Pizza - Wood fired oven
 

There's a pizza thread, below, which concerns itself mainly with who makes it better. My mother, of course, made it better, but she's been gone for a long time. I do a reasonably good job with a large pizza stone (Soap-stone actually) in our gas kitchen oven. it takes about 6 or 7 minutes for a pizza to cook there, and sometimes, the bottom is cooked and the top needs more time. Frustrating.
For the past two years, I've been seeing ads for wood fired pizza ovens. They're flat bottomed, have pizza stone surface, have an arced, insulated top and a chimney to take away the smoke.
You light a wood fire inside, allow it to burn for a while and get the inside temp up to 6 or 7 hundred degrees in order to cook a reasonably sized pizza in two minutes or so. They are for outdoor use only and some come with a base which has wheels. Cost ranges, depending on size and manufacturer, from about $1600 to $3000 (and of course, more).
Needless to say, I am lusting for one . . . but I won't pull the trigger until I see one in action, having been bitten more than once by following up on my lust without checking on quality.
Have you seen them on the internet? Have you purchased and used one. Are you happy with it?

Had good luck experimenting with tiles in my Brinkman gas grill.
Two or three layers of tile, pre heat it on high and it's not bad.
Only does one 12" at a time but cooks pretty fast. I have lava rock and it adds a nice smokey flavor to the pizza

You can buy a lot of pizza's for 3K. I can see it if you are in business but for personal use that's a high price to pay to cook pizza's, JMO.

If you are handy you can build one from brick very inexpensively. There are many designs online. My father did it an in my opinion he makes the best pizza. Buys dough from pizzeria and then with moms sauce and fresh mozzarella. Just awesome!!! [emoji39]


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Char Broil
 

20 year old lava rock grill. Pizza stone and about 8 or 9 min. I'm good to go!
Secret is to preheat the oven to about 550', On a cold stone place the pizza in grill, cover, turn burners to low and do not lift cover for 8 mins. Works like a charm! Of course you may need to experiment as every grill is different.

I'm about ready to replace the grill but the new grills looks chincy and cheap. No more lava rocks available although I saw the perfect grill at Baron's! A bit expensive!

many people don't realized that gas, either natural or propane, give off some water vapor when burned which is why it's so hard to get a good pizza in a home oven. it's too humid in there.

but with a stone and high heat it works pretty well.

personally I like to do pizza directly on the grill grates over charcoal.

Thank you jbolty. I did not know that about water vapor.


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Theres a recent generation of backyard pizza ovens that use live fire instead of thermal mass to hit and hold the high temps required for good Neapolitan pies. Because they're less massive, they're also less expensive. One such company is Ooni: https://ooni.com. I had the Ooni two and upgraded to the Ooni pro, and I can't recommend it highly enough. I use it with wood or charcoal, though there are also propane options. Worth looking into and a lot cheaper than a full stone oven. Also heats up a lot faster.

The Acoustic Lounge is the only commercial place around here I know of with a wood-fired pizza oven. The folks there seem pretty nice - maybe it'd be worth dropping in and asking about it? Heck - given the current labor market maybe you could get a shift or 2 for practice :-)

Funny thing - while I thought the the one pizza we've had there showed a lot of promise, the thing that it mostly seemed to be missing was "wood-fired-ness". We're hoping it was just new-store jitters.

-jim

As Sal states, he's trying to simulate a commercial wood fired oven. The other methods posted will often produce a good pizza, but will not produce a pizza with the taste or consistency of a wood fired oven--they simply do not produce enough heat.

I'd try a Weber kettle attachment before dropping thousands--it's a at least conceptually correct, bringing you to 900 degrees or so:

https://www.amazon.com/KettlePizza-P...gateway&sr=8-5

My father has gas under the fire brick to rapidly raise the temp and remove the bulk of moisture then lights the fire and raises temp to 550


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Doesn't Wining Butcher have one???
 

I think the WB in Meredith has a wood oven. I have no idea make, model, etc.

Anthony's Pizza (out of Florida and spreading all over) uses coal fired ovens to make their Pizzas.

Bertucci's (all over the Northeast) uses wood to make their Pizzas.

Both places make great tasting Pizzas, but not cheap.

Osteria Poggio in Center Harbor has a commercial wood fired oven

They do and pizza is very good.


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WB?

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Pizza - Wood fired oven
 

Wining Butcher [emoji4]


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Gotcha--that's on my list of pizza to try!

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Steel Plate from Baking Steel - AWESOME for Pizza!
 

I purchased a steel baking plate and it is amazing for pizza making. Check out the segment on Chronicle.

https://www.wcvb.com/article/chronic...-pizza/8086534

Whoa! Looks awesome. As you might imagine from my previous post, I was skeptical before the video. I'll buy one in September. Thanks!

Was that an electric oven he was using? I'm not familiar with his oven. Certainly electric is drier than a gas oven, that might contribute to the results.

..... the Pizza Pizzazz!
 

https://www.gopresto.com/videos/pres...ing-pizza-oven

For those $3.99 Walmart of Hannaford's full size, frozen pizzas, nothing bakes them better than the Presto Pizza Pizzaz, at about $40-50. The pizza slowly spins around and gets baked perfectly on both sides as it turns so you can watch it get baked, going from frozen to yummy. Is a 110-volt, counter top, small pizza baker.

Never knew about the Pizza Pizzaz and then I saw one, brand new in the original box for ten dollars at St Vincent de Paul's thift store in Laconia and that was the best ten dollars I ever spent. Makes a perfect frozen pizza every time, and think how much you save as opposed to a restaurant pizza .... the Pizza Pizzazz!

Makes a $3.99 Walmart frozen pizza taste better than a $12.00 restaurant pizza, every time with the Pizza Pizzazz. ... :rolleye2:

Lodge makes a cast iron...
 

That gets great reviews on Amazon. Same principal of holding and transferring heat.

I love cast iron, and I'm not saying it will not make a good pizza, but you're missing the point of simulating a 900 degree oven

http://www.cookingissues.com/2010/02...ing/index.html

Osteria Poggio... they have some great pizza! Center Harbor
 

Seems to be many pizza aficionados in the Winni region. I thank all the respondents for their suggestions.
But . . . . . it also seems that none have had experience with the pizza
oven for which I lust.
Oh well. I will continue my search. Neighborhood pizza parties will have to wait.

My wife’s nephew is a rep for Belgard, and has one of these in his yard locally:

https://www.belgard.com/products/out...pizza-oven-kit

Pizza is out of this world!

I used to pass Stonegate Marble in Sutton on my way home from work. They had one of the beehive wood fired pizza ovens on display at the end of their drive for 5 yrs. Always wanted to stop and see what they wanted for the display model but never did. Thought it would be awesome for the lake.


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pizza oven
 

I have an Italian made wood fired pizza oven. I've had so much fun learning to cook pies in it. It wasn't cheap but hey I'm retired and what else am I going to spend money on?
Here are some pics

If you are ever looking for someone to sample your product, I'm in!

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That's IT
 

Mishman: That's IT. (on the left, of course) I have many questions that I'm sure will bore you and anyone reading this thread. I'll try a private message, if I can remember how. But meanwhile . . .
How are the pizzas; how long does it take to get up to cook temp; how long to cook one; how many (size?) pizzas fit , at once????

Sal

.....I can smell it from way over here ...... smells like your monthly social security money going up in pizza smoke ...... ho!:laugh:

Thanks to Mishman's input, I bought the same pizza oven he has.
It required 4 strong men to muscle it up on to my deck and on to the stand, but worth every groan.
I've made pizza 3 times, so far, and they've come out amazingly good. Once the oven is up to 750 degrees, a pizza cooks to perfection in 2 1/2 minutes. I am impressed and pleased.:)

Just a reminder on my willingness to taste test. Ishoot308'll testify that I'm a great guest!!!

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Thumbs Up!
 

Confirmed!....and so is your son!!

Dan

Cuore 1000 Wood-Fired Oven Kit
 

Sal, I built my own using the Cuore 1000 Wood-Fired Oven Kit. We've had it now for several years. It works great and makes for some real fun parties. Happy to share my experiences. Feel free to PM me.

https://flic.kr/p/2hkgEPy

Can I get 2 large pies with peppers and onions delivered to Meredith?:D

+1 for the kettle pizza posted above you can make a great pizza with it and it easily gets to 900 degrees. It's a staple in my household.

I also recommend Caputo "00" pizzeria flour, it's makes the easiest working pizza dough you'll ever lay your hands on.

Thanks Gatto, but I have purchased a stainless steel oven, made in Italy.
I've used it about 6 times so far and IT functions beautifully. The chef, however, needs practice. I've burned the bejeepers out of a calzone and also a mushroom pizza . . . . but practice makes "better" if not "perfect".

I am surprised by the difference in heat generated by very dry hardwood and by dry softer wood (not pine)). The dry hardwood pushes the interior temp to over 800f. The softer wood gets it up to 550f or so. Practice, practice, practice. Is there a Symphony Hall for pizza?

Eric--YOU'RE THE MAN!!!

As planned, I bought a set of baking steels. Tried them for the first time tonight--absolutely amazing. I've made probably over 100 pies on pizza stones, and they've all been disappointing compared to those from a commercial oven. The Baking Steel produced professional grade crust, and made me a hero with a very hard to please crowd. They are one of the very few kitchen tools that truly takes home cooking to another level.