If you want to buy a wood-fired pizza oven for yourself or if you have been on the lookout for the best wood type for your pizza oven then this post is a must-read.
There are so many different sources to obtain wood for your pizza oven and in this post, we are going to outline the ideal wood type for pizza ovens.
There are many ovens that even use wood pellets these days and as much as it might sound great for a few pizza ovens, it is not going to work with all.
There are so many different options for wood and the reason people tend to choose a few kinds of wood sources over others because they impart some flavor to the pizza.
Changing the wood can actually impact the taste of the pizza that you have been cooking inside the oven.
What kind of wood not to use inside a pizza oven?
There are different kinds of woods that one can use inside a pizza oven, however, there are some that you should stay away from.
These are chemically treated wood, mostly the ones that are used in construction.
Even if the wood is been varnished or has been treated chemically in any way, it should be avoided to be used inside the pizza oven.
These chemicals can be toxic for the food and they would settle on the food through the smoke.
So be very careful and never choose a wood that has been glued, painted or chemically treated in any shape or form.
Next would be to avoid freshly cut wood from the tree.
The reason freshly cut wood from the tree is not the best option is because it has a lot of moisture content that is just not good for burning the wood.
Due to more moisture content, you are going to not get a lot of heat from burning the wood and it would produce a lot of soot.
You need to dry out the wood before you can use it. If you still want to use a freshly cut piece of wood for flavor then you can do so with a blend of some nicely dried wood pieces.
The main aim here is to produce a lot of heat inside the pizza oven so that you can reach really high cooking temperatures that are ideal for a pizza oven.
Best wood for a pizza oven
The best wood that is perfect for a pizza oven are hardwoods like oak, maple, and birch.
You need to dry out the wood from these trees and make sure that the wood has not more than 20 % of water content.
Having water content less than 15% can result in not a lot of heat production so it is better to have wood with 15-20% of water content.
You know a block of wood is dry when the ends are gray in color along with some cracks. This is an indication that the wood is ready to use.
Its always better to use wood from trees that are locally sourced since there is no point is getting it transported from another city.
You can try out different kinds of woods that are easily available in your locality and see which ones burn the best and produce a lot of heat in the oven.
The main goal is to use wood that produces a lot of heat so that the pizza oven can reach really high temperatures easily.
You should also make sure that you have dried out the wood well else you are going to end up with a lot of soot and residue that would just make your pizza oven unnecessarily dirty.
Using wood inside the pizza oven
You can cut wood from your backyard but you need to do is 6 months prior to using it.
Try cutting wood during winters when the sap is in the root. This way you can even store it for 6 months so that the wood dries out perfectly till summer.
Wood can be dried from 6 months to a year and it really depends on the kind of wood that you have.
If you want to use wood immediately then it would be better to buy some, although be careful as there are people who sell wood for a lot more than the actual cost.
Try buying a cord of wood as that would be cheaper. You get a lot of wood as well which you can cut into pieces according to your requirements.
A wood long can be 12-18 inches long and you can even have them shorter depending on the size of the pizza oven that you are using.
Make sure that you are using dry wood.
You can use wood pellets as there are people who claim that these are effective and produce a lot of heat but if the oven is large then they might not work.
However, they can be used to start off the fire initially but it is always better to use large wood pieces that would produce a lot of heat so that the whole pizza oven can get to a high temperature quickly.
Using wood pellets with Pizza Ovens
There are a few pizza ovens like the Ooni 3 that recommends using wood pellets with teh oven.
Now, using wood pellets with Ooni 3 is a good idea because the pizza oven is small and it requires relatively lesser heat than the large standing traditional pizza ovens.
In this case, wood pellets might be a more efficient way to heat up the pizza oven.
I hope all the tips given above help you understand which kind of wood is best for your pizza oven and it clears a lot of doubts.
If you have anything else to share then leave it in the comments below!
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