Tips And Recipes for Wood Fired Cooking

There’s nothing better than getting tips from a pro. Imagine being an aspiring golfer and getting a lesson from the great Greg Norman… it would be a dream come true, right? Well, today, we’re going to give you the cooking equivalent of that. The wood-fired cooking experts from The Wood Fired Co have written up some tricks of the trade, helping you master the art of cooking in your outdoor pizza oven.

Essential tips

• Dough-licious Getting the dough right is the most important part of making pizza. Studying your dough recipes and doing a few practise runs is the best way to perfect your dough. Then, you’ll be totally prepared when it comes to the real deal.
• Hot stone Part of the secret to perfecting a good wood-fired pizza lies in getting the pizza stone red-hot. Heat rises, so although your oven chamber may be reading 400°C, your stone may not have reached that heat. If the stone isn’t hot enough, your pizza base will burn before the dough is fully cooked through. That’s why it’s important to preheat the stone and get it nice and hot before the pizza goes in the oven.
• Consistent temperature The chamber temperature has to be kept at a consistent temperature the whole time your pizzas are cooking. Timing is a big part of the art too – make sure you’re leaving them in the oven for just a matter of minutes.

Other favourite recipes

You can cook a whole bunch of foods in your wood-fired oven. Here’s one of our favourite recipes:

Pulled pork

This classic American-style pulled pork recipe is a satisfying treat for any barbecue fanatic. It’s goes down perfectly in a wood-fired pizza oven.

Ingredients

• 3-4 lbs pork shoulder
• 1 cup salt
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
• Handful of bay leaves
• 1/4 onion
• 6 Garlic cloves smashed
• Hot chilis
• Cumin
• Basil
• Oregano
• Longneck of full-strength
• Australian beer

Preparation

1. Make Brine by adding salt, brown sugar, bay leaves, onion, garlic, hot chilis, cumin, basil, oregano, beer (heat to boiling and then let cool).
2. Let the meat marinate in the brine overnight in the fridge.

Cooking

1. Make another rub for the pork shoulder with salt, brown sugar, ground coffee, zest of orange (minced), 1 chipotle-ground, 1 ancho-ground, 1 guajillo-ground, cumin, 1/4 cup of cracked peppers corns, oregano. Mix together.
2. Remove from brine pool, quick rinse and pat dry – place in aluminium (steamer table) tray and apply rub all over, let meat rest in cool area.
3. Heat pizza oven to 200°C, push coals to back, add smoking wood if you like – allow wood to begin to smoke, make pup tent for meat in tray, add juice of zestless orange and a beer – put your pork in the middle of oven.
4. Close the oven with an insulated door.
5. Leave for 8 hours. Take your pork shoulder out. Meat should be ready to pull. Serve with green beans and enjoy with a glass of beer or red wine.

Wood-fired cooking is easy with a high quality oven from The Wood Fired Co. They manufacture and supply Australia’s finest domestic and commercial ovens, combining Italian traditionalism with Australian workmanship. Browse their stunning range today.