Maximus Portable Wood Fired Pizza Oven

Mmmm Pizza (how to build and use)
Narmnaleg
Posts: 1323
Joined: Mon Jul 19, 2010 4:45 pm
Location: Sydney, NSW, AU

Re: Maximus Portable Wood Fired Pizza Oven

Post by Narmnaleg »

Gatsby wrote: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
Glad to hear your take on this thread Gatsby.
The last three times I've made pizza I've gone with larger chunks of wood. I'll post some pics of them soon. Basically, most of the pieces are bertween 2 to 4 inches in diameter or thickness.
I start the fire with small kindling pieces, then throw one large piece on. Once that has caught well I move the fire off to the other side and add another large piece. These seem to stay lit for a long time and get the oven to higher temps. I then just add as I go only if necessary. I don't wait till there's only coals left. I cook while there's a big fire going.
Narmnaleg
Posts: 1323
Joined: Mon Jul 19, 2010 4:45 pm
Location: Sydney, NSW, AU

Re: Maximus Portable Wood Fired Pizza Oven

Post by Narmnaleg »

Gumb wrote: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. :?
Interesting about the crack considering how much low burning you did... I'm still on two cracks so far.
I read somewhere that charcoal has a drier heat, not sure how this affect the oven though. I'm thinking it might have something to do with the bricks on the bottom?
Narmnaleg
Posts: 1323
Joined: Mon Jul 19, 2010 4:45 pm
Location: Sydney, NSW, AU

Re:

Post by Narmnaleg »

chriso wrote:Reading the last few pages I went from "don't really need a WFO" to "SOMEONE TAKE MY MONEY".
Your pizzas are amazing.
Thanks for posting your view of this thread Chriso, glad to hear you're finding it interesting. It has been and continues to be an interesting journey.
Gumb

Re: Maximus Portable Wood Fired Pizza Oven

Post by Gumb »

Narmnaleg wrote:
Gatsby wrote:

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
Glad to hear your take on this thread Gatsby.
The last three times I've made pizza I've gone with larger chunks of wood. I'll post some pics of them soon. Basically, most of the pieces are bertween 2 to 4 inches in diameter or thickness.
I start the fire with small kindling pieces, then throw one large piece on. Once that has caught well I move the fire off to the other side and add another large piece. These seem to stay lit for a long time and get the oven to higher temps. I then just add as I go only if necessary. I don't wait till there's only coals left. I cook while there's a big fire going.
That's pretty much what I do as well. When we finished the pizzas the other night, I let it die down and the low glowing coals and the oven just under 200, I was crying that we didn't have any bread dough to go in. Will make sure i have that ready next time.

Thanks to all for the feedback too, it's what this forum is all about. :)
Narmnaleg
Posts: 1323
Joined: Mon Jul 19, 2010 4:45 pm
Location: Sydney, NSW, AU

Re: Maximus Portable Wood Fired Pizza Oven

Post by Narmnaleg »

A couple more Maximus cook ups from the weekend.

Saturday night, roasted pork skewers and potatoes. I was impatient and did not wait long enough for the heat to come down, so the pork got cooked too quickly:
Image

The potatoes could have used an extra 10 minutes, but they cooked in the pork drippings so no complaining about the taste:
Image


Sunday night I had some guests, no better excuse to keep the pizzas flowing:
Margherita
Image

Cabanossi
Image

Rosemary and cheese
Image

Prosciutto and cheese
Image
Gumb

Re: Maximus Portable Wood Fired Pizza Oven

Post by Gumb »

Mate, you win ! I can't eat that much pizza :D ....nice pork and spuds....looks delish !

Are we obsessed do you think ? :)
Narmnaleg
Posts: 1323
Joined: Mon Jul 19, 2010 4:45 pm
Location: Sydney, NSW, AU

Re: Maximus Portable Wood Fired Pizza Oven

Post by Narmnaleg »

Gumb wrote:Mate, you win ! I can't eat that much pizza :D ....nice pork and spuds....looks delish !

Are we obsessed do you think ? :)
Us two? Nooooo! :lol:

Oh ok, perhaps I am slightly OCD at the moment, but in a good way :oops:
Narmnaleg
Posts: 1323
Joined: Mon Jul 19, 2010 4:45 pm
Location: Sydney, NSW, AU

Re: Maximus Portable Wood Fired Pizza Oven

Post by Narmnaleg »

Last night, while I had ribs cooking in the BSK I made this roast chook in the Maximus. I love the Inglewood farms organic chicken:

Potatoes, sweet potatoes and onion goes in first:
Image

A little while later I made space in the middle and the chook went in:
Image

The finished product (breast at 64c, thigh at 75, chook was turned twice, oven was kept at 200c most of the time):
Image

I'll be doing this again for sure.
Gumb

Re: Maximus Portable Wood Fired Pizza Oven

Post by Gumb »

Fabulous effort ! I'm going to have a crack at that.
Zorba
Posts: 521
Joined: Tue Mar 05, 2013 4:12 pm

Re: Maximus Portable Wood Fired Pizza Oven

Post by Zorba »

ok, now i want a pizza oven.

id aim at 300C tho, i like my pizzas a little less charred and would be happy to wait an extra couple of minutes required for the lower temp.

but god dam, im hungry now.
Narmnaleg
Posts: 1323
Joined: Mon Jul 19, 2010 4:45 pm
Location: Sydney, NSW, AU

Re: Maximus Portable Wood Fired Pizza Oven

Post by Narmnaleg »

Awesome Zorba!

You can avoid the charring by simply taking the pizza out a few seconds earlier. The higher temp allows a quicker cooking time and this allows me to avoid a biscuitting effect (hard crust and crunchy base) that you can get on longer cooks.

The biscuit effect is not much of an issue if you are making a thicker style pizza or are using oil in your dough, but as I'm aiming at neapolitan style pizza (flour, water, yeast, salt, cooked in 90 seconds) I need the higher temps and 400c at the pizza location is my target.

What you can't tell from the photos is that the spotted crust (leoparding) is soft and fluffy, with a very slight crunchy resistance when you first bite into it :)
Narmnaleg
Posts: 1323
Joined: Mon Jul 19, 2010 4:45 pm
Location: Sydney, NSW, AU

Re: Maximus Portable Wood Fired Pizza Oven

Post by Narmnaleg »

Zorba, check out this video for the type of pizza crust/rim that I was referring to:

Pizza Video
Zorba
Posts: 521
Joined: Tue Mar 05, 2013 4:12 pm

Re: Maximus Portable Wood Fired Pizza Oven

Post by Zorba »

its all a pipe dream at the moment fella's no way to get it past management right now.

even if i legitimately won one id probably have to sell it. far to many other things on the waiting list before a WFO.

if only there was a small cheap one made of steel that someone is developing and will hopefully come on the market soon :wink:
Narmnaleg
Posts: 1323
Joined: Mon Jul 19, 2010 4:45 pm
Location: Sydney, NSW, AU

Re: Maximus Portable Wood Fired Pizza Oven

Post by Narmnaleg »

Zorba wrote:if only there was a small cheap one
Here you go:
Get cooking
Zorba
Posts: 521
Joined: Tue Mar 05, 2013 4:12 pm

Re: Maximus Portable Wood Fired Pizza Oven

Post by Zorba »

not woodfired. i may aswell use a regular oven.

i was subtly refering to wangs thread.
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