Post by albacore on Sept 6, 2020 21:02:51 GMT
Introducing my new wood fired oven floor:
Perfect, eh?
It all began when I realised that firebrick isn't really the best material for an oven floor after all (sorry to break it to you, guys). The problem is that to cook the best Neapolitan pizza, you need the oven up at 400-450C. This is the kind of temperature I get when I've finished heating up my oven. If you put the pizza in at this temperature the underside of the pizza base will burn and you will get black charred patches - not pleasant.
This is because the high alumina firebrick conducts heat too well and keeps feeding its stored heat into the pizza base. What is needed is a less conductive, heat resistant material - terracotta. "Proper" Neapolitan ovens have the whole floor made of Saputo biscotto or similar. Unfortunately they are crazy expensive, have to be imported at buyer's risk from Italy and were too thick to put on top of my existing floor.
So I had the bright idea of using terracotta floor tiles instead. Unfortunately, things didn't go quite according to plan... - and this was after one test firing! The good news is that the pizza turned out with a perfect base. I'm currently trialling a different type - let's hope it does fail quite so catastrophically!
Lance
Perfect, eh?
It all began when I realised that firebrick isn't really the best material for an oven floor after all (sorry to break it to you, guys). The problem is that to cook the best Neapolitan pizza, you need the oven up at 400-450C. This is the kind of temperature I get when I've finished heating up my oven. If you put the pizza in at this temperature the underside of the pizza base will burn and you will get black charred patches - not pleasant.
This is because the high alumina firebrick conducts heat too well and keeps feeding its stored heat into the pizza base. What is needed is a less conductive, heat resistant material - terracotta. "Proper" Neapolitan ovens have the whole floor made of Saputo biscotto or similar. Unfortunately they are crazy expensive, have to be imported at buyer's risk from Italy and were too thick to put on top of my existing floor.
So I had the bright idea of using terracotta floor tiles instead. Unfortunately, things didn't go quite according to plan... - and this was after one test firing! The good news is that the pizza turned out with a perfect base. I'm currently trialling a different type - let's hope it does fail quite so catastrophically!
Lance