Cooking pizza

[rjplourde]

I'm having a problem with browning the bottom of my pizza pies. I heat the floor of my wood fired oven to 700 degrees, the tops seem to be cooking faster than the bottom. Any suggestions?

[hodgey1]

Re: Cooking pizza

I'm having a problem with browning the bottom of my pizza pies. I heat the floor of my wood fired oven to 700 degrees, the tops seem to be cooking faster than the bottom. Any suggestions?

Thats an interesting problem if its happening consistantly. 700* should be cooking the bottom of that pie perfectly in under three minutes. In my particular oven my bottom is done prior to the top and I have to sometimes dome it for a few seconds to finish. My total cooking time always under 3 minutes normaly around 2 minutes in my 42" WFO with 17" ceiling.

A few questions:

What is your total cooking time when the bottoms not done and the top is?

What is your ceiling temp?

Are you sure your floor is 700* ?

P.S. This thread probably belongs in the Get Cooking Section of the forum

[rjplourde]

Re: Cooking pizza

Thanks for the reply Chris.
The total cooking time is about 2min. I'm sure that the temp on the floor is 700 or greater. The ceiling temp is around 700 or above. I'm wondering if the cornmeal is insulating the bottom, I'm going to switch to a little bit of flour.

[hodgey1]

Re: Cooking pizza

Thanks for the reply Chris.
The total cooking time is about 2min. I'm sure that the temp on the floor is 700 or greater. The ceiling temp is around 700 or above. I'm wondering if the cornmeal is insulating the bottom, I'm going to switch to a little bit of flour.

I'm certain that its not your corn meal causing your issues, thou I would recommend using semolina flour instead. Semolina is way less course and seem to disappear rather than leaving the crunchy bit behind like corn meal.

On the under done pizza bottom, your floor temp has to be plummeting once you introduce the pizza to it, there's no way at 700* and two-three minutes time that the crust isn't done. Your problems could be that your not preheating long enough and saturating your floor brick. Or like others have suggested that your not insulated properly or possibly you have a moisture issue in your slab?

A lot of NY style pizza is cooked in the 550-600* and cooked in the 5 to 7 minute range.

[v12spirit]

Re: Cooking pizza

I once had he same problem with my x-oven. I then realized that I was not saturating it. I started baking after 40 minutes from match. I should have waited for 90+ minutes that the dome starts to radiate, kinda signal that you can start cooking.

[rjplourde]

Re: Cooking pizza

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I think the reason why this is happening is because, as so many have suggested, I'm not saturating the floor of the oven. I've been cooking pizzas for many years in gas and electric ovens and never had this problem but now that you mentioned it I AM throwing the pizza in as soon as the bricks reach 700 degrees.

Thanks again....

[hodgey1]

Re: Cooking pizza

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I think the reason why this is happening is because, as so many have suggested, I'm not saturating the floor of the oven. I've been cooking pizzas for many years in gas and electric ovens and never had this problem but now that you mentioned it I AM throwing the pizza in as soon as the bricks reach 700 degrees.

I would highly recommend reading a book called " The Art of Wood-Fired Cooking". One chapter of the book is specifically targeted at the actual firing of a wood fired oven and is very helpful. The process they describe as a "Italian Method" is very effective at properly saturating your oven for cooking pizza.

One of the last stages before cooking, they advise to take all of the coals created in the firing process and spread them across your cooking surface to totally saturate the floor. My total firing time for my oven is in the 2hr range start to ready for pizza.