How to Control the Temperature of a Wood-Fired Oven

There’s nothing better than cooking the perfect pizza in your pizza oven. Fluffy fresh dough, crispy crust and the most succulent toppings… this kind of world-class pizza can only be produced in a wood-fired oven. But before you can serve up your famous wood-fired pizza to your family and friends, you’ve got to master a few things first. One of the most important things is controlling the temperature of your wood-fired oven. A temperature too low won’t cook your pizza properly and a temperature too high could damage your pizza oven and burn your pizza. So, how do we control the temp so that it’s just right? Let’s find out below.

Starting the fire

Build a perfect fire by scrunching up newspaper, stacking small kindling on top and then small logs on top of that. Leave the door slightly open so that oxygen can flow into the chamber. Once the fire is burning, partially close the chimney damper to allow smoke out of it. Add more wood if necessary, so that your fire doesn’t burn out.

Let it get hot

High heat is the key to making a great wood-fired pizza oven. Your dome needs to get completely hot so that your pizza cooks quickly and evenly, allowing all areas of the pizza to be cooked to perfection. The radiant heat is what melts the cheese so fast and cooks the ingredients completely through. Make sure you add wood in a stabilised manner – don’t add too much and don’t add too little.

Chamber temperature versus floor temperature

There’s an important difference to note between the temperature of the pizza oven chamber and the temperature of its floor. As we all know, heat rises – so, it’s understandable that the chamber is going to be a bit hotter than the floor. If the chamber is sitting at around 400 degrees Celsius, but the pizza stone isn’t that hot yet, don’t put your pizza in. This will result in the pizza base becoming burnt before the dough is fully cooked through.

Controlling the temperature

If you need a hotter temperature, adding more wood and partially closing the chimney damper is what you need to do. If the oven is too hot, you can open the damper until it drops to the correct temperature and then close it partially.

Controlling the temperature of a wood-fired oven may seem difficult at first, but if you use this guide as your bible, your wood-fired oven will always be at the perfect temperature for cooking pizza. If you’re wanting a world-class pizza oven at an affordable price, talk to the team at Alfa Ovens. They’re Australia’s importers of the world’s best pizza ovens, built for the pro pizza maker and built to last. Contact the team at Alfa Ovens for a quote today.