Operating Tips for Pizza Oven Owners

Cooking pizza in your pizza oven is a great fun, social way to spend time outdoors this summer. This article provides some essential tips for operating your pizza oven safely and so the best quality pizza to comes out of it.

We are providing advice here for wood fired outdoor pizza ovens in which we intend to cook fresh homemade pizza with real, homemade dough. By the way, we have some delicious recipes too that you can try at your next pizza party but for now, read on for wood fired pizza oven operating advice.

Managing Heat

Cooking wood fired pizza is all about heat. The pizza dough wont have a crispy crust or slide effortlessly off the pizza peel if it's not cooked hot and fast so getting your oven temperature hot enough and maintaining that heat is essential.

Later on we'll discuss safety, cleaning and maintenance but none of that really matters until your wood fired oven is up to temperature.

400 Degrees

When it comes to making pizza, 400 degrees Celsius is the magic number. In fact, many traditional Neapolitan-style pizzas are cooked even hotter than this, often between 400 and 450°C. At these temperatures, a pizza can cook in as little as 60 to 90 seconds.

But why does it need to be so hot?

Fast Cooking Creates the Perfect Texture

Pizza dough is designed to cook quickly. A very high temperature causes rapid oven spring, which is the sudden expansion of gases inside the pizza dough. This creates that light, airy, slightly puffed crust around the edge.

At the same time:

• The base crisps quickly before moisture from the toppings can soak into it.

• The outer crust blisters and chars slightly, creating flavour and texture.

• The inside of the dough remains soft and tender rather than dried out.

If the oven is too cool, the pizza will sit in the oven for too long. The result is often:

• A dry, tough crust

• Overcooked cheese

• A soggy base made wet by tomato sauce

• Uneven cooking

High heat is not optional for proper wood fired pizza. It is essential for the pizza making process.

The Science Behind the Heat

At around 400°C:

• The sugars in the dough caramelise rapidly.

• Proteins undergo the Maillard reaction, creating those delicious browned spots and complex flavours.

• Moisture evaporates quickly, giving you a crisp underside rather than a limp base.

This combination of intense radiant heat from the dome, conductive heat from the pizza stone, and rolling flame across the top of the oven is what gives wood fired pizza its distinctive character.

The Pizza Stone Must Be Fully Heated

It is not enough for the air inside the oven to read 400°C. The pizza stone itself must be fully saturated with heat. If the stone is not hot enough:

• The base will stick.

• The underside will pale rather than crisp.

• Cooking times will stretch out and ruin the texture.

Allow your oven plenty of time to preheat. Even small outdoor ovens can take 20 to 40 minutes to fully heat soak. A digital infrared thermometer is extremely useful here. Aim it directly at the centre of the stone. When the stone surface reads close to 400°C, you are ready to cook.

Consistency Matters

Once you reach the desired temperature of 400°C, the challenge becomes maintaining it. Every time you launch a pizza through the cooking process, you introduce cooler dough and lose heat through the door opening. Your baking stone will cool down as the cold dough touches it. Managing your fire properly and feeding it little and often with dry hardwood helps keep the temperature stable inside the oven and on the cooking surface.

In short, high heat is what transforms a flat disc of dough into a beautifully blistered, restaurant-quality pizza in under two minutes. Without it, you are simply baking bread with toppings.

Challenges Maintaining 400 degrees

In an outdoor pizza kitchen your pizza oven is working against the ambient temperature of its surroundings. If it is windy, the oven will cool faster. If it is cold, it will take more fuel to heat the oven and keep it hot. You can ensure the oven's open entrance is orientated away from the wind - this will help. It also helps to only cook pizza on the warmest days in the summer. A cool day in February may not result in great pizza!

Choosing the Right Fuel For Cooking Pizza

To achieve the intense heat needed for cooking pizza, we need to make informed choices about the fuel we use. Kiln dried hardwood logs are the best choice. That means choosing something like Ash or Oak. The logs should be cut quite small so they fit into the oven and can be lit more easily.

Anything other than hardwood logs will not provide such a consistent temperature inside the oven. This is because hardwood logs burn hotter for longer whereas softwoods such as pine will burn very quickly and produce lots of smoke in the process.

Ensuring your firewood has a low moisture level is essential. Our firewood is guaranteed to have less than 18% moisture which means it will burn very hot. Wet wood burns cool making baking your pizza impossible.

Getting the Fire Started

Starting the fire isn't hard but there are a few essential tips that will help. Always use clean, kiln dried kindling and paraffin wax coated firelighters. Please do not use rolled up paper, newspaper or worse petrol! These things could be dangerous, get into your food and in the case of paper, create loads of ash that will spoil your tasty toppings.

Create a small pile of kindling with a firelighter or two in the centre. Surround that with kiln dried logs cut small. Allow the flames to take to the kindling and for the fire to come to blaze before moving the small cut logs closer and onto the kindling.

As the fire builds you can add more logs. Over time you will create a bed of super-heated coals as the wood burns away. Nb: If you have a gas oven, much of the advice about temperature still stands. We sell bottled gas suitable for pizza ovens in the bottled gas section.

How Much Firewood Will I Need to Cook Pizzas?

One of the most common questions new pizza oven owners ask is how much firewood they will actually need. The honest answer is: it depends on your oven size, the weather conditions, and how many pizzas you plan to cook. However, we can give you some practical guidance.

Allow for the Preheat

The biggest fuel use happens before you cook a single pizza.

To bring a small to medium wood fired pizza oven up to 400 degrees Celsius, you will typically need:

• A generous amount of kindling to get started

• Several small kiln dried hardwood logs during the initial burn phase

• Around 4 to 6 small hardwood logs to build a proper coal bed

This preheating stage can take 20 to 40 minutes in summer, and longer in colder weather. Larger ovens will naturally require more fuel to heat soak the dome and pizza stone properly.

As a rough guide, for a standard home pizza session of 6 to 8 pizzas, you might use the equivalent of:

• Approximately 8 to 12 small hardwood logs in total

That includes both preheating and maintaining temperature.

Cooking Multiple Pizzas

Once the oven is fully up to temperature, fuel usage becomes more predictable.

The key is to feed the fire little and often. Rather than throwing in large logs, add one small split log at a time to maintain flame and heat. This keeps the dome hot and ensures rolling flame across the top of the oven.

For every 2 to 3 pizzas, you may need to add:

• 1 small hardwood log

This will vary depending on how quickly you are cooking and how often the oven door is open.

Weather Makes a Big Difference

As mentioned earlier, ambient conditions matter. On a calm, warm summer evening, your oven will hold heat efficiently. On a cold or windy day, you will use noticeably more wood.

If you are cooking in early spring or autumn, allow for:

• An extra few logs during preheat

• Slightly more frequent top-ups during cooking

Better Fuel Means Less Wood

High quality kiln dried hardwood with less than 18% moisture content burns hotter and more efficiently. That means you use less wood overall compared to damp or poorly seasoned logs.

Wet wood produces steam, cools the fire, and forces you to burn more fuel just to maintain temperature. In contrast, dry Ash or Oak logs burn cleanly, create strong embers, and make temperature control far easier.

Planning for a Pizza Party

If you are hosting a pizza party with 10 to 20 pizzas over the course of an evening, it is sensible to have more wood than you think you need. Running out of fuel mid-session is frustrating.

For a larger gathering, a full 22 litre net of small kiln dried hardwood logs is usually more than sufficient for:

• Preheating

• Cooking multiple batches

• Allowing the oven to recover between pizzas

It is always better to have a little extra on hand. Any unused logs can simply be stored for your next pizza night.

With good fuel, sensible fire management, and a proper preheat, you will quickly learn how your own oven behaves and how much wood it prefers. Experience is the best teacher, but starting with quality hardwood gives you a huge advantage.

Pizza Oven Cleaning and Maintenance

A wood fired pizza oven is surprisingly low maintenance, but looking after it properly will improve performance, extend its lifespan and keep your food tasting exactly as it should.

The intense heat used for cooking pizza actually does much of the cleaning work for you. When your oven reaches around 400 degrees Celsius and above, grease splashes and food residue inside the dome are burned away naturally. You will often notice the inside of the oven turn from black with soot to a light grey or almost white colour as it heats up. That change tells you the oven is properly fired and the interior is clean.

After cooking, allow the oven to cool completely before attempting any cleaning. Once cool, brush out loose ash and any remaining charcoal. It is important not to leave excessive ash sitting in the base, as this can affect airflow during your next firing and make temperature control harder. Always dispose of ash into a metal container and never assume embers are fully extinguished, as they can retain heat long after the fire appears to be out.

The exterior of the oven also deserves attention. If your oven is installed outdoors, keeping it dry is one of the most important maintenance steps. Repeated exposure to rain and frost can cause long-term damage, particularly in the UK climate. Using a proper cover and ensuring the chimney is protected when not in use will significantly reduce the risk of moisture working its way into the structure.

Looking After Your Pizza Stone

Your pizza stone is the working surface that delivers that perfectly crisp base. It absorbs and stores heat during preheating, then transfers that heat rapidly into the dough when you launch your pizza.

It is important never to wash the stone with water or cleaning products. Pizza stones are porous, which means they absorb moisture. If that moisture becomes trapped and the oven is later fired to high temperatures, it can cause cracking or even structural damage to the stone.

Instead, rely on heat as your primary cleaning method. During firing, most residue will burn away. If small pieces of burnt flour or topping remain, they can be gently scraped away once the stone has cooled. Some discolouration over time is completely normal and does not affect performance. In fact, a well-used stone often performs better than a brand new one.

Avoid placing frozen food directly onto a fully heated stone, as sudden temperature shock can stress the material. Likewise, never pour water onto a hot stone in an attempt to cool it down. Gradual cooling is always safest.

Safety Tips

Cooking at 400 degrees Celsius is exciting, but it demands respect. A wood fired pizza oven is not just a cooking appliance; it is an open flame environment capable of causing serious burns if handled carelessly.

Always use proper heat-resistant gloves when managing logs or adjusting the fire. Metal tools, including pizza peels and turning tools, become extremely hot during use. Even the exterior surfaces of some ovens can reach temperatures high enough to cause injury.

Position your oven on a stable, non-combustible surface and ensure there is adequate space around it. Keep children and pets at a safe distance while the oven is lit and cooling down. Remember that surfaces remain hot long after the visible flames have died away.

Never use petrol, lighter fluid or inappropriate accelerants to start or revive a fire. Stick to clean kindling and suitable firelighters designed for cooking. This protects both your safety and the quality of your food.

Finally, always remain present while the oven is in use. A wood fired oven should never be left unattended. With sensible precautions and a little care, it is perfectly safe and enormously rewarding to use. It pays to have all the ingredients ready and a large, clean heatproof surface for your pizzas as they come out of the oven. Being prepared helps prevent mishaps.