Hello,
I am a first time poster here. I have just moved into a house with an installed Portuguese pizza / bread oven. This is made out of terracotta and has no chimney and a cast iron door. Our problem is that we can't seem to get it working with charcoal without smoking ourselves out. I am tempted to put a chimney on it and just light a fire in there.
Is this a bad idea? Any advice?
Thanks,
Dave
Hi Dave,
You are fortunate that the only problems you have had thus far have been smoke related.
If there is no chimney, it would seem that the far greater danger would be carbon monoxide poisoning...
You are likely to get all sorts of advice here, but were I in your situation I would certainly not be lighting it again until I checked with the local fire safety professionals.
All the best,
It sounds like something that's intended for outdoor use. Perhaps some sort of misguided decorating accent?
You don't want to burn anything without an exhaust for the combustion byproducts, unless your objective is suicide.
Hi Dave, I'm kinda new here too.. I did a newsgroup search on 'food' just before thanksgiving and found this place, and also rec.food.cooking.. I have no clue about your pizza oven thing.. I just wanted to say welcome. hehe lucy :)
It is possible that the heat is supplied by a source outside the oven chamber, either a different chamber that surrounds the oven or is below the oven and has a different door and does connect to the chimney, or electric elements built into the floor and walls of the oven and controlled by a thermostat you have yet to discover.
Indirect heat is the way the Romans built the heating for their bath houses, or others built their heating in their medieval houses, with the fire in the outside chimney warming the room on the other side of the brick wall. If the oven is for use, that would be my best guess. It may have gas heating somewhere if the house as gas, or it could have electric elements built into the brickwork under the terra cotta. See if you can find out who installed the thing, or if the neighbours know anything about it, or if the prior owners are still around and can fill you in.
RsH
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R.S. (Bob) Heuman - Toronto, ON, Canada ======================================================= Independent Computer Security Consulting Web Site Auditing for Compliance with Standards or Copyright retained. My opinions - no one else's... If this is illegal where you are, do not read it!
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