After analyzing all types of domestic ovens, it’s time to learn more about pizza ovens. Pizza has become international meal thanks to it’s universal taste and versatile recipes each of which is correct and delicious. It’s basically impossible to make pizza wrong if you have even basic clue of cooking.
Pizza Ovens Insights
There are two main types of wood ovens – black and white ones.
- Black ovens cook food in the same chamber where the fire burns. This can happen while the fire is going or inside the heated chamber when the fire is down.
- White ovens use separate chambers for cooking and burning woods. That allows the cooking area to stay clean and white.
*Wood fired stoves are different from wood fired ovens. Stoves have separate hot surface areas for pans and pots. They also have at least two chambers- one where the fire burns and the other is where the food is cooked.
Cooling – most wood-fired ovens need several hours if not days (if the oven is well insulated) to cool down after cooking. As a rule, bigger and heavier ovens cool down slower. They act as thermal batteries keeping large amounts of heat for very long time. The heat stored in the oven allows cooking even without fire.
So, what type of oven do we need for the perfect wood fired pizza?
- Small wood fired pizza oven for your garden.
It’s the ultimate backyard, outdoor wood fired oven for small families, garden parties and cocktails. The outdoor pizza oven steps on metal platform which is separate from the wood burning oven. The chimney is removable and allows the kit to be transported by carriers. Fill the wood fired pizza oven with fuel only in one of the corners. The oven’s dome is made of heat resistant materials which disperse the heat properly and last long. The floor of the oven is also specially made of stone and is long lasting and prevents food to stick. These ovens don’t need much of a special care. They have to be painted from time to time and the inside needs specialist’s check once every few years.
The location of such small ovens is important as the smoke may fill the dome and ruin the taste of the pizza or whatever you cook. Small ovens like these are just a meter wide and can easily fit in gardens, terraces or patio areas. They reach temperatures up to 450 degrees Celsius which is more than enough and except for cooking, creates amazing atmosphere outside the house.
Using these is also easy as all you need is wood fired pizza oven kit which can be purchased from each gas station or big grocery store.
NB – You have to use wood not gas or electricity, as this very much where the unique taste, perfect temperature and heat distribution come from. Of course, wood fired ovens require skills and appropriate location but they have the charm and deliver the quality you search for.
- Masonry ovens
They are made of bricks or stone. Some have separate chambers where woods burn. Usually masonry ovens are commercially used to cook larger amounts of food. For better efficiency and heat distribution, the front of the oven is usually closed and sometimes even sealed.
- Pizza Oven Boxes
These mobile wood fired pizza ovens are basically stone baking chambers wrapped in steel. The benefit, according to most people and the manufacturers is the air flow created around the oven which increases radiant, convective and conductive heat. The pizza boxes should be placed on the BBQ. This is where the heat comes from. They are not wood burners and use outsourced heat.
These are compact and light so you need several friends and your old BBQ to start cooking. The pizza boxes are nothing more than transformers and better distributors of heat. These devices have indicator which shows the current temperature inside the oven and therefore you know when is the perfect time to insert the pizza. The chamber is big enough to bake meat, deserts, bread and anything you can think of.
- Pizza stones
This is big, flat and heavy piece of stone used for baking. It’s placed inside the oven and heated before or with the pizza. Thanks to the mass of pizza stones, the food is less likely to burn compared to metal or glass surface cookware. Unglazed ceramic or clay tiles can substitute cooking stones. Pizza stones can also be used outside the oven in the same way as pizza oven boxes – the way it’s shown on the picture below.
Tip: if not treated properly, pizza stones may fracture. To prevent that place them in cold oven and heat them for at least 45 minutes before the actual cooking to start. The same holds true for cooling too. Do not pour cold water on them when hot. Wait to cool down for several hours.
Thanks for your time. Next time we will explain how to build your own DIY wood fired oven.