By Paul Corsetti
You’ve seen them on TV and at your local hardware store! The promise of wood-fired pizza, bread, vegetable and meats are so tempting but then… there’s the price. Having just made an inquiry into one model, I lost interest when quoted the $3,500 component price for the smallest model.
Looking at the unit I figure about two days to assemble, and render and then a few more days before I can use it. Ouch! So how about a real wood-fired pizza oven you can build in a few hours for as little as a couple of hundred dollars?
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The secret to great pizza is heat! That’s why it is so hard to create a true Italian-style pizza in your home oven. Most ovens top out at about 225C (430F) while a good pizza oven starts at about 275C (525F)! If you want the texture and taste your local pizzeria creates, you need to be able to cook your pizza quickly. In fact, in less than five minutes.
The concept of a wood-fired pizza oven is simple and has been used for millennia. Traditionally, clay and concrete-like binders are used to form an oven chamber. That chamber is designed to retain the heat from a wood fire. The flat oven base of the chamber is both the floor for the fire and the cooking surface.
How to Create a Wood-Fired Pizza Oven
Get ready for a gratifying journey that will transport you into the realm of culinary bliss. Imagine this: your wood-fired pizza oven is finally coming together and you’re practically drooling just thinking about the moment you’ll slide that first batch of dough into your wood-fired pizza oven. And then, BOOM, the whole place smells like heaven because you just created the perfect pizza. It’s like magic!
The aroma of the dough will intermingle seamlessly with the alluring smokiness emanating from the burning wood, creating an ambience that ignites your senses and sets the stage for a truly unforgettable culinary experience.
The process of building your wood-fired pizza oven will be a labour of love, and with every step, you’ll become more immersed in the joy of creating something extraordinary.
Materials and Process
Depending on the height you want, you will need 20 – 25 good-quality concrete blocks. These are going to support a lot of weight so avoid any blocks that have cracks or chips.
Compressed cement sheeting is immensely strong but also very heavy, dense and difficult to cut. Try to get two sheets of the right size rather than a standard 2400×1200 (8×4) sheet. Here in Australia, sheets are 15mm (5/8″) thick. By using two thicknesses, you end up with an extremely strong floor.
The angle iron will be used to support the brick roof of your wood-fired pizza oven. As an alternative, consider stacking your roof on compressed cement sheeting. You may still need to use an angle iron across the front to prevent your roof from sagging.
Clay bricks will give a much better result than concrete-based bricks. Concrete bricks can absorb water and may crack under the high temperatures the oven can produce. Clay bricks can also degrade with constant heating and cooling, but they are still much more durable.
The best bricks to use are ‘fire bricks’. These bricks are manufactured for us in fireplaces and while a bit more expensive, should last many years.
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