I was just wondering how most members here setup their conveyor ovens. Currently our oven is setup so we run pizzas all the way through and a pizza with just a few toppings will come out great, but multiple topping specialties (especially with veggies) will need to be pushed back into the oven. During rushes this complicates things for the cut and box person, there may not always be room to do so. Our cheese pizzas get pushed half a pan length into the oven so as not to burn the cheese.
One suggestion was to change the oven settings so that a deluxe, veggie, etc. will come out of the oven perfectly cooked without adjustments. Cheese, pepperoni, sausage, etc. pizzas will be pushed partly into the oven so they do not burn and will be cooked perfectly upon exiting the oven.
There are lots of variables at play here - plus other menu items to consider as well. What works for you???
In many cases I have found that you can adjust your top finger profile to allow for a longer baking time at a slightly lower temperature, by doing this we have been able to effectively bake single topping and delux pizzas side by side. Where we see the biggest problem is when fast, hot bakes are employed.
Then again, you can always consider trading up to a different oven with at least one 50/50 split conveyor.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
Tom - do you mean adjusting the placement of the fingers in the oven, or adjusting the openings used for the fingers?
What make and model oven are you using?
George Mills
Middleby PS360
The fingers are adjusted to control the air flow properties at each finger location. With some ovens this is accomplished by changing the hole pattern and hole size on the outer sleeve (no insert) while on other ovens it is accomplished by changing the sleeve insert. Example;
The XLT ovens do not utilize an insert, the hole pattern and size that you see on the finger sleeve is what controls the airflow. The exception is when a radiant finger is introduced. This sleeve will not have any holes. When a finger is blocked off a plate is installed at the manifold to prevent air from entering the finger. On other ovens a mesh like panel is slid into the sleeve to control the airflow. Still other ovens are designed to be full open across the top and bottom and block-off plates/bars are installed where/as needed to achieve the desired airflow properties.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
We always deployed the push the specialties back a little system but since we switched to the Lloyd pan quick disk’s every pizza seems to come out perfect no matter what the pizza has on it.
During busy times, we put an empty screen behind the pie, alowing space to push a loaded pie back…
Here’s our well done contraption set up. Small screen in front to signal the oven puller. Big screen behind for space.
My ovens are setup as Tom explained about. We can cook a cheese pizza side by side with a specialty and you can not tell the difference. When the oven is working correctly that is, currently some of the pizzas we have to rotate 180 and then slide them back a bit to allow them to finish cooking correctly on both side of the pizza.
Lower temp and longer time is the cure in my opinion…and frequent debris cleaning of the oven cavity and fingers to ensure proper airflow so you don’t get hot spots or low spots.