Maximus Portable Wood Fired Pizza Oven

Narmnaleg · Post by **Narmnaleg** » Wed Sep 03, 2014 8:51 pm

A pizza oven was a tool I was missing in my BBQ arsenal. The size and weight (and logistics) of most units ruled them out for me. Thanks to the recent Ebay sale I found the Maximus almost by accident as I was searching around for BBQ bargains. I did some research and finally pulled the trigger. The seller (my woodfiredoven dot com dot au) were a pleasure to deal with and very helpful from start to finish. I ordered the oven on Sunday, and received it today. Here he is all cosy in his box sitting in my front yard (don't mind the weeds

):

I rushed home from work early so that I can cure it and be ready for the weekend.
Started unboxing just after 5pm and had the fire going less than one and a half hours later, inclusive of building the trolley that it came with.

Without further delay, here's Max in the nude!

These are Max's legs:

Helpful instructions:

Ooooh the thermometer is made in Italy!!! Qualitay!

Max getting warmed up:

Max making friends with the rest of the family:

Gumb · Post by **Gumb** » Wed Sep 03, 2014 9:43 pm

I've posted the pic of mine in eBay thread but absolutely agree about the pleasure if dealing with the seller, they have been terrific and my oven arrived today too. I've been running slow fire for a few hours and will do it again a couple of times before trying a pizza on the weekend. Although, I chucked in a ciabatta roll we were having with dinner, just so I could heat something up - patience is not a virtue of mine

Narmnaleg · Post by **Narmnaleg** » Wed Sep 03, 2014 9:54 pm

Gumb wrote:I've posted the pic of mine in eBay thread but absolutely agree about the pleasure if dealing with the seller, they have been terrific and my oven arrived today too. I've been running slow fire for a few hours and will do it again a couple of times before trying a pizza on the weekend. Although, I chucked in a ciabatta roll we were having with dinner, just so I could heat something up - patience is not a virtue of mine

I saw your pic, you did the right thing and used the metal wood raising thing. Very nice!

I started slow, then added one bit of wood too many and.... I've got it sitting pretty at 300C right now.

My Patience = 0

Seriously though, I can't see all that much going wrong, it's not exactly a brick oven. Time will tell I guess, but Max is telling me to go for it

If you don't mind, maybe we can keep the pics and info coming in this thread Gumb? That way we have them in one place?

Narmnaleg · Post by **Narmnaleg** » Wed Sep 03, 2014 10:01 pm

Just to add, I'm keeping the fire well away from the front of the oven.

Gumb · Post by **Gumb** » Wed Sep 03, 2014 10:21 pm

Narmnaleg wrote:
Gumb wrote:

If you don't mind, maybe we can keep the pics and info coming in this thread Gumb? That way we have them in one place?

Happy to, we are in the pizza section afterall.

You're a brave man cranking it up like that but I know what you mean, there isn't much to go wrong. I've just been using some small hardwood off cuts i had in the garage and 2 or 3 of those and the oven chugs along nicely at 100c. the fire control with the vents on the door is really good too, and you can have it on a low burn, much like a slow combustion heater. Open the vents and away she goes again. Heat retention seems good too. I let the fire die out but the oven was still sitting on 100 some time later, even though it's a cold night.

First impressions are really promising.....and what's not to like about stuffing around with a fire

Narmnaleg · Post by **Narmnaleg** » Wed Sep 03, 2014 11:08 pm

Gumb wrote:You're a brave man cranking it up like that but I know what you mean, there isn't much to go wrong. I've just been using some small hardwood off cuts i had in the garage and 2 or 3 of those and the oven chugs along nicely at 100c. the fire control with the vents on the door is really good too, and you can have it on a low burn, much like a slow combustion heater. Open the vents and away she goes again. Heat retention seems good too. I let the fire die out but the oven was still sitting on 100 some time later, even though it's a cold night.

First impressions are really promising.....and what's not to like about stuffing around with a fire

Yep, first impressions are good. Oxygen control is good. I was using small hardwood cuts as in my earlier pics, then I put a bigger piece in and it ran away from me before I could catch it. As you say it seems to retain heat better than expected.
I'm going to shut down all the vents in half an hour. Hopefully it won't mind the really cold exterior temp (chilly and windy over this way tonight) while it's still warm inside.

Gumb · Post by **Gumb** » Wed Sep 03, 2014 11:23 pm

Just an observation from your pics, shouldn't the wheels be at the back of the trolley ?

Narmnaleg · Post by **Narmnaleg** » Wed Sep 03, 2014 11:40 pm

Gumb wrote:Just an observation from your pics, shouldn't the wheels be at the back of the trolley ?

The instructions of the trolley were... typical of that sort of thing.
As far as I could tell, the instructions indicated they were on the front. I checked and re-checked them 10 times because I thought they should be at the back.

Check out the instructions:

I just check the ebay listing and sure enough they should be at the back as you suggested

Oh well, to change them around the only piece that needs to be swapped is the shelf thingy. The only problem is that I don't think I can be bothered

Gumb · Post by **Gumb** » Thu Sep 04, 2014 8:39 pm

I told you I was impatient. The wife is off to the opera tonight so I have my usual steak, egg and chips, covered in bbq sauce

I was priming the oven agin and thought I'd try a scotch fillet in the oven, since it was on anyway and the temptation was too much. I had it on 200c and cooked the steak on the trivet from my weber q. Didn't take long and turned out great ! Now I can wait until the weekend, I've had my fix.

Narmnaleg · Post by **Narmnaleg** » Thu Sep 04, 2014 9:19 pm

Yum!
I've got a pork belly booked in for this oven in a week or two. This weekend though it's going to be pizza pizza pizza

Gumb · Post by **Gumb** » Thu Sep 04, 2014 9:52 pm

Then we need to see pics, pics, pics

Narmnaleg · Post by **Narmnaleg** » Thu Sep 04, 2014 9:56 pm

Gumb wrote:Then we need to see pics, pics, pics

So it shall be. The pressure is on!

Narmnaleg · Post by **Narmnaleg** » Sat Sep 06, 2014 8:54 am

Since last Wednesday when I received Max, the sense of urgency to make pizza has been growing. With Saturday pizza not being possible due to other commitments, I thought friday night after work WFO pizzas would be my best option.

When looking at my attempts below, please keep in mind that not only is Max a new experience for me, but I've never cooked in a WFO before and making these kind of pizzas is a distant memory for me. I made mistakes all the way through the process, but the best part of this hobby is that you get to eat your mistakes

so here goes:

Started preparing the dough on Friday morning at almost 6am with the view of a friday dinner pizza meal. The result were 7 pizza blobs:

Got sent an MMS update at around 2.20pm (I forgot to take a pic of the dough when I was preparing the pizzas):

The first pizza goes into the oven. It had to be a Margherita as I wouldn't have had it any other way:

The finished product took only a few minutes. I didn't have the timer on, but it felt like around 3 minutes:

The second pizza, a simple rosemary/evoo/salt combo:

Third pizza, tomato sauce/chorizo/evoo:

Fourth pizza, blood sausage/rosemary/evoo:

Fifth pizza, back to Marge:

I congratulated myself with red wine after every pizza, unfortunately that meant that the other two pizzas were not presentable due to red wine intoxication

Gumb · Post by **Gumb** » Sat Sep 06, 2014 9:54 am

Geez mate, you've set the bar a bit high, not sure I can jump it !

Top job.

They look awesome, and I really like the way the top of each pizza is getting a lot of heat, which you can see from the pics. That's the whole point of having a dedicated pizza oven and this one looks like it fits the bill perfectly. How did they go on the bottom? Was the floor ok and not too hot? I read in the booklet that you may burn the bottom if you put them on too soon after moving the fire across to the side and they suggest waiting for it to cool a bit if that happens.

I'm assuming you had a few helpers to eat all that

Can you believe that this weekend my wife had arranged for us to go to the pictures with friends and back to their house for.......pizza

so firing up my new toy tonight is out of the question and tomorrow is Sunday roast night. I just might have to cook that in the oven.

Davo · Post by **Davo** » Sat Sep 06, 2014 10:03 am

Omigosh Narm.....they looks so bloody good

Yummo....I'll have a piece of that chorizo one please....nom nom nom!!

I love pizza but I must admit, I mostly use the leb bread type pizza bases from the supermarket and if I cook them in the Q320 or Kettle, they come out thin & crispy. I find even with those pizza bases.....it get pretty good results that kill any of the usual take-away.

I'd love one of these ovens but right now.....probably couldn't justify it.

That one of yours though looks great and I'd choose that over one of those Gas jobs.....i may as well use the Q320.

PM me your address

cheers

Davo

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