Wood fired ovens need practice
I fired my wfo at the weekend for the first time this year. I didn't use it much last year because of illness so I was somewhat out of practice. I waited until the dome was clear of soot the moved the fire to one side. Family brought out two peels, each with a pizza and I loaded the first into the oven.
WOW. The semolina from the peel spontaneously combusted, I stepped backwards and took the other peel, immediately loading the pizza into the oven, by which time (about 30 seconds after loading) the first pizza was cooked and starting to singe. I unloaded that one and the second was getting a bit more black on it. Both were edible but I have never seen pizza co0k so quickly. My hybrid (sourdough + commercial yeast) dough produced lovely light pizzas with a good, bubbly crust. Everything, except a bit to much carbon was delicious.
So, I must pay more attention to my laser thermometer - when the display turns to three bars the oven is too hot!
LOL! Oh that is funny! We just finished with the cladding on our WFO and this weekend we did our first pizza and bread bakes. We had a WFO in the past and were pretty good at it, but now our skills are a little rusty as well! Glad your pizza was still edible! :)
That is some kind of FAST food! Seemed to turn out well, though, pizza to eat and stories to tell!!
Cathy
I've had my WFO for a few years and it took me the first summer to figure out what works best for me. I read all of the information about "La Vera Pizza Napoletana" - how it's baked in a wood-fired oven at deck temperatures around 900 F. Well, that never worked for me.
I make a traditional Neopolitan dough with "00" flour, no sugar, no oil. I find having a deck temperature of 650 F - 750 F gives me the best results. A laser thermometer is a must to make sure you know the temperature of your oven.
Happy pizza baking!
My laser thermometer reads to 550C (almost 1200F) but because the reading I took turned blank - each digit replaced by a bar - I left the oven to cool down a bit before I tried cooking but clearly it didn't cool down enough! I usually try for a deck temperature of around 500C but was being pestered to start cooking. Still, everyone liked their pizzas and only the odd bit of really carbonised crust was left at the end!
Agree with Sjadad, a deck temp between 650 and 750 is what I target for pizza. I also find a pretty strong fire on the side of the oven helps with even cooking, do you all keep a fire burning when cooking pizza?
My oven floor is 2.5" standard duty firebrick tile, and I find that 700-725 is the ideal hearth temperature for pizza. I have found that a similar heat transfer occurs at about 775 with my neighbor's oven, which has a ceramic tile floor, and I don't know its thickness. Find what works for you through practice. I also had my rice flour erupt into flames on Saturday for the first time ever (I've cooked probably close to 1200 pizzas in there). Very fun hobby.
I have only done 60 pizzas in my oven and I like a floor temp around 700F I once cooked a few pizzas at 850 or better and they went fast with a little more char that I was planning on. But I also don't use oo flour or do a neipolitian dough recipe. So maby that would make a difference.
Randy
We have a home built clay based WFO and finished it last July. We've been using Caputo flour 00 "Chef's" with fantastic results, but we have had a few experiences with the first couple of pies and a maxed out thermometer :)
We are pondering the purchase of Caputo 00 "Pizzaria" flour, which is supposedly produced for temps higher than 700 F. Does anyone have experience with this specific flour? Even better, has anyone compared the two in a WFO?