Firing your Wood Fired Oven - The Fire & Forget Method

[@Dingo-de7yu]

Thanks so much for this video! I used your method last night in my Forno Piombo oven - except that I used the "top down" fire structure (heavy logs at the base, reducing in size to kindling at the top layer). No messing about, no moving coals around, no banking the fire - completely heat saturated deck and dome. Magnificent - thank you!

[@TheFireBrickCo]

You are very welcome! No problems!

[@damonspizzabus]

This gives me so much hope. I open my wood fired bus this year and this really calmed my nerves. I've always started small fires to get my oven heated up and I don't have a door on mine. This makes more sense. I was worried heating up that fast would crack the oven so I didn't bother with the door.

[@damonspizzabus]

I built my oven, too.

[@TheFireBrickCo]

Thanks Damon! If your oven is built from the right refractory materials then it should handle thermal shock just fine - in fact that's precisely what a medium duty firebrick is designed for, coping with severe thermal shock.

[@RealRuralJapan]

Empty the oven at the end of cooking and give it a quick clean. When it cools down to about 150 degrees put the wood in for the next time you use it and shut the door. The wood will be kiln dried and premium so you don’t need to buy the best firewood. It will cut your firewood costs in half because you can buy it when it’s cheap. I own a wood fired pizza place and have never used kindling one my life. Why waste all the stored heat that can dry your next load of firewood down to 8% moisture content?

[@TheFireBrickCo]

That is a GREAT TIP!

[@charleslong3730]

Great tip I luv it

[@sumitagarwal3788]

Great tip I actually took an inspiration from this tip and now use in my metal recycling factory to dehumidify the batch before it goes into the furnance / kiln

[@MarkWoodwardPhotography]

This is going to be my go-to firing method from this day on, great advice.

[@gdurkee]

OK. Fire season over here -- fuel moisture up, humidity up. Yay. Firing up oven for first time since May. Just cut a bunch of deadfall around house (oak). Trying your fire config tonight for bread, duck, and tarte tomorrow! I often fire overnight, relight in morning to start baking ~2PM. Lots of mass with our oven. I'll report back. Thanks!

[@TheFireBrickCo]

Please do! Also, try kiln-drying your firewood using the residual heat in the oven as it comes down to a point where it won't reignite... fuel moisture of zero coming right up!

[@gdurkee]

@@TheFireBrickCo OK. Used your method and it worked great! Thanks! Still, there's a learning curve. I built fire the night before to get heat of large-mass oven up enough for bread, pie, & duck the next day. I banked it too much overnight. Built it about 9PM then blocked opening with bricks, leaving a little air to get through. Should have left, maybe, a full brick's width to keep it going better overnight. But did stuff it around sides with large oak pieces. Good coals in morning and wood left, puffed right up when I pulled bricks. Ultimately, it cooled down to quickly for the bread -- though still came out very good. Then put hot coals I'd pulled out before bread back in for duck (fire on both sides of pan). That worked great. Photos for anyone interested: photos.app.goo.gl/1FJiPm8pVFBFNPnb6

[@keithclark4645]

this looks like it will be a great add. I will say however that tending to the fire has become one of my more relaxing moments so I won't use this exclusively but I will give it a go. Thank you for the new techniques

[@TheFireBrickCo]

Ha! I hear you!!

[@BenTedesco]

Thank you for these tips, I love this firing method! I've been following you all from the USA for a while now and you are my go-to channel for how to use my wood fired pizza oven. Cheers!

[@TheFireBrickCo]

Thanks Ben!!

[@kimsand53]

P

[@tac2536]

I’ve had my pizza oven for four years and this is the first method that really worked well for me. Highly recommend. A+

[@TheFireBrickCo]

Great to hear! Thank you for the feedback!

[@prestonfinley9288]

i realize it is kinda off topic but does anybody know of a good website to watch newly released movies online?

[@anderszion9389]

@Preston Finley Lately I have been using flixzone. You can find it by googling =)

[@karterameer7851]

@Anders Zion Yup, have been using Flixzone for years myself =)

[@prestonfinley9288]

@Anders Zion Thanks, signed up and it seems like a nice service :) I really appreciate it !!

[@chefhomeboyardee8]

I'm helping to open a joint in the village (sous chef) and they have an awesome wood fired oven that I'm sure I'll get to know intimately. Thanks for the tips. You read my mind around the 5 minute mark. Bravo man. If I ever get successful enough I'm going to buy an oven from you.

[@TheFireBrickCo]

Good luck!

[@FlashTechEngineering]

It’s amazingly hot my oven got up to 550 degrees in 10 minutes .. I was freaking out but to worked 🔥🔥

[@TheFireBrickCo]

It definitely works! What you were seeing there was the end of the probe having flames directly in contact with it - the actual 'oven temperature' would take quite a while to get to 550C (I'm still working on a precise way to quantify the Oven Temperature - is it the air temp in the middle of the oven? Or the temp of the inside face of the brickwork? Or the oven floor temp?? Haha we will figure it out..)

[@FlashTechEngineering]

@@TheFireBrickCo my oven I used 2 days before and had some retained heat already… maybe under the floor bricks you could have a horizontal central stainless steel tube with a thermocouple ..

[@rakeshshah8801]

Hi I am very impressed of u oven n specially how u have thought through out the series. U are brilliant teacher n u explaination of even small thing was excellent. I learn a lot n thank u

[@TheFireBrickCo]

Thank you so much 🙂

[@nathansciani5573]

Thank you for sharing. I have learned a lot from this video and can't wait to try it out.

[@TheFireBrickCo]

Thanks Nathan!

[@Brusselsproutsk8]

I'll be using your method today. My first proper fire today after the cures. Can't wait to cook some pizza!! Your vids have been very useful, much appreciated 👍

[@TheFireBrickCo]

No problems!! Thanks for the encouragement!

[@keithclark1173]

I like this. Very simple. Thank you

[@TheFireBrickCo]

You’re welcome 😊

[@frankcourtney6413]

Great video Ben! Just one suggestion to make. If you build the 'Log Cabin' on top of a sheet of thin cardboard, it makes shifting it back into the oven much easier.

[@TheFireBrickCo]

AGREED! We started doing that not long after too!

[@JorgeValdesPhD]

I used your technique yesterday and it really created a pretty big fire in no time, it took about 2 hours for all the wood to burn, my question is as follow as I am new to cooking with this oven, when you get ready to cook pizza do you put in more wood to have that fire go over the ceiling of the oven?

[@TheFireBrickCo]

Hi Jorge, I usually would keep a couple of pieces of wood burning to maintain the high temperatures needed for pizza.

[@dragilxcom4176]

Another way to control the draft is by placing a couple supporting bricks in front of the door brick, and place the door on top of that supporting bricks flush against the door bricks, so air will be drafted only from the bottom gap.

[@TheFireBrickCo]

That would work too!

[@johntchung9676]

Very Good !Than. Thank you very much !

[@TheFireBrickCo]

Our pleasure!

[@andyjones5824]

Great series of videos you've got on here Ben. Very informative. I'm new to pizza ovens and lighting them after building my own during lockdown. I've been reading quite a bit about lighting fires using the 'top down/upside down' method. A lot of people are saying it's the way forward and that it reduces smoke. I love the idea of your fire and forget method but wondered if you'd tried the upside down method and if so, what you thought of it? Thanks again for the great videos👍

[@TheFireBrickCo]

Hi Andy! Thanks for the encouragement!! Yep I have played with the top down method and it's pretty darn cool - I'm actually using a modified Fire and FOrget method at the moment where the 'Fort' section is a top-down fire, but the rest remains the same

[@andyjones5824]

@@TheFireBrickCo From the videos I've watched it seems to start slower.... does it take longer to heat up the oven?

[@joffieb4469]

Hi, thanks for the great and informative videos. How much wood would be required to get a smaller oven (precast 60cm x 72cm wide base) to 400 degrees C? Thanks, Johannesburg South Africa

[@TheFireBrickCo]

A few too many variables to be able to give you a good answer there, I would suggest having a crack and taking notes along the way, you'll soon learn how much wood you go through for the ideal firing for your particular oven

[@marcbreton9]

Hi Ben, thanks for sharing this trick of the trade! I’ll definitely try this technique in my wood fired oven. What method would you recommend for colder climates? I live in Quebec, Canada and I use my oven in the winter but fear of cracking the oven so I do a long fire up gradually getting to a larger fire. Is that necessary? Would love to hear from you on this topic. Marc B

[@TheFireBrickCo]

Good question Marc - if your oven is good and dry then you should just be able to use the same method. The colder air will yield a slightly cooler fire at the beginning anyway, giving the structure a bit of extra time to heat up.

[@bani1094]

When you put two big parts of wood inside the oven when you finish at work late night. In the morning is more easy to burn it up, tell us any better tips if you know. 👍

[@TheFireBrickCo]

Good tip!

[@martingarratt6606]

Can I add a spark arrester to the flue if so do you do one to fit ?

[@TheFireBrickCo]

Great question! We don't sell spark arrestors at this stage, however they're effectively just stainless steel mesh with a fairly tight aperture, you might be able to buy it at a local hardware store?

[@QF756]

Can we use little mica glass on the door for monitoring?

[@TheFireBrickCo]

You could, but it would probably get covered with soot almost straight away - worth trying it out though!

[@machtechnoscience8989]

Now That's wat i call a quality Vedio.

[@TheFireBrickCo]

Thanks!

[@markfcoble]

Thanks!

[@TheFireBrickCo]

No problem!

[@clints8888]

I've often thought why you don't have the front brick work lower by about 3-4 cm to prevent smoke coming out the front???

[@TheFireBrickCo]

Great question! If you don't have good draw in the flue then dropping the front by 30mm wouldn't make a lot of difference, the smoke would still flow out the front regardless. The real problem though would be putting in the oven door - with the arch as it is we already need to tilt the door forward to get it all the way into the oven.

[@fearlesscaution4950]

Doing this very method this evening. Providing I don’t burn down everything in a two mile radius, should be good

[@TheFireBrickCo]

Hahaha! Well? Is the neighborhood on fire?

[@fearlesscaution4950]

Everything's still standing, against all expectations.. Great method. Far less labour intensive, left more time for beer. Which makes the fact that everything didn’t burn down all the more impressive.

[@pizzafireman]

I tried it in my smaller stone floor, metal insulated oven. It worked amazing although I need to scale it down a little. I nearly burnt the back of my house down 🤣

[@nick50]

Can you use charcoal in the oven

[@TheFireBrickCo]

Great question! You can use it in small quantities for doing low and slow cooking, but we don't recommend using it as the main fuel source as it burns far hotter than wood, and would put unneccesary thermal stress through the oven.

[@nick50]

@@TheFireBrickCo thanks

[@markfcoble]

Building horno here in NM high mountain desert plateau hideout.

[@TheFireBrickCo]

Niiiice!

[@hugeboofhead1]

What if no landing on the front? I have SS wrap and 70mm of bench on the front.

[@TheFireBrickCo]

Great question! You can still build the fort on the floor of the oven, in the opening. I often do that now, as it has to be sized small enough to get through the opening anyway so it doesn't add too much difficulty to do it there instead.

[@hugeboofhead1]

@@TheFireBrickCo thanks, but cannot rest the door on the opening. Is there another way to do that?

[@TheFireBrickCo]

You would need to get a couple of bricks to sit the door on I think - not ideal but it would work. It might not be quite stable enough though

[@rakeshshah8801]

Can this oven be used as mobile oven ie different site without damaging

[@TheFireBrickCo]

It's not something that we recommend - brick ovens aren't really designed for the rigours of hitting speed bumps at 50kph...

[@nickmeale1957]

Wow boss. Great oven and excellent knowledge. I must say though the pizza looked a bit average haha. Not to worry

[@TheFireBrickCo]

Hahaha don't worry they were still delicious!

[@suzanne1210]

What temp do u get it to?

[@TheFireBrickCo]

I'm usually aiming for 400C or a little higher

[@Wolvinius]

Great tutorial mate! Finally on easy street! Lol

[@TheFireBrickCo]

Thanks Wolvinius! It does make it a little easier haha

[@benstevenson7925]

Hey guys Is there anyway to avoid to much smoke from initial fire? I kinda smoked out my neighbours big time? Cheers

[@TheFireBrickCo]

Good question Ben - I have been experimenting with building the fort fire upside down (heavy timber at the base, getting smaller as you go up, with kindling on top). This has made a big difference for me, give it a try!

[@ricpegoli1403]

Do you sell those doors to measure?

[@TheFireBrickCo]

Hi Ric, unfortunately not. We don't split the kits up at all, they come complete.

[@yaarufureddo]

SUPER!!!

[@TheFireBrickCo]

Haha thankyou!

[@RoninVincent]

How much would all that wood cost? I assume it will burn till it's gone so the cost of the wood is how much it would cost to cook a nights worth of pizzas if you only wanted to have pizza one night? Asking as someone looking at getting a pizza oven in the future. Thanks.

[@TheFireBrickCo]

I guess it depends on the cost of firewood in your area - for the D105 it takes around 40kg of good quality firewood to reach 400C, so right now that would set me back about $15. This is one of the reasons that we encourage peopel to think about cooking more than just pizza - the oven will be hot for three days, so why not make use of all that retained heat by cooking a bunch of other dishes?

[@RoninVincent]

@@TheFireBrickCo very true, thanks for the reply. You've told me what I was after.

[@swatipatil8868]

What if I decide to switch my all cooking to woodfired. How can I keep my oven around 350f to 400f for 24 X 7 all time and occasionally 900+ How much wood it wil l required? I live in India and wood is really not economical and sustainable options due to deforestation. But Im really thinking to switch my all cooking to serious wood fired oven .

[@TheFireBrickCo]

That's a good question - our commercial clients generally go through about 30kg of hardwood per day. Not sure what that would cost in your part ofd the world but it's a good starting point

[@titosoven887]

No damper ????

[@TheFireBrickCo]

Correct - we use the oven door to regulate the airflow into the oven but allow the flue to draw freely - if we installed a damper the door would have to be semi-permanently closed as the smoke would then just spill out of the mouth of the oven.

[@한국인의식판]

Hi, we are the production team of , a Korean TV show produced by JTBC. We would like to request your permission to use the footage in our upcoming episode to introduce fire oven. If you do not wish to grant us permission, please inform us in the comments section. We also sent the email regarding this to your business email, too. Thank you for considering our request.

[@TheFireBrickCo]

Thanks for reaching out to us guys, I hope the episode goes well for you!

[@jemsales53]

Or you could use dry bamboo for starters. 😁

[@TheFireBrickCo]

That would work well!

[@fionayan2154]

Japanese cab ride

[@TheFireBrickCo]

🤨