Tandoor Oven testing pics

Hey all,
Long time lurker, I don't post often but I do read a lot. Thought I'd share some wood fired goodness that's not the normal run of the mill grilling.

I've traveled many times to India, and also love anything Indian that comes out of a tandoor oven. I've always wanted to build a tandoor, and was on my project list for the spring... but I saw this at a local restaurant supply auction and couldn't pass it up.


I've fired it twice now, just learning how big of a fire I need to get it up to temperature, where to put it in there, etc... I got it up to about 750-775 degrees with ~15 pounds of coals, which is close to where I want to be. I've tried both RO lump and stubb's natural briquettes, even some logs. Seems to respond well to all.


Here it is, all ~600 pounds of it.



Fits well into the arsenal.



Not too bad inside. I have to read if I'm supposed to fill these cracks or not.



Hot enough?


My favorite dishes are chicken tikka, and garlic naan. Here are my attempts.

I ran out of potatoes as a heat shield, so, some makeshift foil ones in there as well.


Official powder, typo and all, grabbed last time I was in India


Skewers loaded up



Cooking/cooked






First go at naan. Only made one naan donation to the fire
I like a lot of garlic... so.. there's garlic both in the dough and on it.

TedW said:

A wood fired tandoor... YOU ARE THE MAN

Indian is easily my favorite ethnic food. I love the people, the food, the cultures.

I would LOVE such a tandoor. You are so smart

Now I want one: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=build+a+tandoor+oven

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You need one dude. My kamado can get almost that hot, and I can do tikka in it, but, it's not the same. Also, nothing replaces naan cooked on a tandoor wall, I tried with both stones and tawas.

I paid $225 in the auction for this, and had to rent a van to get it home for $60. Money well spent considering the time investment in making my own (which I was totally ready to do). I don't know exactly which manufacturer this was.. I found a page that was close, but now I can't find it. Close comparison -> https://www.desiclik.com/stainless-steel-square-tandoor-for-restaurant-nsf.html


In case anyone is wondering how these are constructed, this explains it (I think my outside dimensions are 34"x34")

m-fine said:

A tandoor at home would be so cool, but I wouldn't use it enough to convince the wife to let it stay.

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Sounds like she's gotta go!!!

(j/k. sort of)

TedW said:

It's not worth ordering naan unless from a tandoor.

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Agreed!

Smoking Piney said:

How hot would you typically run this, and how long does it take to warm up?

I imagine you can go to "ludicrous speed" with the heat on this. :-D

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It took 60-90 minutes to get up to temperature. I saw around 800 degrees wall temperature, about 3/4 of the way up (where I'd cook naan).

Wiki says they can get to 900 but all of the reading I've done says Naan (and most things) are good above 700ish. I saw 700 something and stuck the skewers in.

I have no one to ask for reference so all trial and error here. The two times I fired it, I did the fire off to the side. I may do a fire in the middle, then move the coals to the side when it's cooking time, much like folks do in a wood fired pizza oven, so that the walls are evenly heated.

I am assuming that the fire off to the side keeps me burning whatever is towards the bottom of the skewers, I've been placing the bottoms of the skewers away from the actual coals.

My guys in India are going to ask restaurant guys there some tips and pass along ( :loco as I'm not sure if/when to use the lid to the thing. I'm guessing when firing it up, to leave the lid off, for airflow... but I see some people put it on when cooking to trap heat in, once the coals are ashed over. Not sure yet. Guess I'll have to keep cooking and try.

Only thing is, this is a behemoth of a restaurant tandoor, it does take a lot of coal, compared to something like a kamado or kettle if you were just doing some quick grilling.


Pretty sure I can make use of my rotisserie forks to place much larger things in there, like whole birds. I picked up some square skewers just for that purpose. My current skewers are super long, but there's no reason I couldn't shorten them up and hang them from a bar spanning the opening, as well. Can also put in the basket from the charbroil big easy. Lots of ideas flowing, seems like anything you can do in a wood fired pizza oven is fair game, just different entry point

Ah, cool man Good to have Brethren close by. If you ever want to take it for a test drive just holler.

I got it (via Grafe auction company) from the restaurant supply auction that's down in Vineland every couple months. These are the actual people that run it, some good deals to be had there if you like to cook. I grabbed some good stuff for our tailgate. https://www.facebook.com/Marcacci-Equipment-Company-1403746339933042/

I grew up right on the other side of 38 but my father grew up in Mississippi, that's where my BBQ'ing genes come from. Useful up in these parts where there's a shortage of good Q.

newtwoq said:

My question is how in the heck do you get the Naan to stick to the side and then get it off?

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Great question.
Not my video, but, watch this (about 45 seconds in).
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltADJfQRwtk"]Tandoori Cooking - Naan Breads - YouTube[/ame]

You slap it to the wall and it sticks. The dough itself is nice and sticky, and, you quickly wet the part that'll stick to the wall if there are any dry spots.

I use a naan gaddi aka naan cushion to smack it on the wall, I'm not smart enough to bare-hand it :blabla:

The back is nice and crispy