Pyrolitic ovens and home made pizzas

[Participant]

Edit - found some links that say the oven will lock itself, so his thread is probably redundant unless anyone knows how to disable the lock!

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Has anyone tried using their oven's self-cleaning function to cook stuff? Was it successful?

I'm looking to get into home made pizzas. Tools at my disposal are a BBQ with good quality charcoal, and a decent Siemens oven, which reaches ~300 degrees C in normal modes, but also has a pyrolitic function.

I've got a pizza stone and a few other bits on the way.

Something struck me when researching dough recipes etc. last night...is there any reason why I can't use the pyrolitic function to replicate the temperatures achieved in a proper wood-fired pizza oven?

I've Googled it but not found much, so I'm assuming this is a bad idea for a reason I've not thought of. Perhaps the oven prevents itself being opened when in pyrolitic mode, for example...

Anyway, has anyone tried this?

 

[glitch]

Edit - found some links that say the oven will lock itself, so his thread is probably redundant unless anyone knows how to disable the lock!

Heston was the first person I recall suggesting that, but ran in to the same problem you have found.

Heating a Baking Steel up under the grill element and using a scorching hot oven works for me. Or you could do this:

 

[FrenchTart]

Baking steel plus grill is the way to go to be honest. You can get a pizza cooked in 3 minutes, which is pretty good going for a home oven and about as good as it gets without more specialist equipment.

 

[mattyg]

Our Bosch ovens have Pizza settings.....Not sure off hand how hot it gets but our home made pizza's now mean we haven't ordered in a long while..

 

[Steampunk]

Edit - found some links that say the oven will lock itself, so his thread is probably redundant unless anyone knows how to disable the lock!

*******************

Has anyone tried using their oven's self-cleaning function to cook stuff? Was it successful?

I'm looking to get into home made pizzas. Tools at my disposal are a BBQ with good quality charcoal, and a decent Siemens oven, which reaches ~300 degrees C in normal modes, but also has a pyrolitic function.

I've got a pizza stone and a few other bits on the way.

Something struck me when researching dough recipes etc. last night...is there any reason why I can't use the pyrolitic function to replicate the temperatures achieved in a proper wood-fired pizza oven?

I've Googled it but not found much, so I'm assuming this is a bad idea for a reason I've not thought of. Perhaps the oven prevents itself being opened when in pyrolitic mode, for example...

Anyway, has anyone tried this?

OMG this is bad for a million reasons. Let me describe to you how my Neff pyrolitic oven works. You turn to the cleaning program, the oven starts heating up. After about five minutes, the oven locks itself. It then spends the next just over an hour gradually heating itself up to about 450 degrees centigrade. It cycles each heating element around the oven (including the upper/lower grill and fan elements to red hot), getting the oven hotter and hotter over a period of time so nothing is given too much thermal shock too quickly. Any food in there isn't just carbonised, it's turned to fine ash. You're recommended to clean the glass first, so that any big particles of food don't create a hot spot of carbon on the glass while this happens. When the cleaning cycle is finished, the oven stays locked for the approximate hour it takes to cool down.

So, you don't have any control short of aborting the cycle (oven still won't unlock until it cools), you have no control over the temperature or where the heat comes from, you have no control over the ramp up of heat flying around the oven. It takes 45mins to an hour to get to 450 degrees. It's designed to turn any particles of food into ash. Anything significantly large could turn into a fire before it's carbonised into coal and then ash. You could set fire to your oven/kitchen/house.

Just buy a pizza stone and read the manual to see how you are supposed to use it in the oven.

 

[Participant]

OMG this is bad for a million reasons. Let me describe to you how my Neff pyrolitic oven works. You turn to the cleaning program, the oven starts heating up. After about five minutes, the oven locks itself. It then spends the next just over an hour gradually heating itself up to about 450 degrees centigrade. It cycles each heating element around the oven (including the upper/lower grill and fan elements to red hot), getting the oven hotter and hotter over a period of time so nothing is given too much thermal shock too quickly. Any food in there isn't just carbonised, it's turned to fine ash. You're recommended to clean the glass first, so that any big particles of food don't create a hot spot of carbon on the glass while this happens. When the cleaning cycle is finished, the oven stays locked for the approximate hour it takes to cool down.

So, you don't have any control short of aborting the cycle (oven still won't unlock until it cools), you have no control over the temperature or where the heat comes from, you have no control over the ramp up of heat flying around the oven. It takes 45mins to an hour to get to 450 degrees. It's designed to turn any particles of food into ash. Anything significantly large could turn into a fire before it's carbonised into coal and then ash. You could set fire to your oven/kitchen/house.

Just buy a pizza stone and read the manual to see how you are supposed to use it in the oven.

So if I could disable the door lock, it would work as an idea?

I've got a pizza stone. Delivered today. I'm assuming they're not quite as good as an 'authentic' high heat method though?

 

[Participant]

Ok I've written this idea off now. Realistically I'm not going to start playing with the internals of my expensive oven anyway.

Plan b - pizza stone in oven / BBQ then buy / build a pizza oven when I have a bigger garden.

My oven has a 'pizza setting'; oooo!

 

[Steampunk]

So if I could disable the door lock, it would work as an idea?

No, it's a safety feature! The oven might not even heat if the lock can't engage. As above, you won't have any control over the temperature, direction/method of heating, or any kind of timing. You'd have to wait an hour for the oven to get hot enough, when you opened the door the thermal shock could break the glass door. How are you going to reach into a 450 degree C oven, or stop the controls or kitchen cupboard surrounding from melting when you let that kind of heat out? You're trying to use the wrong tool for the job to the point where it's a danger, let alone not getting the job done.

 

[TheVoice]

The fact that the only way the oven will get that hot is by locking the door should really be telling you something here.

 

[FrenchTart]

Ok I've written this idea off now. Realistically I'm not going to start playing with the internals of my expensive oven anyway.

Plan b - pizza stone in oven / BBQ then buy / build a pizza oven when I have a bigger garden.

My oven has a 'pizza setting'; oooo!

As posted above, get a pizza steel if you can. Pizza stones are great but steels are a bit more practical long term. Fully pre-heated stone/steel + grill mode will get you the best you can get.

 

[robj20]

Before i got my pizza oven the best i ever got was a pizza stone, grill on as high as it goes and the oven as high as it goes which was 230c. Preheat the stone and oven for a good 10 minutes.
Still not right though just doesnt taste the same. Pizza oven cooks them in under 60 seconds at around 450-550C

 

[Psycho Sonny]

Ok I've written this idea off now. Realistically I'm not going to start playing with the internals of my expensive oven anyway.

Plan b - pizza stone in oven / BBQ then buy / build a pizza oven when I have a bigger garden.

My oven has a 'pizza setting'; oooo!

Buy an uuni 3 you can get a package deal for just over £200.where you get the official cover and extra official peel and some natural firelighters and 10kg of fuel

 

[jpaul]

Before i got my pizza oven the best i ever got was a pizza stone, grill on as high as it goes and the oven as high as it goes which was 230c. Preheat the stone and oven for a good 10 minutes.

I find you need at least 40 minutes to heat up a stone in an oven to ensure the base is correctly cooked (I usually cook something in oven beforehand)
it also depends what style of pizza you want if you want a good thickness of toppings New York and thus need a more substantial base (160g/10"dia) to support that, a real high temp may not penetrate/conduct into that either, just scorching the exterior.
... I always make sourdough dough, but it has never had the texture you see on the tv where I could toss it in the air either.

Have not yet cracked a pizza stone ... but even if you have a steel, moving it from grill to oven sounds a juggle.

If you want a pizza for evening meal, after work, setting up a uuni has to be more hassle.

 

[robj20]

I find you need at least 40 minutes to heat up a stone in an oven to ensure the base is correctly cooked (I usually cook something in oven beforehand)
it also depends what style of pizza you want if you want a good thickness of toppings New York and thus need a more substantial base (160g/10"dia) to support that, a real high temp may not penetrate/conduct into that either, just scorching the exterior.
... I always make sourdough dough, but it has never had the texture you see on the tv where I could toss it in the air either.

Have not yet cracked a pizza stone ... but even if you have a steel, moving it from grill to oven sounds a juggle.

If you want a pizza for evening meal, after work, setting up a uuni has to be more hassle.

No setting up, it's on a garden table permanently. Just needs turning on, then make pizza then cook takes less than 15 minutes.

My grill is in my main oven so no moving which is why everything heats up so quickly and so good for pizza, can even put the microwave on at the same time on a simmer setting.

 

[jpaul]

Just needs turning on,

you have the gas version , or just a turn of phrase

for grill to be of benefit (like for nam bread) needs to be <6" from stone ... which does not leave a lot of room to de-pell the pizza

 

[SoliD]

I have a Zanussi that goes to 300c and find it produces pretty good results, but I'm still working on perfecting it! Not tried one since being to Italy and getting some inspiration so may have to give it a go again soon.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

If you want a pizza for evening meal, after work, setting up a uuni has to be more hassle.

nope. the real hassle is making the pizza.

i grab foldable table from ikea (19 quid), and stick it in the garden. i then take my block of free wood which fits the top (free from ikea waste bin outside in car park) and put it on said table. i then grab uuni from garage and stick it on said piece of wood. - all of that takes less than 60 seconds as i'm just taking stuff from the garage and sticking it in the garden.

now i grab 2 natural firelighters (made from thin wood/paper) and a scoop full of pellets and i place 1 firelighter, then pellets then second fire lighter into the tray. i then light both firelighters so it burns from both ends to get it started and meet in the middle and place inside the uuni. i then fill the hopper with 2 scoops and go back into kitchen. - this takes maybe 90seconds?

and that's it ready to cook in 10 minutes time. took less than 3 minutes.

it will heat up to 350c in 10 minutes. i'd like to see you do it with less hassle any other way. the real hassle like i said is making the pizzas. making the dough the day before. i'd also make the sauce before setting up the uuni, have all the toppings ready, etc. basically you need to prep everything before you even use the uuni. as it's ready to go in 10 minutes and cooks a pizza in 60 seconds. so ideally you want to just combine everything in the 10 mins you have and throw it in the uuni. so all prep work has to be done before hand. it's why i have 5 pizza peels. yes 5 of them. i use 4 for making pizzas on and a wooden one to help rotate the pizza on the peel or ease it off if it's sticking slightly. the uuni is too fast for me if i only had 1 or 2 peels.

all it needs is topping up of pellets every 2 mins with a small handful. 10kg costs 4 quid. so we worked it out to be 30-40p per hour of uuni cooking.

 

[robj20]

you have the gas version , or just a turn of phrase

for grill to be of benefit (like for nam bread) needs to be <6" from stone ... which does not leave a lot of room to de-pell the pizza

Both gas and wood pellets.

Almost forgot another good way of doing pizza, in the frying pan. Put the dough base in a screaming hot pan, then add all the toppings, by the time the toppings are added the bottom will be cooked, then stick it under the grill.

 

[jpaul]

nope. the real hassle is making the pizza.
.....
all it needs is topping up of pellets every 2 mins with a small handful. 10kg costs 4 quid. so we worked it out to be 30-40p per hour of uuni cooking.

Thanks, consumable cost is probably cheaper than an electric oven then, and faster warm-up.
- so you need to be ambidextrous to pop in the new one when you remove the current one ... when you're feeding an army

I usually keep a range of topping in the fridge ready to roll (moz/prepped tomato base/chorizo/peppers & in season - fresh pineapple)
and make sourdough dough at least once a week which can be brought back to life from fridge within 0 -72 hour time-frame.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

Thanks, consumable cost is probably cheaper than an electric oven then, and faster warm-up.
- so you need to be ambidextrous to pop in the new one when you remove the current one ... when you're feeding an army

I usually keep a range of topping in the fridge ready to roll (moz/prepped tomato base/chorizo/peppers & in season - fresh pineapple)
and make sourdough dough at least once a week which can be brought back to life from fridge within 0 -72 hour time-frame.

not ambidextrous no. but good at multi tasking as you are dealing with so many different things all the time.

1. topping up pellets every 2 minutes - if they get too low the temp will drop. so make sure it's topped up. if it gets too low when you top up you could smother the flames and then need to light it again. so it's something you need to do in small handfuls but regularly. don't try and cheat it by throwing in tonnes at a time. so any time you have a spare 15 seconds. open it up and take a look and put in a small handful of pellets.

2. rotating pizzas every 30 seconds (otherwise one side will burn). stick pizza in. wait roughly 30 seconds. then rotate it. i do this by grabbing the front door with one hand and taking it off. peel in other hand and i scoop the pizza up. i then close the door to keep the heat in. now that hand is free as i'm no longer holding the door, i transfer peel to that hand. grab the wooden peel with other hand and rotate the pizza. i then put wooden peel down. swap hands and open the door and put the pizza in and close the door. you want do do this as quickly as possible. so the oven temp doesn't drop and the pizza doesn't have a chance to cool down. i know someone who rotates their pizza's every 15-20 seconds to get it more even all over. but i think once is enough.

i wouldn't put a fresh one in straight after one has been cooked. give it 1-2 minutes to heat back up again to full temp. so no need to have 2 pizzas on peels in your hands at the same time.

it's definitely cheaper than electric. i don't see how it would be cheap to heat an electric oven to 350C+ regardless of how long it takes. but the uuni does it in 10 minutes. and costs like i said 30-40p per hour. in an hour you could cook about 10-15 pizzas depending on how fast you are.

i normally cook the pizzas. i have trained the wife to make them. i don't see how 1 person could do both at the same time. as the pizzas cook so fast. you would need to have all the pizzas on peels ready to go rather than make them as you are cooking others.