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 | Wood Burning Domestic Pizza Oven Q&A |
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- How big is our medium Pizza Oven
Our Garden Pizza oven is 4ft long 3 ft wide and 2ft high.
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- What are our wood burning ovens made from ?
Each of our wood burning ovens are individually hand made on a wire mesh frame from expanded clay and refractory cements.
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- How many parts are there to one of our small outdoor pizza ovens?
The small wood fired pizza Oven comprises of.
1)The oven Dome
2)The oven Floor
3)4X Terracotta floor tiles
4)Oven Door
5)Chimney Lid
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- What other items do we need for our wood frired oven
You will need
1 A Peel , a flat shovel for getting Food into and out of the pizza oven
2 An wood burning Oven thermometer so you know how hot the pizza oven is
3 A coal hook , so that you can move burning logs around inside the wood burning oven .
4 some kind of stand to put the oven on.
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- How heavy is our medium wood fired pizza oven
The dome of the oven weighs about 130 kg and can easily be moved by 3 people
the base of the wood burning oven weighs about 100 kg and can easily be moved by 2 people .
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- What does the pizza oven need to stands on ?
You can build your garden oven oven into or onto anything that can not burn, We would recommend that you use four 2 inch x 2 ft paving slabs as the base for the pizza oven to stand on you can build below the slabs using any method of construction you wish from wood to rock .
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- How high should the pizza oven be off the ground
the floor of the wood fired pizza oven should be at elbow height this will mean that you do not have to stoop too low to see into the wood oven and you will be able to have a good peel action.
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- How long does it take to get the pizza oven hot ?
If the oven is dry when you start then you can start cooking pizza's in about 20 minutes. If the oven is wet when you start it may take up to 2 hrs to get hot .
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- Your pizza oven looks quite basic compared to others we have looked at Why .
Many imported ovens are made of terracotta and need a lot of insulating to protect them from the U.K Weather, and yet the functionality of the oven is exactly the same, other than a coat of cupernol each winter you will not need to do any other maintenance to one of our Pizza Ovens .
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- Some Pizza ovens we have seen are covered with vermiculite and other insulators will they work better than your oven ?
The most important thing about any wood burning Pizza oven is the shape, and the type of cooking you want to do, Some of the more elaborate ovens take a lot longer to heat up than our oven then they also retain the heat for longer, when we designed our oven we took into consideration that most people who use a wood burning oven in England recreational decide at about 11 or 12 o'clock that the weather is good enough to cook lunch outside , they then do not want to wait 3 of 4 hrs for the oven to heat up before they start cooking. by the same token when they have finished cooking there is no need for the oven to stay hot for 8hrs or more , with this in mind we have made our oven to heat very fast and still maintain a good heat for up to 3 hrs .
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- Can I cover or and build over my Pizza oven ?
Of course many people have purchased one of our ovens and then gone on to build an Italian style with full insulation and a little roof. this would give you all the benefits of a very expensive Pizza Oven It would also retain the heat for longer and use less wood you will also benefit by not having to waterproof or dry the oven out when you use it.
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- How many people can you cook for out of the 3 ovens
the number of people you cook for realy depends on what you are cooking and how long you want to cook for
I have cooked 85 10" pizzas in 2and a half hrs in the small oven and have catered at a birthday party for 40 people over a 3 hr period cooking a slow roast pork joint and then pizza .
i have catered for 120 people out of the medium oven cooking pizza at the tatton park flowershow .
and i have resturants that say they cater for over 100 covers out of the large oven.
Having said that i just love cooking with the medium oven its a good size and you can cater for small family functions and big gatherings
no problem.
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- How fast can you cook a pizza ?
If you want to cook very thin Neapolitan Pizzas then run the oven very hot and you can then cook one in about 45 seconds . I tend not to cook thick pie pizza as it is so much slower but thats just my personal choice.
thicker base pizza require the oven to be run at a lower temperature and as a result will usualy take about 3-4 min to cook.
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- Where should the fire be in the oven?
This is a matter of your own preference, on our large and medium sized ovens I always have my wood fire fire on the right of the oven just in from the door,this way I can add logs very easily ,the oven is then very hot at the back and cooler on the side opposite the fire.
Some people like to have the fire right at the back, more difficult to maintain the fire but more effective for cooking 2/3 pizza at a time.in our small oven I always put the fire at the back .
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- How Hot can the Pizza Oven get?
The best temperature for cooking pizza is about 450-600 deg the the clay that we use is rated to 1300 deg so it is almost impossible to over fire the oven,once it is cured . I have had a customer phone me saying that the thermometer did not work he said that he had a huge fire going for about an hour and the needle had not moved , it was found that when the oven cooled a bit the needle came down from 750 deg c .
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- I have seen ovens buried in the ground can i do this with one of your Garden Pizza ovens ?
Yes you can , although we would recommend that you first cover it with some insulation and a waterproofing layer of plastic otherwise it really will take a long time to get hot .
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- Can i use the wood burning Pizza oven as a smoker ?
The Pizza oven makes a fantastic hot smoker . simply heat the oven to your desired temperature, put the food that you want to hot smoke int the oven , put wet smoking chips onto the fire and seal the door and chimney , hey presto fantastic smoked food.
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- I see that your oven has the chimney at the front while others have the chimney in the middle what is the difference ?
All authentic pizza ovens will have the chimney at the front just behind the door, The feed point for the chimney will also be lower than the top of the dome This is very important the lower the better,Heat is caught in this dome section and regulates the oven temperature if the chimney is in the middle of the dome the heat will just go straight up the chimney , no regulation , and no retention of heat al round a bad plan so check that any oven you decide to buy does not have a chimney in the middle of the dome ! also if the oven dome is made of several pieces make sure that they all cement together otherwise you will simply loose heat through the joins not to mention the heat swirls and eddies that you will get coming off an uneven inside surface .
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- How do I clean my Wood burning Pizza oven .
Due to the high heat that you will Be cooking at the oven is mostly self cleaning and any bugs or bacteria in the oven will be quickly incinerated , as far as wiping the ash out the way is concerned . I tie an old t towel around the Handel end of the peel this I wet and squeeze dry in a bucket of water , just before I start cooking I wipe the cooking area with this to get rid af any ash or sand .
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- Are there any other tools I may need for the wood burning oven.
I would suggest you also get a brass bristled brush and wa wide stainless steel paint scraper .
attach these to either end of a broom handle this will help you get rid of more stubborn stains and burns on the cooking tiles should you bubble over. We have also launched a fire grate for cooking thin base pizza in a very hot oven the restaurants and mobile caterers just love it.
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- Can I extend the chimney on the wood fired pizza oven ?
Yes by extending the length of the chimney you will improve the over all performance of the oven, easier lighting from greater draw hotter fire from greater draw,and it will keep the smoke out of your face.
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- How long will my wood burning oven oven last ?
Depending on use and abuse your oven should last a long time my oven was installed in 2000 and is as good as new, and still gives me as much enjoyment now as it did when i first put it in . keeping the oven dry will give it a longer life expectancy. Build a roof over the top and it should give a lifetime of enjoyment.
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- Should I worry if i see cracks in the dome of the pizza oven ?
The Dome of the oven has a primary wire mesh reinforcing and a secondary glass fiber strand reinforcing, due to the insulating properties of the oven if you make a huge fire in the oven to get it going you will get some cracks and crazes although these are mostly superficial and will close when the oven cools down . any cracks that do not close or show signs of smoking should be filled with fire cement obtainable from most good diy stores.
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- I have more questions what should i do ?
Give me a call I will be happy to answer them
regards Jay Emery
Proprietor and maker of the ovens
01905621636
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- Do you make bigger ovens
yes with our unique method of manufacture we can make ovens of almost any size please call if you are interested.
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- do you sell any gas conversion kits
we have looked into the possibility of supplying gas conversion kits but unfortunately UK legislation and EC certification makes it impossible for a small company like ours to develop and certify such an oven Sorry you will just have to enjoy using the real stuff wood. But we are always looking out for new suppliers of gas burners .
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- Can our ovens be built into a domestic or commercial kitchen
Our Domestic ovens are designed for outdoor garden use but each of our ovens is also available as a commercial grade oven which can be installed indoors as long as you follow current building regulations for open fires. Please call us for more information.
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- What Is the difference between the domestic and commercial oven
The domestic oven is made from a medium density Refractory and is not designed for constant use. it also has a 6" flue outlet. the commercial Oven is made from the highest grade of heavy duty refractory covered with an inch of medium density refractory it has a 7" flue outlet and 3 layers of reinforcing a fantastic oven that is being used across the country by satisfied resterants,pubs and mobile caterers
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- Where can i learn how to cook in a wood oven
Contact Holly and David at
Manna from devon cooking school
Fir Mount House,
Higher Contour Road,
Kingswear,
Devon
TQ6 0DE
Email: info@mannafromdevon.com
Website: www.mannafromdevon.com
Telephone: 01803 752943
who run courses on cooking in our wood burning ovens. They are great people and have a bed and breakfast so you can stop over after the course .
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- Wood quality is Important so where can I buy good quality dry wood
Give Certanly Wood in Herefordshire 01981 251796
a call they deliver pallets of wood nation wide at a fair price and kiln dried too. Ask for Oak 10inches long for wood burning Pizza Ovens please mention Dingley Dell when you call.
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- Why are Dingley dell ovens so affordable in comparison to jamie oliver or forno bravo ovens
At dingley dell we hand make each and every oven to order , we are a small uk manufacturing company that specialise in the range of products that we make. we are passionate about our products and have been making ovens in the uk longer than just about any one.
Most of our competitors are just middlemen who buy and sell ovens and need to make margin to make it viable .We choose to deal directly with our customers and are therefore able to offer our products at "trade Prices"
So support british manufacturing where quality counts.
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- Dingley Dell ovens are not available through the trade where can i see what i am buying
You are welcome to vistit our workshops neer kidderminster by appointment where we will be happy to show you our range of products.
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