When cheesy and saucy pizzas are made in a traditional wood-burning oven with that beautiful and addicting char on the sides, you know that it is going to earn your loyal customers. Well, this very oven, which is the traditional and true baking appliance for pizza, can fall into a number of problems if you make these mistakes. They not only affect the taste of the pizza but also the oven, and sooner you may need a masonry or a commercial appliances repair expert for inspections and repairs. Here is everything you need to know about it.

Wood-Fired Pizza Oven Mistakes

Not Picking The Right Wood

First things first, the type of wood you use may make or break the entire pizza-baking process. It is a wood-burning oven, so if you’re not careful about the type of wood you use, you won’t get that roaring fire, that lovely char, or even the distinct yet subtle taste and aroma of the woodiness in the pizza that just elevates the flavor.

Also, your pizza might turn out undercooked or improperly cooked and that is a more severe culinary blasphemy than adding pineapple to your pizza. So, in order to get that perfect wood for your pizza oven, you might want to stick to seasoned hardwoods like oak, hickory or something along the same vein.

Maple wood also works extraordinarily well for pizza ovens. They burn more easily and they get the temperature just right for that perfect, chewy crust and melty cheese.

Not Ensuring Proper Preheating

Wood-burning ovens are like regular ovens, but they’re kind of slow. In regular ovens and baking, preheating the oven is a must. The chamber should be nice and warm and uniformly heated so that when you put the pan or anything inside it, it starts cooking more evenly. You don’t want the pizza oven to be cold when you put the pizza in, either.

The thing with pizza ovens is that they can take quite a while to pre-heated. They’re not your regular ovens that will preheat in the blink of an eye. They need time, so make sure that you fire up the oven way before you decide you want to bake a pizza. The results will turn out well.

Do You Cure Your Oven?

Curing might sound similar to preheating, but it is actually a much more crucial process. When you want to preheat your oven, you can’t just set a fire inside the chamber and call it a day. You want to gradually build the fire.

You want to start by lighting up a small fire, which will dry up the mortar and bricks in the pizza oven. That is going to prevent the production of steam in the pizza oven, which might seem like a good thing, but it is not good at all.

Being Hasty

The trick with wood-burning pizza ovens is that you need to be patient with the process, especially when you’re lighting it up and letting it get preheated really nicely. You don’t want to start a huge fire, expecting that it will speed up the process.

That will do the exact opposite and you’ll end up with a really weirdly prepped oven and an even more undercooked and hastily prepared pizza. So, hold your nerve when you’re working with a wood-burning pizza oven. The patience will bear fruit.

Not Cleaning The Oven

Pizzas are all about the perfect taste so if the oven is not clean, it will lead to uneven cooking and a pizza that nobody would want to eat. So, clean your pizza oven after each batch or at the end of each day, and then clean more thoroughly after each week.

You Don’t Know How To Build A Fire

Some people think that all you need is a matchstick and wood to make a fire. Well, that and a lot more skill and technique. It is also about introducing the right amount of oxygen in the fire, not too much that it will blow all of your hard work away, and not too little that it isn’t enough to ignite.

So, when you’re building a fire, make sure that you are aerating the oven too. It will lead to a more consistent and roaring fire in the end and your pizzas will be perfect every single time.

Don’t Use A Lot Of Wood

Some also might think that chucking more wood into the fire and in the pizza oven will lead to a hotter fire, and hence, quicker heating. Well, you might just be wasting wood if you do that.

Wood is expensive, especially if you’re getting seasoned wood and while it is not recommended to use non-existent amounts of wood and expect a huge and roaring fire, you don’t want to use too much either. It will lead to a lot more soot production in the oven and cleaning it will be a nightmare.

The Proof Is In The Pizza

The dough you’re working with can also be the problem. Sometimes, you’re doing everything right with the oven, but when you go ahead and put in the pizza, it still doesn’t turn out well. If that is the case, then maybe you want to change the problem you’re trying to fix. Maybe it’s not the oven, but the pizza that is causing the issue – the dough, to be exact.

Baking is a labor of love and it involves a lot of resting and proofing of the dough. If you’re not making the dough correctly, then it will obviously not lead to a good pizza either. So, master the recipe first and then cross your fingers and hope for the best.

Don’t Overcrowd The Oven

This might be something you are guilty of. If you have a lot of pies to bake, then you might be tempted to throw all of the pizzas in the oven, hoping that they will cook quickly. Well, they might just lead to a disaster. You don’t want to cook too many pizzas at one time in the oven. You want to stick to 2 or 3 pizzas max at a time. If you want to bake more pizzas, then you have to prepare the wood, cure and preheat the oven accordingly.

Not Placing The Oven Right

The placement of the oven is also key when it comes to mastering the perfect pizza. If your oven is placed in a way that the mouth of the chamber lets air in, then that is not going to lead to a hot pizza oven – temperature-wise.

The incoming wind or air is going to snuff out the baby flames in the oven and it will take a millennium for the pizza oven to finally get hot enough for you to bake pizzas in it. So, whatever you do, place the oven away from the usual direction of the wind.

During Preheating– Do This

The space inside the pizza oven needs to be sealed up when you’re preheating the oven. Like any other oven, you want to ensure that you’re keeping the space as enclosed as possible. With pizza ovens, though, you want to keep only the vents closed and the door open.

The vents will prevent the hot air from escaping the oven and it will heat the chamber throughout, whereas you can see and control everything through the oven door.

Conclusion

Wood-burning pizza ovens are great, but if you know these simple and minor mistakes you make, then you can become even better at making the perfect pizzas that Italians would be proud of and your customers would come back for. Moreover, pizza oven maintenance is also critical for the perfect taste, so consult commercial oven repair Springfield services to create a proper maintenance plan for your commercial kitchen equipment.