Portable wood fired pizza ovens

[Don Kondra]

Anyone have any experience with these type of ovens ?

I'm considering two models, one made in Portugal in stock and shipped from Ontario > https://www.pizzaovens.ca/portable-pizza-oven.html

The other direct from Italy with 5-7 business days delivery by Fedex > http://pizzapartyshop.com/en/wood-fi...zza-party.html

Very similar in size/construction/cooking heat and warm up periods, both roughly $1000 US including taxes and shipping.

I understand a much more serious DIY traditional masonary oven can be had for close to the same price but this installation will be on a wood deck and the size is appropriate to my needs.

This is the Portuguese model..

Pizza oven.JPG

Italian...

Pizza party.jpg

Cheers, Don

[Larry Frank]

I do not know anything about these but wood smoked and cooked pizza is fantastic.

[roger wiegand]

You're probably familiar with these sites, but be sure to have a look at The Fire Within (oriented towards people trying to make a business with portable ovens) and Forno Bravo, a CA (California, sorry) retailer whose site supports a vigorous discussion forum devoted to making and using traditional ovens. You will find there nearly endless discussion on barrel vault vs Pompeii dome ovens, with I think the strong consensus being barrel vault ovens being superior for baking bread and domes better for pizza.

I've poured the slab for my homemade Pompeii oven and hope perhaps to begin construction this summer. Forno Bravo offers a free ~50 page detailed instruction manual on building a Pompeii oven from scratch. They also offer prefab kits.

I've been working pretty hard on improving my pizza over the last year and a half in anticipation of the oven and find that, to the distress of my wallet, using real San Marzano DOP tomatoes (Strianese brand from Forno Bravo) and Antimo Caputo 00 flour makes a huge difference in the quality of the pizza. Don't be fooled by the very many fake San Marzano tomatoes around-- at least in the US our labeling standards are a joke, so you have to become skillful at reading the labels to figure out what you're actually getting. My grown children bring their friends to our house to have "Dad's amazing pizza", so I'm thinking I'm heading in the right direction.

[Michael Weber]

Check out Sam's Club. $800 and very substantial looking. I considered one for bread. http://www.samsclub.com/sams/wood-fi....ip?navAction=

[Scott Brandstetter]

Hello Don, hope you are well. I don't have experience with either model but do have much experience with "wood fired" pizza's. I just wanted to throw out another option for your consideration. I have a Big Green Egg and cook pizzas all the time and much like Rogers post above, I take great care with the sauce, crust and ingredients. I'm always asked to have pizza night and there are times I make as many as 10+ pies a night.

The great thing about the egg (or competitor primo) is that you can also make incredible breakfasts, pies, and meats of all types. Once you make a steak on one of these, you may not ever order a steak at a restaurant again. Back to pizza's, not sure there are better tasting pies than ones that are cooked in this method. If I can you help you, just let me know. I am an "egghead".

[Jim Koepke]

Neither of those look like they are big enough to bake much more than an individual serving size pizza.

What are the door dimensions?

jtk

[roger wiegand]

A 36" diameter oven will hold 3-4 10" pies, a 44" oven will hold 5-6. (speaking of round Pompeii dome ovens here) Since a pizza will cook in 2-4 minutes in an 800+ deg oven you can get a lot of throughput with even a small oven. I'm planning a 44" oven due to aspirations of cooking turkeys and such.

[Robert LaPlaca]

I currently have a hacked wood fired pizza oven based on a Weber Charcoal grill and a Kettlepizza attachment for the Weber grill, makes a pretty respectable wood fired pizza with the two extra heavy Green Egg pizza stones I have in the grill to reduce the dome volume..

Having said all that, the down side of this setup is the critical tempurature is very short lived, I use enormous amounts of wood and charcoal to get the desired tempurature. i would love to get one of Forno Bravo's primavera pizza ovens, just not sure if we have enough space in the yard for it, I know that Peter Rienhart of pizza book fame has one and loves it..

[Don Kondra]

You're probably familiar with these sites, but be sure to have a look at The Fire Within (oriented towards people trying to make a business with portable ovens) and Forno Bravo, a CA (California, sorry) retailer whose site supports a vigorous discussion forum devoted to making and using traditional ovens. You will find there nearly endless discussion on barrel vault vs Pompeii dome ovens, with I think the strong consensus being barrel vault ovens being superior for baking bread and domes better for pizza.

I've poured the slab for my homemade Pompeii oven and hope perhaps to begin construction this summer. Forno Bravo offers a free ~50 page detailed instruction manual on building a Pompeii oven from scratch. They also offer prefab kits.

I've been working pretty hard on improving my pizza over the last year and a half in anticipation of the oven and find that, to the distress of my wallet, using real San Marzano DOP tomatoes (Strianese brand from Forno Bravo) and Antimo Caputo 00 flour makes a huge difference in the quality of the pizza. Don't be fooled by the very many fake San Marzano tomatoes around-- at least in the US our labeling standards are a joke, so you have to become skillful at reading the labels to figure out what you're actually getting. My grown children bring their friends to our house to have "Dad's amazing pizza", so I'm thinking I'm heading in the right direction.

Thanks Roger, at this point I'm not interested in "building" an oven, most times I will be cooking just for myself

I also have spent years experimenting with sauces/toppings and flours/dough, my results using a cast iron pizza pan in an electric oven are quite acceptable but.....

Check out Sam's Club. $800 and very substantial looking. I considered one for bread. http://www.samsclub.com/sams/wood-fi....ip?navAction=

They don't appear to ship to Canada ?

Hello Don, hope you are well. I don't have experience with either model but do have much experience with "wood fired" pizza's. I just wanted to throw out another option for your consideration. I have a Big Green Egg and cook pizzas all the time and much like Rogers post above, I take great care with the sauce, crust and ingredients. I'm always asked to have pizza night and there are times I make as many as 10+ pies a night.

The great thing about the egg (or competitor primo) is that you can also make incredible breakfasts, pies, and meats of all types. Once you make a steak on one of these, you may not ever order a steak at a restaurant again. Back to pizza's, not sure there are better tasting pies than ones that are cooked in this method. If I can you help you, just let me know. I am an "egghead".

Thanks Scott

I'll take a look at the egg !

For now I'd like to find a reasonable source for 00 flour. Locally a small bag that makes six pies is $15, sigh... Shipping costs are ridiculous.

And in the electric oven, I actually prefer the crust from normal flour.

Neither of those look like they are big enough to bake much more than an individual serving size pizza.

What are the door dimensions?

jtk

The inside dimensions are roughly 24" x 24" with a 15" x 9" door. Room for two personal size pizza's...

A 36" diameter oven will hold 3-4 10" pies, a 44" oven will hold 5-6. (speaking of round Pompeii dome ovens here) Since a pizza will cook in 2-4 minutes in an 800+ deg oven you can get a lot of throughput with even a small oven. I'm planning a 44" oven due to aspirations of cooking turkeys and such.

This small oven should be fine for "pizza parties" of up to a dozen people and fit into what I hope to soon be a screened in deck !

Cheers, Don

[Robert LaPlaca]

I've been working pretty hard on improving my pizza over the last year and a half in anticipation of the oven and find that, to the distress of my wallet, using real San Marzano DOP tomatoes (Strianese brand from Forno Bravo) and Antimo Caputo 00 flour makes a huge difference in the quality of the pizza. Don't be fooled by the very many fake San Marzano tomatoes around-- at least in the US our labeling standards are a joke, so you have to become skillful at reading the labels to figure out what you're actually getting. My grown children bring their friends to our house to have "Dad's amazing pizza", so I'm thinking I'm heading in the right direction.

Ooh, I have had Strianese tomatoes, they are fabulous.. What I haven't tried to use is yet is the Antimo Caputo 00 pizza flour..

[Dave Lehnert]

Weber makes a pizza oven for their charcoal grill but for some reason don't offer it in the USA.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9X3UROLQWY