Need more power... (grunt)... Dacor oven

I spoke to local Dacor repair yesterday.  They said they would haave to
send out a repair guy to do the reset - probably for the same reason.  Can
anyone describe how to do this.  I'd rather not pay some guy 150 bucks to
come to my house to push a button.

        Yes, a couple of different thermometers indicate we're getting
to at least 550 if not 575 right at the stone's surface.  We just
remodeled the kitchen and tossed one of those probably exact same 60's
GE ovens.  I'd have to say that old GE seemed to do a better job on a
crisp crust for me; I'd whack it up full bore, never measuring the
temp since I didn't have anything to measure past 550 reliably, but
I'd have to say, now after a couple dozen pizzas in the new oven, that
the old one got hotter.

 We have been thinking about the Dacor but may now re-evaluate that
idea, based on your

      My guess would be convection would not be a good idea for any
bread-like items for the reason you mention.

 I

    Works well for bread but how would this affect the bottom crust
sitting on a stone?  I guess the question might be, what ARE you
cooking your crusts on?

      I fully concur with Peter's previous posts re overnight
retardation; best thing you can ever do to dough.

I disassembled the oven door lock today; it has a couple of different
sensors to determine if the door actually got locked or not; at the
moment it looks a little more destructive to defeat than I'm in the
mood for, so I put the screws back in and am considering a
programming-related solution now... Sure would be helpful to get some
inside dope from the mfg. or a renegade tech though...

tx all,

eno

Have been doing that and it definitely improves the flavor of the
crust.  One night I ran out of time and it "retarded" in the fridge
for two days.  The improvement over a single night was significant.

Only problem I'm having is estimating the timing so that the dough
warms up, starts rising enough, but not too much... The pizza's great,
but I'd prefer it at 8PM instead of midnight if I guess the time wrong.

Some of the folks on the smoking/bbq lists suggest loading up the bbq
with bricks: check www.bbq-porch.org for more info.  They use the
thermal mass to even out temperature swings for their long cool
smoking (8-12 hours at about 250F).  You could use the mass to
maintain the high temperature of your grill for pizza.

I'm thinking of doing this next time as the bread I made with my first
grilled pizza was obviously baked too cool: internal temperature
reached 205F or so, but the crumb was dry and the crust was rather
pallid instead of the toasty brown I do inside in the Dacor.

Have you measured with an oven thermometer to make sure the oven
actually heats to 550F? We have an old GE that heats to that temp while
looking like a 60's relic ready to fall apart. We have been thinking
about the Dacor but may now re-evaluate that idea, based on your
statement. It strikes me that cooking a pizza without using convection
heating would be desirable, as you don't want the oven to dehumidify. I
always squirt H20 in several times while cooking to get a crisper crust,
as baker's ovens do by design.
I don't think the flour type or recipe will help your problem. Make sure
you are using a hefty stone, not one of those little wimpy ones. You
need to hold the heat.
Good Luck
Kent

I finally got a reply from Dacor on my inquiry re increasing the max
temp past 550.

The story is that the 550 degrees is "hardwired into the oven
control".

Duh.

To my complaint that the fan runs continuously during the delay time
(where the oven is set to begin cooking hours later), I'm told the
functions of the convection fan and the cooling fan; no word about why
it must run during the delay, so I wrote back asking again.

In short, no real wisdom from the Dacor help folks, unfortunately.  I
was expected a little more than just regurgitation of the owner's
manual.

So, I guess it's time for a little reverse engineering...

eno

Thanks much, Peter, Chuck, Chris, and all for your helpful insights.
I'm still questing for the 800 degree hack though... haven't had Dacor
folk beating my door down yet but I'm still waiting.

It does appear that the panel which houses the door lock is removable
and probably would allow that little problem to be defeated, which if
nothing else would allow one to play with a much warmer area... I'll
have a look at that this afternoon.  It's intriguing to see a pie bake
in about 2 minutes at http://www.mugnaini.com/videos .html ...

Wonder if anyone has any idea of what the upper safe limit for dough
might actually be?  I do know it's certainly possible to heat the
stone past that limit in the gas grill... having done so again this
weekend playing around.
Biggest problem with the grill is no heat retention above, of course.

eno

In article <79d20193.0404212147.39118 @posting.google.com>,

I was wondering the same thing about hacking the self-cleaning to
access 800F temperatures so this is an interesting discussion.

I've got a Dacor and a fibrament stone and a couple cheap ceramic
stones.  They seem to do a very good job at 550F, but I keep
experimenting with crust:

  http://chris.shenton.org/recip es/pizza/pizza_existential.txt

Most times I don't use convection but sometimes do; I hear that the
internal temperature is increased about 25-50F with convection on but
haven't verified.

We recently had to have the Dacor repair guy come when one of the
ovens refused to heat.  Turns out the Dacor sucks in fresh air right
by the handles, through the electronics area, then through the ovens
and out.  If you leave the door open for a long time with a very hot
oven, it ends up sucking air from the oven cavity, into the
electronics area, and a sensor shuts it down to prevent melting
components.  It's easy to reset the breaker (looks like a microswitch)
but could be much more problemmatic using excessive temperatures.
The tech said this is common and they were pushing Dacor to re-design
this to avoid sucking hot air into the electronics.

I just tried this using the technique Peter Reinhart talks about in
_American Pie_; I have an offset smoker and I did coals on one side
only to get different heat zones.  His tech has you setting the dough
balls in a pool of oil for quite a while, then stretching it out in
the oil.  About 60 seconds over very hot (hard wood) coals gets it
scorched, flip, move to a cooler side of the grill, top, cover, and
leave for another couple minutes.  Turned out very well but not at all
like baked pizza -- not the bread-like rise, but more a
shattery-pastry-layer effect.  Surprisingly not oily.

I'd be ineterested in hearing other experiences with pizza on the grill.

I will have to try your combination of flours. I HIGHLY recommend that you
try the method of letting the dough set in the fridge overnight. After
mixing and letting rise for about an hour, put in the fridge for 24-36
hours. Then roll out and bake as usual. It can make a big difference.

--
Peter Aitken

Remove the crap from my email address before using.

Thanks for the tip; since I've been using a stone for the past few
years I guess I'd have to tip you that the stone doesn't get you
there.  Close, but even after preheating at 550 for over an hour you
still need more heat.  At least I think.

eno

You probably need a different crust recipe. I find that for best results you
need to make the dough the day before and let it "ripen" in the fridge
overnight.

--
Peter Aitken

Remove the crap from my email address before using.

In article <79d20193.0404212147.39118 @posting.google.com>,

You could cook your pizza using a charcoal grill/cooker
http://www.kamado.com
http://www.biggreenegg.com

Chuck Demas

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Use a pizza stone.