i was wondering if those here that use wood fire ovens could share with me what other items they cook in their 700-800 degree ovens besides neapolitan pizzas. i know that they are quite versatile and can be used for almost anything when at a lower temperature, but what i am most interested in knowing is if they can used to prepare other dishes, along with pizzas, when they are blazing at 750+ degrees.
i was thinking that i could have items such as vegetables parcooked and then finish them off at 700+ degree temperature for a nice grilled/charred presentation - would this be possible? what about fish filets? can such an item be successfully cooked at that temperature, perhaps away from the fire?
I think you are on the right track trying to think of things to finish off in your wood oven. I can almost taste a really nice lasagne reheated in the microwave for a few minutes, and then put in your oven just to finish heating that top cheese until it bubbles and turns a beautiful color, and I would bet it would tast really great with just a kiss of that smoke in there as well. The oven manufacturer should be able to give you other ideas of what you can do in there at those really high temps. Good luck!
do you happen to know of any websites that feature recipes for cooking in wood ovens at 700+ degrees? or do you happen to know of any recipes or techiniques, i.e., cooking or finishing items off at such a temperature?
You bet you can bake any number of different things at those temps.
You can bake some dishes on a tray or solid pizza pan, or if that isn’t enough you can put a double pan beneath the item to reduce the bottom heat and cover it with a piece of foil to control the top heat if necessary. You can even use a little physics to your favor by cooking some foods (veggies) in a deep dish pan with a screen under it. The screen reduces the top heat and the deep dish pan maintains the moisture laden (cooler) air above the veggies in the headspace in the pan above the veggies where it helps to keep them cooler than the oven so they will bake slower without burning. If you want a demonstration on this, talk to the friendly folks over at Woodstone Ovens. They do this stuff all the time…pretty impressive.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
thank you very much for your extremely helpful comments! i’m embarrassed to say that cooking non-pizza items in various vessels to control the heat didn’t even occur to me! :oops: