Permsteading.com

My Dad was the bread baker, canner of fruits and vegetables, and the one who cooked things like dried beans in my family. At first he too would try out a new skill when no one was at home. But eventually his contributions were appreciated enough that he did about half of the cooking. My mom was skeptical at first but came to appreciate the help. You may have started something similar.

My Dad couldn't Boil water, So when he retired he bought a book titled " How to Boil Water " which was a very simple, very easy, very detailed cook book for Dummies. He and a Neighbor would each try and make supper and invite the other one and his wife to come and try the food. This sort of went OK until Dad tried to make a Raspberry pastry. He was trying to take the beaters out of the mixer after mixing it up and ended up turning the mixer on. Cut off the tip of his Ring finger. It healed up OK, but that was the end of the Dinners. Some times it good to realize your skill level and your limitations.

There is an old picnic table out by the oven. I use it to hold the loaves as they cool, stack the dry wood and papers for the fire, and to hold the timer and any tools I might need for Baking. It is not clean enough to knead the bread and would be hard to clean now because of its age. It would hold a large cutting board or something like that for kneading the bread. That would require hauling all the ingredients out side and back in again. I will think about that as an option. I have Baked 4 loaves of bread and 5 Pizzas so far. Everything has turned out very good.

I have been vicariously enjoying your pizza oven. I would love to build one.

It was a more involved process than I expected to build it. You need welding skills and a way to cut the metal. Ron had 22 hours of work in the oven, stretched out over several weeks which was much more than I expected. We were of course winging it most of the time. The drawing we used was not drawn to scale and many key measurements were missing entirely. Ron complained about that fact a lot, But it turns out most of those measurements were not critical and rocket stove technology is very forgiving. I would recommend making one if you have the skill to weld. We used a plasma cutter to cut the barrels, but you could easily use something else. You need 4 barrels, one with a removal lid for the main oven barrel is preferred, but not mandatory, and one smaller than 55 gal for the oven its self. The other 2 barrels are used as a base and a cover over the top to hold down the insulation. It truly does work well and I have had it over 500 degree, just to see how hot it will get. To bake at 375 degrees you only need 3 small sticks and a hot bed of coals. If you have the skills I would go for it.

Hmm. Welding.

I think this will remain a vicarious experience.

LOL, That's why I let Ron do all the work for me. I have NO skills when it comes to welding.

Guy, the next time you are the big box home store ask if they have any sink cut-outs from laminate counter-top available. That should give you plenty of room for throwing down pizza dough or kneading bread.

That is a Good suggestion Lolly. I saved one of those myself when I put a kitchen in, I will have to go down in the basement and look . It should be around some place.