Thanks for your comment John and so glad you found the video useful even after you bought your oven! Sure you'll enjoy working with your Bushman oven. Best wishes, David and Holly

thanks so much Danny - we're so glad you're finding our videos so helpful. Look forward to welcoming you to the cooking school at some point. Best wishes and keep enjoying cooking with your woodfired oven. David and Holly

great news - thanks

Cheers Doug. I have known several people who've successfully added mass in the form of extra bricks. Good tip.

thankyou; there's such a lot of choice now so we wanted to put a video out there showing the differences to help buyers compare and make decisions as to what's best for them

thankyou David!

Thanks for the comments. You're correct in spotting that the Morso is not a dedicated oven. It is a multi-purpose patio heater and oven. I would caution against any indoor use as it would leak smoke and carbon monoxide into any enclosed space.

Hi Adela, the Alfa/Alpha (different brands, I have the Alfa original Italian model) is great for grilling. For bread it is good for a loaf or two or a tray of rolls but reheating is generally required between each bake. If you are planning to bake a lot the refractory ovens like the Bushman win handsdown. In a video coming soon we are showing how to do a batch of baking in the Bushman. I think it will be out next week.Hope that helps. Best wishes,David

Hi Robin, this sounds like an interesting project. I'm afraid there is no formula for heating the oven as there are many variables. At the very least heat the oven until the soot burns off, which it will when the wall surfaces reach about 350c. Record how much wood and time this took. Try your basic bread again and see how quickly the oven loses temperature. Then repeat the exercise with 2x the original wood, then 3x etc. I would hope that an oven of that size would cool slowly oven at least 18 - 24 hours if it was saturated with heat. More information about the oven and photos would be great to see so feel free to send those via email.

Yes I have used the Gozney dome. Being a full refractory oven it has better stability and retention than the Alpha 4 pizze but it doesn't have a more floor space (55cm x 47cm oval). It's a little bigger than the Karu. If you are looking for more floor space and good heat retention then an oven with at least a 60cm floor will provide that. The Bushman in the video is a 60cm diameter floor and I find I have to think carefully about which pans to use if i want to cook 2 or three dishes at once.

Having the dome myself, I have found it only needs a few tiny bits of wood every now and then to comfortably hold 250c - 300! This would be even less if you purchase the door. Once fully heated (about 30-45 mins) it's incredibly efficient!!

Hi, thanks for your comment and kind words. A well built traditional oven should stand up well to cold and snow but all ovens benefit from protection from wet and frost. a roof over the top will avoid the oven becoming damp if left for a few months over the winter and a fleece/old blanket over the oven will keep the frost out. This will all help keep your oven in top condition and prolong its life. The traditional oven in the video is 60cm/24inches internal diameter Best wishes David

It's always a good idea after a winter lay-off to start with a gentle fire. All masonry absorbs moisture from the air so there will be some damp in the oven, even if covered. Heating this too quickly could produced a lot of steam and may cause small pieces of masonry to pop off or crack tiles. A warming fire to dry the oven will prevent this and make sure the oven is working at maximum efficiency when you come to do you first cooks of the New Year.

Thanks so much Kenny - so glad you found it useful. Looking forward to welcoming you to the cooking school in June. Best wishes, David and Holly

I wonder if it's possible to contact a morso dealer near where you live to see the oven in action; the forno does heat up on the outside but then you can enjoy that heat after cooking. A small metal or refractory oven may work for you - they aren't all huge but again try to see them in action with a dealer!! Best wishes, David

Hi Tim, thanks for your comments. This not the easiest question to answer because it depends on the sort of cooking you intend to do. I think that for most people a 60cm internal diameter masonry oven will be sufficient. The smaller size is quicker to heat, more economical and can turn out a surprising amount food. Occasionally, when you want to cook several dishes at one time or when you have a large party it won;t be enough, but only occasionally. Regarding steel ovens I would reccomend a 60 x 80 like the Alfa 4 Pizze. It's more spacious but still very economical so you may as well enjoy the larger floor space.

@@mannadavid Hi David, thanks for your reply. I want an outdoor kitchen to do mostly all cooking tasks outdoors. I have a nice kitchen indoors but cooking outside is fun. For example making bacon and eggs for breakfast on my grills side burner at 0°C is a great start for a winters weekend. I like to cook in bigger portions and freeze leftovers to have quick but good meals on busy days. I love low and slow cooked meat and stews. My conventional electric oven reaches it's limits according cookware size. My 40 cm carbon steel pan doesn't fit in there and I have other big skillets/roasting pans/dutch ovens on my wishlist. I though about an 60-80cm masonry oven which suits your recommendations. I will "work" me trough your videos to get even more ideas for buying/building one of those ovens. The only downside watching your videos is that I'm getting hungry no matter what time it is 😋 Again thanks for your time and effort making those videos, please continue doing it!

Hi James, how are you measuring the temperature? If you are using the thermometer on the front I would be looking for about 350c as this temp reading is always affected by the inrush of cold air at the door. I always recommend smaller pieces of wood to release energy more quickly. Much better in the smaller ovens. Hope that helps. best wishes, David

Brilliant thanks 🙏 love your videos

@@jamesehanson thanks so much James!

Hi Bernard, we love our Morso hear at Manna from Devon but agree with you that maintaining a high temperature is tricky. We keep a god fire to one side of the oven which means we can cook towards the back, always the hottest part. We also use the door to increase the interanal temperature. We have a downloadable class which explains this technique in greater detailmannafromdevon.podia.com/5f3e2450-a473-4242-ab40-cde3aebbbf80 Or checkout this video on KZfaq kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jMinbJCTzr2uhmQ.html

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 .

Hi Telsa - great question. We call them woodfired ovens as you can cook anything on them from pizzas (of course) to fish to meat dishes of all kind to breads, pastries and cakes. It's an oven and you can cook anything in it; that's how we think of them. Check out our playlists for ideas of what you can cook. Happy cooking! 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 - kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jMinbJCTzr2uhmQ.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

hope it works well