I know all my instructions for making pizza are based on a domestic gas or electric oven but I will, from time to time, post up about the garden pizza oven… the next natural step for any pizza enthusiast to take. I’m fond of Bertha, for this is what we have named her. At the moment she’s in limbo sitting on the wall waiting for me to decide where’s best in the garden and for the weather to get warmer before taking on such a task.
Use my oven outside when the weather is in minus figures? God yes.
It was freezing last week when we had friends over for tea and I’d fired Bertha up a couple of hours before we were due to eat. I’ve done this before and had the oven at about 500 degrees but it has rapidly lost its heat and we’ve been stoking the fire like mad people trying to keep the temperature up.
However, last week was a first in that not only did I keep the temperature high enough to cook for longer, but also went way past the thermometer’s max 600 degrees Farenheit reading… it was like a little furnace and I can only put it down to almost non-stop attention to the flames in the early part of warming up.
Normal pizzas were coming out cooked inside 2 minutes and lightly-topped ones and garlic bread were somewhere in the 1 minute region. You have to watch ’em – they go like crazy if you get them right up to the burning embers. There’s a balancing act here – you can overcook the crust but undercook the base if you have it too hot… I had to bring the pizza nearer the mouth of the oven where it was cooler to give it chance when it was at its hottest. Then, as the oven cools, stick (no pun intended) more wood on and put the pizzas further towards the wood.
It’s science. But science that tastes good.
