I don’t think I’d go that route. The layers in your oven hearth are:
Firebrick heat retention and refraction back up and into your food
Sand neutral layer primarily there to level the firebrick
Insulation a thermal break to stop, or at least slow, heat transfer to the foundation layer
Concrete the foundation layer that bridges the load of your entire oven between the vertical supports of the concrete block base
If you add a layer of metal sheeting between these solid layers, it will promote more rapid conduction of heat away from the firebrick.
When I mentioned aluminum foil, it was in the context of cooking when I want to shield food from infrared heat, which is transferred as light waves through the air. That’s where metal can help, because it is an opaque layer that won’t melt at these temperatures. It is still conducting heat, but not as much as you’d think because in the air convection also comes into play and hot air rises.
In the solid layers of your hearth, infrared heat won’t come into play because your firebrick are also opaque. So the metal will conduct heat without blocking infrared waves.
I also had issues with the floor cooling too quickly. It took multiple attempts over a year’s time (so patience is key!) but here’s what I found:
I used vermiculite, not perlite, as part of my insulation in the floor. Vermiculite absorbs water, unlike perlite, so it seemed like we had steamed pizza at first. After many (6 or more?) HOT fires, this problem went away
Definitely build your fire over where the pizza will go and then push it to the back. It’s helped to push a little of it to the side which seems to keep the floor hotter longer.
3} I wondered if the fire brick I used for the floor was of the optimal mix of silica, etc. So I purchased a baking stone and put it over the brick. It seems to cool fairly quickly but it measures hotter (850 degrees) than the fire brick did (less than 800 degrees, typically). here’s the one I bought: Avantco 18" x 18" Square 13/16" Thick Cordierite Pizza Stone for Countertop Pizza Ovens (avantcoequipment.com)
pizza cooking technique: Our crusts are probably not as thin as they should be so, after turning with a pizza peel to get the sides done, I’ll lift the pizza up near the top of the oven for a minute before taking it out.
I’m still not fully satisfied with heat retention and, yes, I insulated it exactly according to the instructions.
I’m having to rekindle/re-fire the oven after every 2 - 3 pizzas so now I’m considering using propane to boost/maintain the internal temp.
Any suggestions for how to do this to an existing Mattone Barile oven?
Having to add a log or two after every 3 pizzas is a pretty nominal experience. You want a bed of glowing coals and flames that reach up and over the top of the oven.
Search “propane” and you’ll find a number of threads on the subject. There are some folks who built it in from the beginning. Since your oven is fully built it will take some effort to retrofit it, but I believe that involves drilling a hole for your supply line.
And above all, please, please make sure your oven has plenty of ventilation. Adding a gas burner is a serious proposition because of the CO it produces.
Another thought: if you’re not happy with your crusts, it may be the recipe you’re using. This post has a link to a book I swear by. The author is an American pizzaiola who, among other things, engineered his Neapolitan (thin) dough recipes by traveling to Naples and Rome and learning from the best.
Invest 10 minutes (literally) in making the dough and 24 hours in letting it ferment in your refrigerator, and you’ll have a thin Neapolitan crust with rich and complex flavors that will bring tears to your eyes and praise from your guests.
Recently I had to make pizza on very short notice, and broke down and bought the ready-made dough in a bag sold by a local bakery in the supermarket. Big mistake—even though it seemed relatively fresh, it kept pulling back in on itself and puffed up like a marshmallow in the high heat of my oven. I would have been better off calling for takeout.
Question here for Pete do you add the stone at the beginning of the burn or at sometime while the oven is heating. I am struggeling with floor temp at times and the stone maybe the trick. The stone has to get hot so i would think you would add it at the beginning of the burn
let me know. Also i was thinkg of covering the whole floor with the pizza stone this way it is a more unform surface. Another advantage to the stone is that now you are inch higher to the dome.
It’s certainly one way to go if you’ve having trouble keeping the floor hot enough. I’d check the underlying causes first as mentioned above.
If you want to try it out with a single Corderite stone first you want to wait until you’ve started pushing back your flames. Most stones need 15 to 20 minutes to warm up, and if there’s nothing underneath to help that, they will need longer. But I would think it would get in the way of building your fire, so better it’s out of the way at first.
Yes. I has a 6" high stainless steel plate with feet made to separate the embers from the cooking surface for when I make bread. Normally I sweep out all of the embers and place the dough in an oven without embers. This will allow me to maintain enough heat for more than one baking cycle.
Oven floor temp. I found this to work all the time. Keep the embers on the spot you want ot bake the pie. for me it is the right corner of the oven. build a blazing inferno to the left.
Once the inferno of flames is rolling over the top of the oven, brush the embers to the back and to the left. clean the floor with rag on a pole, At that point you have a coal bed in the back and massive flame to the left, The floor should be between 700 and 750. Put the pizza in.
To maintain this keep that flame massivly burning and with the coal bed, this should maintain floor temp.
I also added the flue damper and reduced the front to 240 cm sq as per the instructions
Also quick tip. build the front reduction 10" from the mouth of the oven. You want to cut off part of the flue area from the main oven, That is how the dome oven designs do it
Also you need to start at a floor temp of over 750 and go from there.
A couple years removed from the completion of my oven, I still struggle mightily with floor temperature.
Can the experts and scientists weigh in regarding the idea of adding a layer of fire brick on top of the existing floor?
The smoke problem was solved when I learned more about building and maintaining fires. I have been able to get my oven to 1,000 degrees with the oven floor reaching 700 degrees to start.
The base and hearth are built to specs.
I have never timed the heat up. Typically, since I don’t use my oven frequently, I start a fire several hours in advance and build slowly until the end.
The floor just seems to cool very quickly.
Hi Bill
I completed my oven recently. When i am doing pies it is usually 10 to 12, 12 inch pies. I find that raking the coals over the cooking area after my second pie works great. They stay there while we cut the pie, and i prepare the next one. I am in California, not super cold here. Hope that helps
A periodic shuffle is necessary. Norm mentions two pies and that sounds about right. If you build your fire to one side, you can periodically rake it over to the other side. I’ve taken to building in the back, and as long as the fire is reaching across the roof toward the front, I have less problem with floor cooling thanks to infrared heat.
Bathing at least the back of the oven and up to halfway forward during baking. This means infrared (and quick) cooking on the top of the pizza, and hot bricks underneath on the areas where there is not currently a pie.
Some pizza books geared to domestic kitchen ovens will call for flipping on the broiler switch on the oven for the last minute or so of baking. Your wood-fired oven can do this constantly, and it’s one of the techniques that results in a fast and tasty finish for your pies.
For pizza, you do not want to use the damper. You want to have the doorway and the damper wide open, for maximum oxygen flow and exhaust.
If you plan to bake after the pizzas are done, that’s when your damper and door come into play. If you are going to maintain a small fire, you can use the damper to keep the fire from consuming wood too quickly. It will also keep heat from venting as soon as it is generated, which means it will “soak” the firebrick arch and floor with convected heat that will then radiate back into the oven cavity over a period of many hours.
I’m really hopeful that some experimentation here will give you the results you’re looking for, Bill! Let us know how things progress.