By Bread Alone....Post #3...Cooking Methods

This is the last installment of the By Bread Alone blog series. Previously in blog #1 I explained how to make a classic NY style Neapolitan pizza. In the second blog I discussed toppings, and included 26 different suggestions for toppings.  This blog addresses heat sources to cook pizza.

There are many ways to cook pizza. I've cooked pizza on a camp fire before, in our wood fired pizza oven, electric stoves, gas stoves, and camp stoves. At our family restaurant in Connecticut we cooked pizza in a gas brick oven at 550 degrees, and we made the best pizza I've ever ate. So, let's discuss some of these methods briefly, because I'm ready to wrap this series up, and move on.

First, let's establish that it's the floor of the oven that needs to be hot, and the heat needs to come from the BOTTOM, and circulate around. If you don't have a hot floor your pie will cook on the top, and be doughy on the bottom. That is the worst possible case scenario. There is nothing worse than doughy pizza. Have I done this?  Be serious. Hell yeah. Yes, I have fucked up pizza, and everything else in my life every which way possible. Not really, I'm prefect, it's the rest of the world that's fuct.

Camp fire pizza is great. There's nothing like being outdoors with the big sky, the stars, and nature all around you. You can make your dough in advance, and keep it on ice in the cooler with your toppings till you get to your camp site. Or, you can make your dough at camp, let it rise, punch it down, let it rise again, shape it, and you're good to go. You'll need a flat round pan, and your fire heat needs to be between 550 degrees and 700 degrees. Bring a digital infrared laser thermometer along with you. I've seen them as cheap as $37.00 on line, and upwards as high as $250.00. This is a real treat for you and your friends because how many people cook pizza on camp outs?  It will be a big hit, and you will be the envy of all the other campers around you. Personally I like to camp where there is no one else around. If you make the dough there at camp site you will need a thermometer for your water also, 115 degrees.

Wood fired pizza ovens are expensive. I looked for 8 years on line for an oven that wouldn't cost me 10 K and I finally found one. You can make your own cob oven also. I'm going to be doing this with a friend starting next Wednesday. There is nothing like wood fired pizza. In my book this is hands down the best way to cook pizza. The wood and smoke give you a flavor that no other heat source can duplicate.

There are nice wood fired ovens on line that are made of steel, and the wood fire box is ON THE BOTTOM. These are some cool looking ovens. I was very tempted to go with one of these, but it in the end I opted for a kit oven.

Forno Bravo came up with the wood fired oven that we now have for around $2500.00 plus shipping, plus the stand. If you're a do it your self er, like I am, you can make your own stand out of cinder block. Then make a form of reinforced concrete and put the oven on top of that etc etc. I had a metal frame fabricated, and I had it built so I don't have to stoop over.  I also had wheels mounted on it so I could move it around a little. This cost us an additional thousand dollars. Forno Bravo had a number of kits to choose from, and we got the 34 inch, the smallest one. If you get the biggest maxi-dweeb pizza oven they sell you're still only going to be able to cook one pie at a time in there, so why spend more money when you don't need to. You will need help putting this together. This is not a one man job, and Forno Bravo's instructions are not very helpful, but this oven ROCKS.  If you're going to get a stand fabricated make sure it is solid. This model weighs a thousand pounds plus. If you get a 34 inch oven like we did make sure the top of the stand is at least 46 inches square. The inside of the oven is 34 inches, then there's 3 inches of concrete, 3 inches of fire blanket on top of that, chicken wire, and then two coats of stucco, for a total of 42 inches.

This oven will get up to 1000 degrees, and you can do low fire ceramics in it. I like to cook my pies  around 650 to 700 degrees. It takes about 2 hours to get the ceramic floor hot enough to make pizzas.  At this temperature I can cook a pie in about 2 and half to 3 minutes, but you have to watch it, and turn it a number of times in that short time period. If you try to multi task when that pie is in the oven you'll get burnt every time.

If you buy a kit oven take your time putting it together because if you screw it up your oven can crack, and a number of other things could go wrong. If you go to my blogs, loving my oven series, there are some helpful hints there to avoid these pitfalls. I suggest that if you get a kit like we did that you let it sit for a month in dry place before you put it together. This will allow some of the moisture in the concrete dome to evaporate naturally.  Then you need to follow the curing instructions to the letter. This is also chronicled in my Lovin' My Oven blog series. Forno Bravo did a good job with describing how to cure the oven.

If you want to build a wood fired oven cheaply build a cobb oven. Get a load of clay and dirt and some straw, make a stand, build a form and have at it.  I will be taking pictures and video of the one my friend Rick and I are building out at his place, and I will be posting photos, and detailed instructions on how we did this on line. There are ovens in the mountains up by our cabin that the Basque sheep herders built in the late 1870's that have survived right out in the elements. If you keep it covered from the rain it should last you a lifetime, and you can build a beautiful one for $400.00 or less.

The wood you choose is up to you, or you can use charcoal or coal for that matter. If you use wood you need a hard wood. I have a couple of cords of Juniper wood from our property in the high desert
that I'm still using. Stay away from soft woods such as pine or redwood. They're ok for kindling, but simply won't burn hot enough. Oak, walnut, apple, cherry, eucalyptus, are all good woods to burn. Forno Bravo tells you to only burn wood, no charcoal, no coal, and no starters such as lighter fluid. Wood is easy to find here in Oakland. Not many people use wood to heat their homes any longer, and there are places you can just pull up with your truck and load up.

There's a place in San Francisco called Lazarri's that sells wood and lump charcoal to a lot of the pizza makers in the Bay Area. The cool thing about Lazarri's is that if you purchase a cord of wood you can take home what you need, and come back any time for the rest. It's like a bank account. It's wood account.

I never use starters such as lighter fluid. You don't want you foods imparted with these traces chemicals. They are toxic and harmful to the human body.

Cooking pizza in an electric oven works just fine. You get a nice even dry heat, and very little fluctuation in temperature. You need to keep your pie ON THE BOTTOM rack in a round pizza pan. Put a little olive oil on the bottom of the pan so it doesn't stick, or you can use coarse corn meal, which is my preference.

A gas oven is great also, and that's what I've been using at home till we got the wood fired oven. Again, again, again and again, BOTTOM RACK. If you have an oven that burns hotter than the standard 550 degrees more power to you. At 550  degrees my pies takes about 6 minutes in our gas oven. I still use the gas oven or the gas grill if it's just Geraldine and myself.

We have your standard Charcoal Webber grill that uses charcoal, and if you want that smoke flavor in you pies you can get it that way. You can also use chips and get some added smoke if you really love the smoke. I'd rather just light up a spliff myself.

Gas grills are my second favorite way to cook pizza believe it or not. Our gas grill will get up to 1000 degrees when the top is down, and it  has a smoker as well. It's just like an oven in there with the top down. Once you figure out how long it takes to cook a pie with a gas grill you can avoid the loss of heat from opening and closing it while checking to see if it's done. Just set your timer and pay attention. Experiment.

We have a little camp stove, and I have made pizza right on it before. We used this to heat our yurt cabin, and it cooks pizza perfectly. It has a nice flat top. You can put the pies right on that top, and they cook in about 4 minutes.

You can cook pizza in a frying pan if you need it that badly, gas or electric. Put a little olive oil in the skillet, then the pie, and cook the bottom till it's done. Flip it over,  put you fixins' on real fast, put a lid on top to help melt the cheese, and cook till the bottom is done. I'd do this on medium heat so it cooks through and through.

That about covers it. this has been a fun series, and I hope the three people who read this blog like it.
Feel free to contact me with questions or whatever.

Once again.

Peace...Make Food/Not War