Maybe I was missing something over the past couple of decades, but I don’t recall using the phrase “re-purpose.” Now don’t get me wrong, I completely get it and love the possibilities of turning something worthless into something worthwhile. My partner in life is really good at it, as you will see in future posts. I am new at this, but stand quite proud of my inaugural attempt.
My grandparents bought a vacation home in the mountains in the mid-1960s. While the cabin they purchased was relatively small (just over 600 square feet), the key for them was a great patio, capable of hosting parties of 20. Mounted in the concrete was interesting barrel-shaped grill.
But in nearly 50 years of visiting, I don’t remember one occasion when it was used. It ultimately became a catch-all for garden tools or whatever needed setting down.
This summer, I had a vision. I wanted to turn a never used grill into a wood-fired outdoor pizza oven. When you look at the before picture, it appeared pretty simple. The grill was rusted in place and would not elevate or lower, so that had to be fixed as I would want the 14 inch grill to get near the top. I also needed some form of steel or iron doors to close it up. To accomplish this, we needed a welder, a skill set I lack.
But we have a great neighbor and friend who could repair the Titanic. When I shared my pizza oven vision, he was in. Within a week, he had removed the grill and taken to a local metal works. A steel door was fabricated with scrap metal and a screw bolt was attached to close the barrel. We installed a thermometer on the top and put an inexpensive pizza stone in place.
Now let’s get this puppy fired up!
We brought up some pizza dough, pepperoni, sauce, cheese and olives (just in case). J is a master of tossing the dough and getting it prepped. I loaded up charcoal and wood, put the stone in place, and got the fire burning. My biggest fear? Could we generate enough heat? If you cook pizza in your house oven, you put your thermostat at 500.
With the fire at high heat, I closed the door to heat the stone and check the thermometer. I could only get to 325. Uh oh. J had the pizza ready on skin, so let’s give it a shot. Note the photos sliding it in for our first pizza, as well as the first time this barrel had been hot in 50+ years.
The outcome was outstanding! Crust cooked perfectly. It could not have been better. I spent the next few hours in self-gloat, but incredibly thankful for our friend. He has a lifetime option on using the oven year round. Now we can really start to have some fun with some new ideas on toppings.
