วีดีโอ

Great news Kate. Lovely to hear from you and happy Christmas to you both x

there is a link in the paragraph above to the recipe on our blog but if you can't see it, try this - www.mannafromdevon.com/woodfired/ciabatta-from-the-wood-fired-oven/ Best wishes and happy cooking

thanks - good point

Perhaps they are considering it for the next model.

Fabulous - enjoy your cooking!

Thankyou 👍

Hi Stasios there are certainly a lot of different choices out there. Things you should consider are - what kinds of things you want to cook in it what space you have available for the oven and what the access is like how much you want to spend The alfa can certainly cook a roast chicken and much else besides. It has less thermal mass than the traditional ovens like the Bushman so if you wanted to do larger joints or even a whole lamb then you would need to keep the embers burning and creating heat over the longer cooking time whereas the Bushman style ovens can cook these purely with their retained heat. Do check out the recipes we make in the different ovens to see how we use them We can only point out the different options and abilities of the ovens; the final decision is of course down to you, what you want to cook and where you want to site it. Exciting times ! Hope that's helped a little - do let us know if you have any other queries. Happy cooking David and Holly

Hi Wayne Many thanks for your comment and we're so glad you'll be using your oven for so much more! We work in celsius Best wishes David

Celsius.

Hi Janet, thanks for your message and I'm glad to hear it's going well. You can retard the dough (put it in the fridge) at any point in the process during the first fermentation phase. I would probably give it 2 - 3 stretch and folds first then into the fridge and at least one more stretch and fold when it comes out. The retardation allows for greater water absorption, gluten development and flavour development, so well worth giving it a go. The addition of bread flour will make a marginal difference to texture although it may be more absorbant than 00 because it contains more bran. The addition bran and germ will bring a little more flavour. Best wishes David

you're welcome - hope it's helpful!

Hi Paul, many thanks for your message and kind words. The old school way to add some humidity is to place a pan of water inside the over (an old bread tin will do) and to add steam with a spray as you add the bread. I haven't found it as reliable for spring as a dutch oven. The high dome doesn't help, a bakery oven would typically have a lower roof. However, the crust is second to none. Best wishes, David

Adding an anti downdraught cowl is probably the solution. These disperse the pressure differential caused by wind blowing across the flue and prevent turbulance in the flue pipe.

Hi, thanks for your message. Yes, I did modify it. I placed the handle on the other side of the door. Then I used a rubber mallet to carefully put a little more bend into the base so the door stands on its own. The original set up was too much of a nuisance as it kept falling over.

it certainly is - do let us know how you get on!

Thanks so much - glad you found it so useful

Hi Janet - thanks for your message and great to hear from you. Do let us know how you get on. What a beautiful part of the world you live in - we loved our time on Vancouver Island. Must come back some day! Best wishes David

That's very kind; thankyou

We work in C not F. Hope that helps

Thanks Paul - hope you found it useful

Hi Gill - thanks so much for your question and great to hear from you. We don't have a video covering all that but you could join us for one of our hands-on courses here at the cooking school when we can teach you lots about sourdough! Best wishes David

@@mannadavid that would great. When are you running them I’d love to do that. Gill

@@gilldickinson4428 Hi Gill - all the details and dates are on the website on the following link - www.mannafromdevon.com/cookery-courses/bread-making/sourdough-saturday/ Hope that helps. If you have any queries or would like to book in, just email us on ~ info@mannafromdevon.com Best wishes David

thanks so much Kirk - so glad you found it useful Happy cooking! Best wishes David

8 hours total fermentation is still a good long time. If you are making it all at room temeperature rather than in the fridge I would stick to 5g.

thanks so much!

thanks for your question - there is a link to the recipe here www.mannafromdevon.com/woodfired/ciabatta-from-the-wood-fired-oven/

Hi Jacqueline, thanks for your message and thanks for watching. I would use pyrex when there is no fire in the oven and the temperature is below 275c/525f. Pyrex state that the product is safe up to 300C/575f. Similarly we regularly use earthenware and ceramics in the ovens but only at lower temperatures below 275c/525f. 👍

do have a go and let us know how you get on!

@mannadavid Thanks for the reply! Your videos convinced me to get into wood fired cooking and pick up the Morso Forno a few years back. My son used to ask "Is that a Mana video?" whenever he heard that catchy intro music...any chance we might see more in the near future?

indeed!

Have a search for heavy duty grill liner or grill mat. That should bring up some options for sheets suitable for use on the barbecue/outdoor grill.

It's 200C.

Thanks so much

I've had no problems making this dough up a day in advance and refrigerating it. it seems to stay pretty stable when cold. Go for it.

Thank you for your kind words, I'm glad you found it useful.

thanks so much!

Hi Royston, thanks for your message. Putting the flu at the rear is not a good idea. The traditional design of ovens, with the flu at the front, keeps the heat in the oven for as long as possible and brings the heat over the top of your food as it cooks. It's a very efficient design. if you put the flu at the back cool air will be drawn into the front of the oven and hot air will zip straight out again before it has a chance to provide heat to the oven. A common technique is to position the flue at the front but then to bend the flue pipe back over the top of the oven and embed it beneath the insulation. Known as squirrel tailing this takes the flue back over the oven and can provide heat feedback from the flue pipe back into the oven, increasing efficiency further.

@@mannadavid thank you very much for your reply, now i can get on with the build regards royston .

Thanks for your comment and great question. we use fresh mozzarella too and as you say it does release a lot of moisture making your pizza soggy. We get round this by taking the mozzarella out of the liquid a couple of hours before we wnt to use it, cut them in half and then place them on thick kitchen paper on a small board. The excess moisture drains into the paper and is easy to rip into smaller pieces and use so your pizzas aren't soggy any longer. Hope that helps - happy cooking! Best wishes David

Hi Tony, sorry for taking a while to respond. They are Whitefurze bowls. Google Whitefurze mixing bowls and you'll get plenty of options. I use 20cm, 25cm and 30cm bowls. Get a couple of each as they are inexpensive but last for ages.

Hi Tony - thanks for your message and great question. If a pan is in need of more than warm water and washing up liquid then we use baking soda. More info on how to use it here - www.armandhammer.com/articles/how-to-clean-a-burnt-pan

Hi Robert - thanks for your message and great to hear from you. We got them on ebay or amazon but it's been a while so can't be exact. some of them do go to higher temperatures so do keep searching. Happy cooking, best wishes, David and Holly

HI there - thanks for getting in touch and great question The doors have a variety of uses. In general terms we don't use the doors on the refractory and metal ovens when there is a fire in the oven as oxygen needs to get to the fire to keep it going and the doors will stifle this. We will use the doors in these ovens when we are cooking with just retained heat or a bed of embers that isn't giving off any fumes. and then we can use the door at lower temperatures to keep the temperature up or even raise it but if there are embers giving off fumes, we'll leave them ajar so the fumes can escape up the flues. with the cast iron oven, you need a fire going all the time as it has little to no retained heat. In this case we will use the door but offset it so the air can still get to the fire to deliver oxygen. It also helps create an oven within the oven by stabilising the air movement especially on a windy day, so you're protecting the fire and keeping the temperature up. we will of course use the oven without the door if there is a good fire burning and we are cooking something quick like a pizza. Lots more on our video all about doors if you follow this link - th-cam.com/video/Vbw9-biWJV0/w-d-xo.html

@@mannadavid thank you for the detailed clarification! so if I'm interested in building an oven and insulate heat WHILE the fire is burning, what are the most important factors for insulation, material? material thickness? shape of cavity? size of oven? size of oven opening?

@@zzzzzz69 some of the most important things that people forget is to insulate underneath your oven and also not to go too big. We use our smallest refractory oven - internal 80cm - more than any other and can happily feed a family or a crowd from it as well as firing it up for day to day use. In terms of building one there are lots of plans etc and oven building groups on the internet which would be better to research. We have cooked on many many ovens but we're not building specialists so do check them out for inspiration.

@@mannadavid awesome advise thank you very much!

@@mannadavid actually your answer made me wonder whether the 75cm size of the Morso would be way more efficient if only it's better insulated on all sides

Hi Craig. There's a click through in the description to our accompanying blog which has links to the peels and where we bought them. Hope that helps. Best wishes, David

Getting the oven up to temperature shouldn;t be too much of a problem. Light the fire with the flue wide open nd let it get burning nicely so the flue is drawing well before closing it partially. Play with how much you close it so the flue contines to draw exhaust fumes and doesn't smoke from the door. Sread your fire more widely around the oven to get heat into the walls without losing too much up the flue. If you intend to cook without fire then there is no problem because you can completely close the flue to cook. However, if you intend to cook with a fire burning, as for pizza and other quick dishes, you will need to keep the flue open at least partially. In this case you will need more fire burning to adjust the heat lost up the flue. You'll use more fuel but apart from that it should work ok.

@@mannadavid thanks so much, very much appreciated. Am still kicking myself I didn't build it the optimum way, albeit it was in quite a restricted space so a longer oven would have been tricky. In doing the initial curing light-ups, as you say, it's got up to temperature no problem, but keeping it that way has been the challenge Will follow your advice and let you know how it goes 🙏

Hi Toby, apologies for delay in replying. I usually leave it for just 15 minutes or so. It makes a huge difference.