@Lorenzo: information on ovens doesn’t get out of date, really. The earlier information on Dr Goods etc. is still valid.
Home oven recommendations - #31 by Dragonbones I’ve baked for 13 years in mine, and briefly had two running for a small bakery too. My wife is currently selling goods she bakes nearly daily in our original one, and it’s still going strong. Minor repairs were needed a couple times, and service was very quick (in our home; even the company owner showed up once to do the repair himself when his other staff were busy – VERY nice guy!), cheap, and clean. (I mean they cleaned up after themselves, sweeping the floor etc., something most repairmen don’t do here.)
@LostinAsia: our timer broke once too, after many years of very heavy use. They fixed it the same day, dirt cheap, and it’s been fine ever since. You should just call and ask for a repair. BTW, that’s not a splatter screen in the top; it’s meant to reflect the heat in all directions so the top cooks more evenly. After about 9 years of use, our top screen started buckling (due to being hit by stuff we were loading) and I called Dr. G for a replacement; the lady said to first try baking without it, because it doesn’t really make much of a difference, and several years later, I agree. I pulled the old one and never replaced it.
The overall quality, Lorenzo, is higher than the Kaiser IMO. It’s well worth the price.
The Dr. Goods gets plenty hot enough to bake pizza fine on 110 power; I turn it up to full (250C), top and bottom, with a layer of ceramic tile on the bottom (on ceramic girders, just strips of tile) with a Lodge Double Play Grill Griddle atop that, as the base of the oven. The oven got up to 250 in 20 when new (Feb 2009), now, thirteen years later, it takes 5 min. more. I go a little longer to get my base griddle nice and hot. After 25-30 min, I slide a pizza with a prebaked crust onto that, and the result is a nice, crispy thin- or thick-crust pizza. It’s superb pizza, not at all so-so. I’ve made hundreds in it, literally. It definitely doesn’t need an hour of preheating like a Kaiser from Costco. The oven is plenty hot and we bake in it almost daily. A cast iron Dutch oven (DO) isn’t needed for a nice loaf of bread, but boules done in one in the Dr Goods turn out awesome. I make sandwich loaves, bagels, crusty boules, you name it, no problem. If I want steam, I put a rack on the low position, load loaves into the hot oven and pour 1/2 a cup of boiling water from a metal cut onto the griddle and quickly close the door. Steams the bread well for a better rise. Baking a boule in a DO accomplishes the same without adding water.
@nz, do listen to Belgian Pie. He knows what he’s talking about. I feed my starter 4-5 times each weekend day, and when the container is full of mature dough I freeze the extra. The main starter goes into the fridge M-F for me, but I feed it well on weekends so the acid never takes over. Do as BP says and you’ll be fine. Don’t leave it out all the time, or it may mold.
@Lorenzo, the tops of even the Dr. Goods are lowish compared to a huge Western oven but we make do with what we can get on a budget and what can fit in a small apartment here. I usually cover loaves with foil after just a few minutes, and later turn the top temp down if the loaf is quite high.
@ others re: power load, it does fine on a 1650 ext. cord; later we had an electrician run three new wires into the house and put three new outlets in the kitchen (with the landlord’s permission) so we can run two ovens, a microwave, coffee machine and toaster simultaneously, if needed, without worrying about circuit breakers tripping, and without need for extension cords. Highly recommended, but that cost about $8k. However, we earned that back q uickly in sales.
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