Because a wood-fired oven is a combination of several kitchen appliances, it tends to be better at certain things than others. Wood-fired ovens are often best for baking bread or roasting meat. However, due to their high heat output and thin walls, they’re also excellent for baking goods that require a lot of time at very low temperatures, such as pastries or pizza.
The high temperature and moisture released by wood smoke working with the oil in fats causes them to dehydrate — or burn off — much more quickly than other fats. This results in crispier crusts and moister toppings. A gas oven might work just fine with your favorite pizza dough recipe, but few will come close to the flavors and texture you’ll experience when using a wood-fired oven.
Don’t underestimate the importance of temperature
Temperature is another reason why wood-fired ovens are great for pizza. Wood-fired ovens can reach temperatures well above 800 degrees Fahrenheit, which helps ensure the perfect pizza crust — and the perfect dough for other baked goods.
The temperature in a wood-fired oven varies with how much fire and smoke it carries. Pizza cooked in a wood-fired oven should be taken out of the oven at around 650 degrees Fahrenheit to ensure that the inside and outside don’t overcook while they’re still on the hot surface.
How you keep your oven hot is just as important as how hot it gets
Temperature is an important factor in pizza quality, but more importantly, the heat needs to be evenly distributed inside the oven. If you just turn on the oven and close it without any other pre-heating, your pizzas will come out soggy and mushy.
To avoid this problem, you should first use a grill or oven thermometer to find the temperature at which your oven will reach its maximum temperature when it’s turned on. At this point, you need to preheat your pizza stone for about 20 minutes before putting it inside the oven. When setting up your oven for cooking, make sure that there’s a good amount of space between the pizza stone and any walls that may radiate heat back onto it.
This will help ensure that heat is evenly distributed throughout your oven. After preheating your stone, place it on top of a pizza peel or even on top of a baking sheet with parchment paper so that you can easily slide it into and out of the oven once it’s hot enough.
Pizza can’t be cooked on a pizza stone
Another way to guarantee that your pizza comes out great is to use a pizza stone. The best pizzas are made on a well-seasoned, dry, and very hot pizza stone. When your oven reaches around 800 degrees Fahrenheit, the stone’s heat radiates right up through the crust and you get a nice char on one side of the pizza.
A wood-fired oven will also cook your pizza more quickly than a gas or electric oven because it has such a high temperature output. This means you can get the toppings to just the perfect amount of softness without overdoing it.
You’ll also create extra flavors from the smoke when cooking with wood-fired ovens, especially when using high-quality hardwoods like apple and cherry woods in particular. Wood-fired ovens make for an excellent choice for even novice cooks because they’re easy to use and require little effort on your part.
A wood oven also makes an excellent bread oven
A wood-fired oven also makes an excellent bread oven. This is because the high heat and moisture released by the wood smoke suffices to create a light crust that doesn’t need to be baked in an oven. Additionally, bread dough can be made in advance and then rested overnight before being put into the oven in the morning.
How long to bake pizzas in a woodfired oven?
It varies, but a good rule of thumb is that pizzas should be cooked for about two minutes in the oven and then turned over. If you’re using an electric oven, you can use that handy timer function to approximate cooking times.
That way, it will always be ready when you are! Lovingly fired by our professional chefs One thing we pride ourselves on at the Wood Fired Oven is our dedication to quality. All of our wood-fired ovens are handcrafted with love and care by a professional chef. This means that every pizza is lovingly fired by a trained master chef who has been with us for many years.
What type of wood should you use for your pizza oven?
Alder is a good wood to use for pizza because it burns much hotter than other woods. It’s also very flavorful and is easier to control the amount of heat that is emitted with an alder fire. Alder has been used as fuel for cooking fires since Native Americans first discovered its utility, and it continues to be used today in Scandinavia.
It can be utilized for bread loaves, vegetables such as potatoes or carrots, and roasting meat such as chicken, pork or lamb. In fact, some people refer to alder as “firewood,” due to all the different ways in which it can be used.
Oven efficiency and other factors to consider before choosing a wood fired oven
Before you decide to invest in a wood-fired oven, you should understand how they operate and how they compare with other types of ovens. For example, a wood-fired oven is often more efficient than a gas or electric oven because it doesn’t require air conditioning or ventilation.
Because an electric oven requires power, the cost of electricity can dramatically increase your energy bills, which is not the case with a wood-fired oven. With that said, be sure to consider the size and type of oven before making an investment.
You should also consider if your kitchen is equipped for using a wood-fired oven as well as the cost of buying and maintaining one. There are many factors to consider when choosing what type of oven will work best for your needs.
Summary
A wood-fired oven is a combination of several kitchen appliances, and this makes it an excellent tool for baking bread or roasting meat. However, due to its high heat output and thin walls, wood-fired ovens are also excellent for baking goods that require a lot of time at very low temperatures, such as pastries or pizza.
FAQs
What are the benefits of using a wood-fired oven?
When properly used and maintained, a wood-fired oven can produce the best pizza, bread and pastries, and roasts. Wood-fired ovens are best for baking bread or roasting meat.
Due to their high heat output and thin walls, they’re also excellent for baking goods that require a lot of time at very low temperatures, such as pastries or pizza. Plus, wood smoke adds a unique flavor to all of these items that you just can’t replicate in a gas oven.
What are the benefits of using a gas oven?
While it’s true that gas ovens do produce more heat than a traditional wood-fired oven, they also allow for much more efficient cooking due to the precise temperature control. This means you can be much more precise in the way you cook your food. Additionally, gas ovens don’t require the use of a wood-burning fire pit, which is both a messy and expensive process.
They are also easier to clean and require less maintenance. Gas ovens also more easily accommodate large cooking batches. In addition, they’re very gentle on cookware, allowing you to bake or roast your food all day without worrying about it being damaged or burnt.
How does the high heat output of a wood-fired oven work?
The high heat output from an oven fueled by wood smoke works by driving off moisture and evaporating water. As a result, the fat in the food within the food begins to char or smoke. The crispy skin on meat, or the flaky crust on dough, are both examples of this process.
The high heat output of a wood-fired oven also drives volatilization — or the breaking up — of the fatty acids in the oil, into volatile compounds that provide the characteristic smoky flavor of grilling (or “smoke-cooking”) meats like steak, chicken and bacon. The water and some of the volatile compounds in oil combine with oxygen to form carbon dioxide. This produces steam that cooks and bakes foods.