A periodic shuffle is necessary. Norm mentions two pies and that sounds about right. If you build your fire to one side, you can periodically rake it over to the other side. I’ve taken to building in the back, and as long as the fire is reaching across the roof toward the front, I have less problem with floor cooling thanks to infrared heat.
Thanks, Matt, and others.
Matt - Do you keep a fire that reaches across the oven top during actual baking or just during the heat-up?
Bathing at least the back of the oven and up to halfway forward during baking. This means infrared (and quick) cooking on the top of the pizza, and hot bricks underneath on the areas where there is not currently a pie.
Some pizza books geared to domestic kitchen ovens will call for flipping on the broiler switch on the oven for the last minute or so of baking. Your wood-fired oven can do this constantly, and it’s one of the techniques that results in a fast and tasty finish for your pies.
1 Like
Last question, I think: Do you have and use a damper while cooking pizzas?
Great question, and yes I have a damper.
For pizza, you do not want to use the damper. You want to have the doorway and the damper wide open, for maximum oxygen flow and exhaust.
If you plan to bake after the pizzas are done, that’s when your damper and door come into play. If you are going to maintain a small fire, you can use the damper to keep the fire from consuming wood too quickly. It will also keep heat from venting as soon as it is generated, which means it will “soak” the firebrick arch and floor with convected heat that will then radiate back into the oven cavity over a period of many hours.
I’m really hopeful that some experimentation here will give you the results you’re looking for, Bill! Let us know how things progress.
1 Like
Thank you! I am definitely in for the long haul and the pizza!
2 Likes