850

sports850

Member
OK , I've got you now , I was thinking you meant it to aid heat reflection (somehow thought refactory cement was to reflect heat instead , was a blonde moment ...) from the bricks instead of aiding absorption. It's always an option later (with a bit of brick cleaning) if the bricks need some help , I'll see how it all goes as I'm running blind with this apart from what's in the book .
 
Erik

Erik

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sports850 said:
OK , I've got you now , I was thinking you meant it to aid heat reflection (somehow thought refactory cement was to reflect heat instead , was a blonde moment ...) from the bricks instead of aiding absorption. It's always an option later (with a bit of brick cleaning) if the bricks need some help , I'll see how it all goes as I'm running blind with this apart from what's in the book .
Click to expand...

sorry - I'm sure you have a similar product there under a different name. This stuff is used to line furnaces, forges, and fireplaces here and it does have some heat reflective properties, but mostly protects the steel shell from oxidation while providing a heat sink to even out temperatures. (same stuff as in a fire brick, only comes in a 50 pound (22 Kg?) bag and you trowel it on.
 
sports850

sports850

Member
Yep , I think it's sold here as "fireclay" . I'll see how the original design performs and then see if it's needed .
 
sports850

sports850

Member
Well I had a productive weekend , finished the dome and rendered it , very happy with the result :D :D :D
This is as far as gravity will allow the bricks to stay by themselves ,

almost.jpg


Then I had to put some braces in and a false floor (timber and axle stands visible inside), then build the profile up with sand and finish the dome ,

domefinished.jpg


And finally cleaned out , rendered and a small fire inside (just because I had to ...) ,

burning.jpg


The test fire was only two small bits of flooring (1/2" by 4" by 12") but the heat they produced in the oven was impressive . It will take a slow fire burning for around two hours to heat the bricks fully for nice crisp pizza's . Next weekend is the practice run to learn how to use it before the little dudes birthday the following one :D
 
Erik

Erik

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Good job! Looks great! Don't forget to post some pizza recipes to go with this masterpiece ;)
 
sports850

sports850

Member
Will do though normally I do "fridge pizza's" , whatever leftovers are in the fridge go on them ... Some work better than others though :blush:

One of my favourites is to spread the base with an olive tapenade or basil pesto , then slices of smoked salmon , then sliced avocado and motzarella (spelling ?) , once cooked put some dollops of sour cream on it :chef::mrgreen::clap:
 
sports850

sports850

Member
Well the pizza oven was tested last weekend , only a quick test for 4 pizza's but the neighbours who came to act as guinea pigs survived so it's all good .

Started with a little fire ,

goodfire.jpg


Then it developed into a better fire (oak is really good) ....

betterfire.jpg


No photo's of the cooked piza or anything else yet , will take heaps on Sunday at the party . What atarted out as a simple birthday party for a 3 year old has developed into a feast for 50 adults and 18 kids ....

Oh yeah , first pizza took 3 minutes to cook .... then I let the oven cool down a bit and they were cooking in 8 to 10 minutes ....
 
American Woman

American Woman

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Wow this is impressive! It looks big enough for burning witches :yum:.
Post pictures of the party with the birthday boy enjoying the pizza too.
 
sports850

sports850

Member
American Woman said:
Wow this is impressive! It looks big enough for burning witches :yum:.
Click to expand...

Dunno about that , most witches around here are 3 axe handles wide across the arse so they wouldn't fit through the door , will have to stick to using the stake for them ....


Yes , will be plenty of photo's from the day hopefully (I doubt I'll have time to use the camera :chef: but someone will) , weather's looking good , low 20's (degree C , someone else can translate that to Fareinheight) and sunny .
 
sports850

sports850

Member
Well , the little dude's party was on Sunday and was a huge success , I baked pizza's constantly for over an hour and think the final number was around 25 but lost count ... Used 7 kg's of flour anyway :chef: . Since I was cooking I don't have any photo's of the production though but am waiting for some of the guests to pass them on to me . In the end we had 46 adults/late teenagers and 16 kids under 7 so was a busy day but a lot of fun .

Heaps of good comments about the oven though I should have put a sign up saying "I apologise to each husband who goes home hearing that they should build one " :bonk: , nearly every wife nagged their husband about it atsome stage during the day .
 
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