I finished our pizza oven over two years ago now and although we have used it regularly over that time, I feel that I have really perfected how to use the oven over this summer. The learning curve is pretty steep, even as a former Englishman who swore by charcoal barbecues over gas, the art of firing a pizza oven is completely different. For about the first year, I made the same silly mistakes. I didn't put enough wood on to get the temperature up fast enough. I didn't consider what the weather had been like over the previous two weeks (humid, damp?) and of course, I never had enough wood ready to go when I needed it.
We had two very public failures, both when we had guests and where I just failed to plan properly and misjudged the whole thing. Now though, I think I have perfected it. There are a few simple things that you need to get right to get a roaring oven like this:
We had two very public failures, both when we had guests and where I just failed to plan properly and misjudged the whole thing. Now though, I think I have perfected it. There are a few simple things that you need to get right to get a roaring oven like this:
Weather
It might seem obvious but the weather is crucial, check the forecast, not just for when you want to fire the oven but also for the days before. A damp oven just won't fire, it is as simple as that. If there has been heavy rain in the week preceding, I always check to see if I need to light a smaller fire just to dry the oven out the day before we need it. One hour spent the day before makes the difference between a fire like the one above and a damp oven that will only just about make soggy pizza.
Wood
Always have plenty of dry seasoned wood in a variety of sizes from small kindling to get the fire going, mid sized pieces to get the fire to the point where it will light the larger pieces and finally, the larger pieces that will get the oven up to the 400 degrees centigrade that makes the perfect pizza in just about 3 minutes.Pizza Dough
Always make your own. It is so simple that it is a no brainer. We use a recipe that uses a 50%-50% blend of strong white bread flour and plain flour. That seems to be the perfect mix that works from scratch in about 2 hours including rising time.Tomato Sauce
Again, make your own, it is so simple. Core and halve your tomatoes and put them in the oven in a baking tray with a whole bulb of garlic. When you start getting white spots on the top or the side of your oven, the temperature is right to put your tomatoes in. The garlic and the tomatoes will roast and soften beautifully and all you need to do will be squeeze the garlic cloves out into the tomatoes, add some oregano and basil and blitz in a food processor. This freezes really well so I always make more than we need and freeze what is left over.
Oven Temperature
This is the last point but without doubt the one and only point that makes or breaks a good pizza, if you really wanted, you could buy pre-made dough or tomato sauce but if the oven is not hot enough, game over for pizzas.
So how do you tell if your pizza oven is hot enough? It's actually quite simple and there are two test to double check. If the roof and sides of your oven have burned white, it is hot enough but just to check, crumple a half sheet of newspaper into a ball and throw it onto the floor of the oven (away from any flames or embers). If the newspaper self-combusts, then the oven is hot enough.
Get these point right and you'll serve great pizzas. If you want to learn how to build your own pizza oven then look at my series of posts from a couple of years ago.
