How Long Does It Take To Heat Up A Wood-Fired Pizza Oven?

We all know a wood fired-pizza oven is the key to a great authentic pizza - much healthier and tastier than a greasy takeaway job. It cooks the pizza at a much higher heat than a conventional oven, giving us that crispy crust, which is light and airy in the middle. When cooking a pizza in a wood-fired oven you want to make sure you invest in high-quality ingredients, master your dough recipe, as well as having a good understanding of the how the wood-fired oven works, leading to a consistent pizza, every time. With this is mind, The Wood Fired Co shed some light on how long it takes to heat up a wood-fired pizza oven.

Preparation

Truth be told, there’s a few steps to be taken before you can start serving up the good stuff. So, if you’re hosting guests it’s best to do the preparation before they arrive, leaving you with ample time to relax and mingle. Usually, the process can take around 40-60 minutes, depending on your oven size and your experience.

Pre-heating the oven

Firstly, you’ll need to open the pizza oven door and chimney smoke control vent. Then it’s time to start producing some heat. Place some kindling in the centre of the oven, along with rolled newspaper as the base. You want to arrange your kindling in a tipi shape. This should take around 10 minutes, and if you want to speed up the process, adding some fire-lighters will knock a few minutes off.

Adding small logs

Once your kindling is up in flames you can start to add a few small logs to continue the heating process. As the fire continues to burn, a black smoke will be produced and the logs will gradually become white, due to the continued burning. Continue to gradually add logs to assist rising the temperature, as well as making sure logs are covered evenly on the oven floor, allowing the heat to distribute equally.

Hitting 400 degrees

If all is tracking well, the oven should be reaching the ideal temperature which is around 400 degrees Celsius. A laser thermometer is a clever gadget which will give you an accurate temperature reading without burning your hand.

Closing smoke control

Once you’re happy with the temperature it’s time to close the smoke control. This will trap the heat in, retaining the heat. At this stage, you’re almost there. Move fire embers towards the back to allow room for cooking. The flames should have died down but if the fire embers are still active, leave the door open or ajar for a few minutes - this will avoid too much smoking hanging around in the oven.

You’re now ready to cook pizza!

It’s important to follow your pizza ovens instructions to nail the heating process. Cooking with a low temperature can leave you with soggy, undercooked pizza and cooking with a temperature too high can give you a hard crust which is sure way to lose a tooth filling. Now that you’re up to speed with pizza oven cooking process, it’s time to invest in a high quality wood-fired pizza oven. The Wood Fired Co offer a selection of premium quality, Australian-made wood-fired ovens. Check out their impressive range at affordable prices online, or contact The Wood Fired Co today to start your journey.