Maximus Portable Wood Fired Pizza Oven

[Narmnaleg]

Last night I cooked in the oven at high temps. I finished at 8pm, closed the vents down to just under one quarter. This morning at 6.30pm it was still warm (not hot). Very impressed.

Pics of last night's pizzas to follow.

[Narmnaleg]

I love the Maximus WFO. It allows me to have Friday night after work pizza without much hassle.
The first cooks I did with Max were between 200c and 300c. I fired him up last night and aimed at higher temps.
As I come to grips with the fire management I've been able to increase temps and last night I had a new batch of perfect wood to help me. (If anyone is interested, I got the wood from Ample firewood in Flemington (Syd))
I wanted to see if I could work toward 400c. I pretty much got there! I was surprised how much the process changes by adding an extra 70c-100c. I had each pizza ready in 80-90 seconds. One took only 50 seconds!

Ok so here are the pics...

I'm beginning to get the hang of the dough:


and how to handle it:


The first pizza goes in (spanish salami, cabanossi and bocconcini):


and WOAH!!! Less than 90 seconds later:


Second pizza, prosciutto and bocconcini:


Slightly charred, but not beyond the point of no return:


The third pizza (garlic mushrooms) turned into an impromptu calzone:


I was very happy with it for an impromptu:



A group shot of the first three:


Number 4, caramelised onion and rosemary, the "before" shot:


The "after" shot:


The grown up's favourite of the night, goat's cheese, bocconcini, rosemary:


Number six on its way in (cabanossi, bocconcini), check out the oven temp, it should be even higher where the pizza goes, but I didn't have my IR thermometer handy so I didn't get a reading:


and once taken out:



Lastly, the potato and leftovers pizza (thinly sliced potato, a few mushrooms, a few onions, rosemary, bocconcini):




The group shot:


These were the hardest pictures to take. By this stage I was about to eat the camera, so there's only a couple of shots of the inside and bottom of a few of the above pizzas:





The verdict was that they were the best yet. I think it had as much to do with the better dough and dough handling as it did the higher temps.

[Gumb]

Mama Mia ! Sensational effort bloke......what else can I say.

[Narmnaleg]

Mama Mia ! Sensational effort bloke......what else can I say.

Thanks Gumb, I'm so happy with Max

For next week I hope to have my Ischia starter going, this will replace the dry yeast and will cause another learning curve, but I'd like to give it a go and see what happens.

I have a thread going (not many replies mind you) on the pizza making forum and there's a guy there that posted an almost perfect neapolitan style margherita made in the Maximus (look under the neapolitan style topic). He said he now makes almost exclusively neapolitan style pizzas.

[Gumb]

It's pizza night again here, got the neighbours coming in for a session and a few reds will be firing Max up around 5.30......can't wait

[Narmnaleg]

It's pizza night again here, got the neighbours coming in for a session and a few reds will be firing Max up around 5.30......can't wait

Fantastic, make sure one of them is on "camera" duties

I have some pork and potatoes planned for tonight... toying with the idea of trying max out for that...

[Gumb]

I'm doing that tomorrow night....letting the fire die down a bit, around 200 and maybe a sheet of foil over the top for the first part of the cook, based on what it did to my bread and scones last week. not tightly wrapped, just a sheet laying loose over it so the good heat gets to the food. I've got an elevated ss tray from my microwave I could use to put the foil on and have the meat under that. Worth trying.

[Gumb]

It's pizza night again here, got the neighbours coming in for a session and a few reds will be firing Max up around 5.30......can't wait

Fantastic, make sure one of them is on "camera" duties ..

My bad I got so busy making pizzas I forgot the pics....oh well, a raging success anyway. I didn't have it much over 250 and after a while it dropped down to 200. I was only topping it up with small bits of hardwood and when they lit up the flame covered the roof! But it was a chilly night and with the door off, it needed more fuel. But they were cooking in about 4 minutes and were a nice golden colour on top with the cheese bubbling away. I'm thinking I'll stick to 250 as my bench mark and do them all like that. I just love the slight crunch but soft chewy centre and at that temp I can consistently get them cooked to perfection.

[Narmnaleg]

My bad I got so busy making pizzas I forgot the pics....oh well, a raging success anyway. I didn't have it much over 250 and after a while it dropped down to 200. I was only topping it up with small bits of hardwood and when they lit up the flame covered the roof! But it was a chilly night and with the door off, it needed more fuel. But they were cooking in about 4 minutes and were a nice golden colour on top with the cheese bubbling away. I'm thinking I'll stick to 250 as my bench mark and do them all like that. I just love the slight crunch but soft chewy centre and at that temp I can consistently get them cooked to perfection.

I had the same thing happen to my oven temps with the door open. I think that basically this oven needs to door closed to maintain temp.

Nothing at all wrong with 250c 4 minute pizza, just a different style (New York style I think) and tastes awesome when done well.
Now that I've had a taste of the 400c pizza though I'm not going back anytime soon. The crust becomes so soft and airy, so easy to bite off, so easy to digest. It has the slightest crunch on the surface, but there's no need to stretch it away from your mouth to tear it, rather your teeth feel like a guillotine, you bite down and it just severs.

This is what I've tried to aim for, from an American pizza making forum (http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index. ... #msg144646):
"1. Soft pizza crust that can be cut—with little or no effort—into slices by use of table knife and fork;
2. Soft pizza crust that does not break or crack when folded into what Neapolitans call “Neapolitan wallet” (portafoglio napoletano);
3. Moist crust that is not desiccated and crackery (although some crusts are too moist by the American standard);
4. Texturally light pizza crust and cornicione (crown or rim) that are not hard to chew;
5. Fluffy and airy cornicione (which is the artist’s signature on the blank dough canvas) that is inflated around the flat and roundish pizza disk;
6. Pizza crust, besides the cornicione, that is not too thin for its flavors to get lost amongst other flavors;
7. Pizza crust, besides the cornicione, that is not too thick to make chewing uneasy and is not burdensome to stomach;
8. Pizza crust that is endowed with moderate level of naturally induced sourness;
9. Full of subtle natural flavors to the sense of taste;
10. Aromatic to the sense of smell;
11. Aesthetically pleasing to the sense of sight;
12. Vivacious in color and composition;
13. Light and easily digestible to the stomach;"

Amazingly, last time I made pizza I could recognise most of the above characteristics (number 8 requires the Ischia starter that I mentioned before). I'll be trying to replicate that effort tonight. I really hope I can do so.

[Gumb]

Bloody hell! Talk about the science of pizza making. I would have failed that exam.

[Narmnaleg]

Bloody hell! Talk about the science of pizza making. I would have failed that exam.

You should see some of the discussions over formulas, ratios and temps that go on there. A bit scary for a newbie like me.

[Gumb]

I've got a hairline crack at the front now.....seems to be standard from what I've read and I gave mine many hours of low burning before I got it up to 200. Same last night, I gave it an hour at 100 before I went further so it must be in them all I'd say.

I also wonder why they say don't use charcoal as a fuel.

[Gumb]

And a lot of good info for anyone looking at purchasing these ovens.

[Gatsby]

Hi Narmnaleg and Gumb,
I'm enjoying these threads and your journey.
Very interesting and tempting.
Validating another toy is hard.

Have a look in the flea market. Some free wood on offer.

While on wood. What size chunks do you use?
Split into 1 inch, 2 or bigger?
Do you need the wood to turn into coals quickly?

Cheers

[chriso]

Reading the last few pages I went from "don't really need a WFO" to "SOMEONE TAKE MY MONEY".
Your pizzas are amazing.