Its a complicated business these days, so I’ve put this little guide together as even though I thought I had made all the information on my website as clear as possible, I still get phone calls to clarify a number of issues that arise when choosing buying pizza ovens for home use.
There are quite a few brands on the internet now, all competing for a slice of the relatively small UK market, with different price points and consequent quality of build. Some are ready-made whilst others are in modular form requiring assembly on site, some are high mass heavy heat-resistant concrete( chamotte), others are lightweight stainless steel with very little mass to retain heat.
With all this sometimes confusing choice, I think its best to break down what is available without mentioning individual brands and try and make sense of what’s out there. Surprisingly some people still don’t think through their purchases until its too late- buying an oven that is impossible to lift or not being able to get it through a garden gate!
Before I get started on the details of choosing buying pizza ovens please remember a few basic rules when buying almost anything-
When looking through our Four Grand-Mere (lit. ‘Grandmothers oven’) wood fired and gas fired ovens list you’ll notice that we offer not only our standard dome height and arch entry but also an optional raised version (marked with the code -H+) that is 75mm higher.
Raised oven-the bottom two courses of bricks create the extra 75mm
Following on from my post about smoke-control-areas I thought I’d put down a few thoughts about firewood species for baking in a wood-fired oven and the importance of reducing the moisture content as low as practically possible.
Wet wood doesn’t burn!
All the nonsense you’ve ever read about clearing woodland in temperate Europe by setting it alight is just that, nonsense. Trying to burn standing timber or even under-storey wood is, as the late Oliver Rackham points out, “like trying to burn wet asbestos”. ( History of the Countryside p72 Dent 1986). Historical references to burning woodland normally refer to charcoal burning, a widespread industry that was both local and semi industrial in scale.
Britain is not the highly flammable pine forested Mediterranean nor has redwood or eucalyptus forests that have fire as part of their lifecycle.
The widespread notion that Britain was largely untamed wildwood well into historical times doesn’t bear any close examination either- there is plenty of evidence that by the Roman occupation, Britain was only about 15-20% woodland, about the same as modern rural France.
Woodland soils in lowland Britain are generally more fertile than tropical rain forests and probably supported small clearings of crops for short periods with men clearing small wood with grazing animals and stone tools.
The great clearances were probably Neolithic to Bronze Age but even now there is very little evidence as how they managed it, the labour involved and how long it took. We know from their legacy of stone monuments and track ways that they were very well organised and must have worked co-operatively in large numbers. Undoubtedly, it is one of the greatest agricultural achievements ever.
Following the announcement from London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, that he will be reviewing the impact of wood-fired appliances in the region it seems timely to look at the alternatives( gas-pizza-ovens) given the high and often illegal levels of airborne particulate pollution.
Nelsons column in London smog of 1952
The Clean Air Act was enacted in 1956 as a direct result of life threatening smogs arising from urban industrial output and coal-fired domestic fireplaces . With amendments in 1968 and more recently in 1993 with later revisions in David Cameron’s ‘Red Tape Challenge’, the government has sought to control pollution but at the same time cut bureaucratic interference in day to day business operations.
The initial impetus to control pollution was the burden of dark smoke with high particulate levels that was causing health to decline rapidly in the 50’s. The concept of clean burning appliances was enacted in law so that DEFRA, the government department in charge of policing pollution, could create an ‘exempt appliance’ list, appliances that had met targets for particulate output and enabled business to carry on in a more environmentally friendly way within Smoke Control Areas.
pollution from idling vehicles
Although industrial pollution and coal burning has fallen dramatically over the last 50 years, transport has grown exponentially and has largely negated the gains in clean air in all our major cities.
With cars, buses, heavy goods lorries and trains all now contributing to the particulate load via diesel engines, wood-burning appliances have now been singled out as a major contributory factor in modern pollution.
Wood-burning stove use has also increased exponentially as wood is carbon neutral unlike fossil fuels and is the the ultimate ‘eco’ fuel when burned in an ‘exempt appliance’- low emissions when the fuel is dried below 20% moisture.
Unfortunately, wood as a resource is completely unregulated in its supply- some log deliveries could be seasoned and be still 30-50% moisture others 20% or less. A few companies have challenged this with fuel that is kiln dried and guaranteed less than 20% before delivery, others have sought to use compressed wood waste in the form of ‘heat logs’ to reduce the moisture content even further.
The issue now is these fuels and appliances are being called into question as part of this new review and it looks like wood burning may be outlawed altogether even though wood smoke is the raison d’etre for many authentic cooking cuisines like pizza and grills.
Baker’s wood-fired oven in Pompeii buried in AD79 after the eruption of Vesuvius
A potted history of Wood-fired ovens-
We stand in a long tradition of wood-fired oven designing and building going back to remains found at the Roman city of Pompeii, near modern Naples, Italy. Wood-fired ovens in various forms, mostly unfired clay, probably existed for thousands of years before but the existing ovens have given us a model for construction and design detail that has been built on and refined over succeeding generations.
Drawing of typical wood-fired bakery oven
Wood-fired ovens can be found in every culture that has access to natural fuel as a resource and grain as a food. The building materials used vary from region to region but one thing they have in common is their refractory nature; they hold heat for extended periods without degrading, enabling successive batches of bread to be cooked on one heating cycle. Today, modern high alumina clays and crushed firebrick are formed into shapes, brick, tile or segment, and fired to give a stable product resistant to temperatures up to 1700C. These form the basis of brick built ovens.
The magazine asked us to contribute to an article about building an outdoor kitchen, See our outdoor kitchen projects here
Please see our blog post ‘designing and building an outdoor kitchen’ where we give invaluable advice on setting up your own Grand Designs like space, whether its traditional or modern in design. We have designed and built quite a few cooking areas over the years using high quality materials, all sourced in the UK, and with good sustainability ratings. From FSC hardwood to top of the range Stainless steel, we can do it all.
Above are some examples of bread baking using a home-made sourdough starter or in the case of the Pain au Raisin, commercial yeast. The breads feature different types of slash pattern that enables the dough to rise in a controlled way.
Sourdough starter or Levain
Sourdough requires a natural leaven made from just water and flour left open to natural yeasts in the air to start the fermentation. It usually takes several weeks to get a viable fully active Levain or starter, one that is bubbly enough to grow fast within the dough and has got that classic tangy sour smell so typical of the bread.
The flour for the starter can be any good quality organic bread flour, white, brown, rye or a combination. Wild yeasts do quite like rye as a food so adding a bit in always helps. Always mix at 100% hydration-so normally 100g of flour to 100g water- mixed in a closable clean container to keep unwanted moulds out. Stir every day until you see small bubbles appearing then pour half the mixture away. Add fresh flour/water as before until the bubbling is more pronounced. Keep discarding half the mixture until the mixture is really bubbling well and even trying to get out of your container!
sourdough starter bubbling away
There are many recipes for basic sourdough bread baking on line but the fundamentals are this- measure out your volume of flour, say 600g, and put into a bowl. On your kitchen scales, we’re going to aim for approx 1kg 70% hydration loaf, so measure 400g of water and 100g of levain and add to the flour. Don’t mix it, just leave it there for about 30mins- this is known as autolyse- and helps the fermentation process start.
Start to mix together with 2 tsp fine sea salt until all the ingredients are blended evenly then there are two ways to go-
1. Folding method
Both work but with folding, all you do is keep stretching one side of the dough and pulling it over the other side and then resting. You do this every hour until you feel the dough change- it will start to feel pillowy and resistant to breaking. It means the gluten is aligning itself in strands and strengthening the dough. If it feels loose, give it another fold and rest.
2. Kneading method
From your blended mix, pick up your dough with two hands, thumbs on top, and keep flipping the dough over on itself. It will be horribly sticky to start with but after about 5-10 mins it will tighten and come together as a ball. Ideally knead for about 15-20 mins then rest and leave to rise.
Proving- does your dough rise?
The dough should now rise slowly. Again there are several ways forward. Let it rise naturally in a cool room until double in size or leave tightly covered in the bowl overnight in the fridge. The cooler and longer the proving the better tasting the dough will be. Either way when doubled in size, knock back and stretch the dough out into a square, pulling each corner out and folding it back in on itself. This stretching tightens the gluten.
Forming- forming the shape
Keep stretching the dough a few more times and let rest. The idea now is to drag the dough toward you with a tiny amount of flour so that it really tightens and forms a ball. Use a scraper to drag it and eventually you’ll get a tight ball with a taught skin.
Second rising-its alive and well
rising dough in a banneton credit: Naoto Sato on Flickr
There are again several ways to contain your loaf- a tin, a banneton or cloth lined basket or a couche which is a floured linen cloth that is folded to support the dough. Take your dough and scoop it up with your scraper and turn it upside down into a banneton so that the top is down. For a tin, you’d scoop up and drop it top up and for a couche, you’ll more than likely form a longer loaf and drop it upside down. Let is rise again until when poked gently will return slowly to its original form.
bread baking- making it edible!
The oven or wood-fired oven should be preheated to about 250C, some bakers go a bit lower some higher but either way the baking time will be adjusted accordingly.
If baking in an oven in the kitchen try and use baking stone as its good at retaining an even heat and put a tray with a small amount of boiling water at the bottom for steam. Turn out your risen loaf onto a small floured peel so the top is now up, flour it and slash with a very sharp knife or Lame ( a short handle with a razor blade ) and slide onto the stone. Bake for 30-40 mins until it sounds hollow. A tin can be put straight in after you’ve floured and slashed the top. If on a couche, flip the dough upside down onto your peel, flour and slash as above.
sourdough crumb showing good structure and aeration credit: Jarkko Laine on Flickr
When ready, your loaf will sound hollow, well browned and crusty. It will crackle as it cools but don’t get tempted to eat it yet no matter how hungry you are, the starches are a bit indigestible whilst hot. The starches need to set so once its cooled down to room temperature get stuck in and enjoy your handiwork.
If you’re lucky and everything worked out, you should have a well risen loaf, full of air bubbles, crusty and slightly caramelised on the outside and light, fluffy and tangy on the inside.
bread being unloaded from a wood-fired oven credit: Jes.Stevens on Flickr
Artisan Bread baking is an adventure, many things can and do go wrong at every stage but bakers know that working methodically helps to eliminate those errors. Write down your successful recipes and pass them on and when you’re ready for the ultimate test, buy yourself a wood-fired oven and up your game!
You never know, you may catch the bug and try and do it professionally so if you do, please know we are here to help you get started with trade discounts and advice.
If you want to join fellow bread bakers on your journey, consider joining the Real Bread Campaign, a force for getting the industry to make bread baking better and encourage artisan bakers in their quest for great tasting bread.
