bricwood

I need tips on using an outside oven, its a bit confusing, I have an oven built into the outside wall I would not use its but we are having a party and we are going to make the oven part of it, what is confusing is this when I cut down a few trees and piled the logs up one day the old owner turned up and although I don't speak much Italian when one of the neighbours said "what's he got the logs for" Anna the old owner said I know what they are for the oven, so I piled the logs up by the oven, last week an Italian friend was here and I asked him and he said you need charcoal , so now I don't know if it sling the logs , I cant imagine cooking over logs really it would be very hard to control , I looked on-line and found someone cooking pizzas like that but I cant see me flinging dough in the air , the plan is to cook something on the outside oven and other things on the inside , there will be a lot of kids so I though a would do some chips in the oven and burgers and something adventurous for adults , the man who was visiting who is a good cook is only staying one night and leaving his mrs and kids and my girlfriend for the summer which is fair as we holidayed with them two years ago, the locals are looking forward to this and it must not go wrong, logs or not? I think its too tricky

gpiero

What wood have you chopped? Don't use pine 'cos it produces more smoke than heat and is very resinous. If it's dry enough, I'd go with the wood, your food'll taste better. If not charcoal will be fine, but you'll need quite a lot of it if you've got a large outside oven...

You wouldn't cook 'over' the logs, they're pushed to one side (or around the inside walls) and you cook in the space left in the middle...

Gp.

bricwood

I think its the leylandi I cut down the woman who lives opposite has said its fine , maybe I will try a dummy run at it

gpiero

That should be fine. It's easier than you think. We've got an old brick oven that I had absolutely no idea what to do with, then a neighbour came round and showed me how it was done.

If the wood's dry enough, you literally need to ball up some newspaper for a first layer, chop one of the logs into smaller strips for a second layer and then put the logs on top (making sure that you don't squash everything flat, 'cos you need some air to circulate) and then light up.

It's cool, 'cos it's much easier the a BBQ, the oven opening pulls in air and keeps it alight.

You can do it with charcoal, but it's a bit of a cheat. If you do it with your wood you'll look as though you really know what you're doing!

gpiero

Sorry... just thought I'd mention that you don't need loads of wood either... a couple of logs should do it.

Gio

This is one I made earlier and the "spade" I used twigs from the garden from an oak tree to start it then threw on some beech logs let it heat up till all that was left was ashes and scrapped it all to the side & threw in me pizza.

bricwood

I really learn something new everyday my neighbour is really into food I have a pear tree with tiny pears and they are falling of I thought its sick and will cut it down but its an early ripening tiny pear, they taste not too bad but I gave them to my neighbour and she going to make jam

bricwood

update on outside oven it worked fine we used charcoal in the end my friends said wood needs to be two years old , it proved expensive with all the special tongs and things and it needs a few people to make worthwhile we had eleven or twelve in the end one of the kids had chicken pox as soon as they got here and did not want to spread it about, it was hard to cope with that number and feed everyone at more or less the same time, but it tasted good beef pork and supposedly bacon and salad from my garden and slices bread cooked on the fire too for bruschetta will do again in august with experience gained