If you still don’t have a pizza oven, but you want to make great pizza at home you still can! Here are some easy-to-follow tips to convert your home oven to a pizza-making machine!
Understanding How Pizza Ovens Work
Making the perfect pizza in a home oven can be a challenge without understanding the fundamentals of how pizza is baked in a real pizza oven. So before diving into the home setup let’s understand how professional pizza ovens work.
Overall, professional pizza ovens have one goal: retain heat to bake consistently crispy crusts. To achieve this elevated level of performance, pizza ovens leverage the three forms of heat transfer. From basic thermodynamics, we know that heat is transferred by convection, conduction, and radiation. Now, let’s discuss the anatomy of a professional pizza oven and understand how they are designed to retain heat.
Three Basic Elements of Pizza Ovens
First, they have a thick cooking surface. It is important that the cooking surface can retain heat. Like every other cooking surface, once you place the raw item on it, the surface heat is reduced and averages out until it is elevated again. This is the main reason that pizza stone surfaces tend to be thick, the higher the thermal mass the better heat retention they provide, and this allows you to continuously cook pizza without losing quality in the crust.
Second, professional pizza ovens tend to have a rounded or spherical dome. The dome also serves the same important mission of heat retention. The geometry here plays an important role. As heat particles are radiated from the heat source, they bounce all over the interior surface of the oven. The rounded shape helps with optimizing the bouncing of these particles to retain heat.
Last, but not least, is the heat source. Commercial pizza ovens have two alternative forms f heat sources. Wood fire or gas. It is also crucial to have proper ventilation to be able to have a good fire. Without a good fire, there is no heat retention that matters.
So, you might be wondering how can a home oven mimic a commercial pizza oven. The simple answer is that it can’t. Home ovens typically reach 500oF while pizza ovens reach as high as 900oF. Don’t let this turn you away though. You can still cook great pizza in a home oven and here is how.
Best Home Oven Setup for the Best Pizza Crust
To best replicate a pizza oven in a home oven you have to evaluate it from the perspective of how they generate and retain the heat we just discussed. Cooking surface, heat distribution, and heat sources.
Optimizing Your Home Oven for Heat Distribution
To prepare your oven for a high-heat artisan or Neapolitan-style bake you will need to focus on optimizing the heat distribution to keep as much heat as possible. First, place your pizza stone near the top rack allowing enough space to maneuver. Should be around 10” or so from the top depending on your oven. Then, preheat your oven to 550F or the highest it can reach to make sure the pizza stone retains as much heat as possible. Now, with the oven settings and the pizza stone preheating all that will be left to do is cook the pizza and manage the heat throughout the baking.
Controlling Your Oven Heat Sources During the Cooking
During baking, it is important to maintain the oven heat. Therefore prior to setting in your pizza to start cooking, you will turn the oven on high broil for 5 to 10 mins so that the stone receives all this radiating heat prior to the pizza baking. Once ready, turn the oven back to 550F and set your pizza to start cooking.
During the cooking process minimize the opening of the oven door as this is the easiest way to lose heat from the oven.
In summary, to execute a well-done artisan or Neapolitan-style pizza in your home oven you must follow these steps:
- Understand your oven’s capabilities and safety
- Use a pizza stone or pizza steel to maximize heat retention
- Optimize retention during and before the baking process
Now it’s time to put this to the test with this easy homemade pizza dough recipe!
