Have you ever wondered how to check the temperature of a wood-fired pizza oven and at what temperature you cook pizza in an outdoor pizza oven?
Since it was born, pizza has been a “takeaway” food to be eaten at home, in the streets, or near the pizza oven. There was even an ancestor of the pizza delivery man many years ago. Itinerant vendors brought pizzas that had been cooked in a wood-fired oven to customers’ homes, placing the pizzas in multi-tiered brass containers that had a double bottom filled with burning charcoal to keep them warm.
Tradition has it that real pizzas are cooked in a wood-fired oven. This is very popular with customers who see it as a guarantee of quality. The first American pizzeria equipped with a wood-fired pizza oven opened in the “Little Italy” district of Manhattan. The “pizzaiolo” puts the pizza in the oven in the same way as a baker slides his bread into a bread oven, using a wooden shovel. It is cooked in the presence of flames and the pizza oven door is left open. This very intense cooking in a wood-fired oven is what makes the pizza crisp and tasty.
A wood-fired pizza oven produces much higher temperatures than a traditional oven, and it may take you a few tries to get used to it. The best way to check the oven’s temperature is by using an infrared thermometer. This is a point-and-shoot device that doesn’t require you to get too close to the source of the heat. The best thermometers will be capable of reading temperatures of up to 1000°.
To accurately gauge the temperature of your oven, you would aim the thermometer at the floor of the oven, then add 100° to the reading. Because heat rises, the cooking chamber in your oven will reach the desired temperature before the floor does. For example, if the floor of your oven reads 750°, then the air in the oven and the cooking temperature will be 850°.
Cooking pizza in your kitchen is vastly different from using the outdoor pizza oven. For the best results, cook when your outdoor oven reaches a temperature between 750° and 850°, and your cooking time should only be one or two minutes.
When you’re ready to become your own pizzaiolo, come see our selection of wood-fired pizza ovens. Tri-County Hearth & Patio is a family-owned and operated business located on Old Washington Road in Waldorf, Maryland, and has been serving the area for over 30 years. We offer our customers the largest selection of patio furniture, fireplaces, inserts, stoves, BBQ grills, and outdoor accessories in all of Southern Maryland. Plus, all of our sales and service professionals are proficient in all things patio and hearth. Visit our website for more information, or if you’re ready to optimize the enjoyment of your home, give us a call at 301-843-1771.