Firing Wood Burning Pizza Ovens: The Easy Way to a Great Fire
When using a wood burning pizza oven, you need to get it ready and hot (white hot) a while before you can actually be able to use it.
There is a recommended way of doing this so that you get the best fire that you can and so that it lasts a long time.
If you build your fire correctly to reach the optimal temperature, wood burning pizza ovens can cook for hours and hours.
Here is how you get a good fire going: 1.
Prepare the wood In order to get the best fire, you need to understand why a clay oven or a wood burning pizza oven works so well.
The walls absorb heat from the fire for a long time, and then they release it back into the space; this is where the baking will come from.
Its an even release of heat which covers whatever you are cooking all round, cooks its through, cooks it well and cooks it fast.
This radiated heat is what will cause the oven to stay hot for hours even after the fire has gone off.
In fact, when you are done with cooking your pizza or main meal, pop something else so that it can cook slowly in that heat.
You need wood that's even in length, about a foot and that's dry.
You also need some kindling.
Accelerant is not a good way to light wood burning pizza ovens because it leaves behind a smell and sometimes even a taste.
Use dried kindling that has been seasoned for a while.
Tree bark and little bits of twigs will work just as well.
2.
Get the fire started To get your fire on, get some paper and crumple it into balls in the middle of the oven floor.
Arrange the kindling on the paper so that you leave room around it for air to circulate and get your fire going.
Too much and your fire will suffocate, too little kindling and you wont be able to start the fire as it will burn off to quickly.
Light the fire and then start to add on the larger pieces of wood.
Not very large, but what looks like it can be lit by the kindling.
Keep on graduation the wood size until you finally have a good fire going.
It would help if you could have someone to watch the fire and keep adding the wood as the fire grows.
3.
Create some air circulation If your wood burning pizza oven is smoking, you can get the smoke out.
Get some little aluminium sheeting and roll it is such a way that it sticks a little into the oven and the out a little.
The smoke will have found a way to leave, and the draft that's coming in will also cause your fire to light better.
Let the fire keep burning for 2 hours and then rake out the floor.
Wear something to protect your hands and feet from the embers.
To get rid of the remaining ash, pour water on the oven floor and then sweep it out.
4.
Get the temperature right Close the oven door and then check every 10 minutes to see if the heat has come down to the temperature that you want.
You can get a thermometer that's made especially for this.
You're ready to cook! Wood burning pizza ovens are great because they can cook a lot once they are well heated, and it doesn't really take that much to get them going.
There is a recommended way of doing this so that you get the best fire that you can and so that it lasts a long time.
If you build your fire correctly to reach the optimal temperature, wood burning pizza ovens can cook for hours and hours.
Here is how you get a good fire going: 1.
Prepare the wood In order to get the best fire, you need to understand why a clay oven or a wood burning pizza oven works so well.
The walls absorb heat from the fire for a long time, and then they release it back into the space; this is where the baking will come from.
Its an even release of heat which covers whatever you are cooking all round, cooks its through, cooks it well and cooks it fast.
This radiated heat is what will cause the oven to stay hot for hours even after the fire has gone off.
In fact, when you are done with cooking your pizza or main meal, pop something else so that it can cook slowly in that heat.
You need wood that's even in length, about a foot and that's dry.
You also need some kindling.
Accelerant is not a good way to light wood burning pizza ovens because it leaves behind a smell and sometimes even a taste.
Use dried kindling that has been seasoned for a while.
Tree bark and little bits of twigs will work just as well.
2.
Get the fire started To get your fire on, get some paper and crumple it into balls in the middle of the oven floor.
Arrange the kindling on the paper so that you leave room around it for air to circulate and get your fire going.
Too much and your fire will suffocate, too little kindling and you wont be able to start the fire as it will burn off to quickly.
Light the fire and then start to add on the larger pieces of wood.
Not very large, but what looks like it can be lit by the kindling.
Keep on graduation the wood size until you finally have a good fire going.
It would help if you could have someone to watch the fire and keep adding the wood as the fire grows.
3.
Create some air circulation If your wood burning pizza oven is smoking, you can get the smoke out.
Get some little aluminium sheeting and roll it is such a way that it sticks a little into the oven and the out a little.
The smoke will have found a way to leave, and the draft that's coming in will also cause your fire to light better.
Let the fire keep burning for 2 hours and then rake out the floor.
Wear something to protect your hands and feet from the embers.
To get rid of the remaining ash, pour water on the oven floor and then sweep it out.
4.
Get the temperature right Close the oven door and then check every 10 minutes to see if the heat has come down to the temperature that you want.
You can get a thermometer that's made especially for this.
You're ready to cook! Wood burning pizza ovens are great because they can cook a lot once they are well heated, and it doesn't really take that much to get them going.
Source...