Believe it or not, Pizzas have a long history, Pizza-like flatbreads with savoury toppings have been around since ancient times in Greece and ancient Italy. But the modern Pizza was born in the southwest of Italy in Naples in the late 18th century.

The main evolution of these flatbreads with savoury toppings was the specific use of tomatoes as a topping, with a tomato base added to these flatbreads, the pizza was born. According to Italian state archives, by 1807 there were already 54 pizzerias in Naples, and by the end of that century there were over 120.




Pizzas have evolved a lot since then and have become very popular across the world, with a variety of different toppings resulting in a wide variety of taste sensations, from the ‘Hawaiian Pizza’ (topped with pineapple and ham, invented in Canada in 1962) to the ‘Chicago Pizza’ a new ‘deep-dish’ style pizza developed in Chicago in the 1940s.

One thing most people can agree on is that pizzas are delicious. But there is one thing.. pizzas ‘are’ delicious but they are even more so when cooked in a proper pizza oven (and taste even better when enjoyed outside).

Pizza Ovens

– brick or stone ovens, fuelled by wood have also, naturally, been around since ancient times. Depending on how much pizza you plan to cook, there is a design of oven suitable for your needs

A domed style pizza oven has the best heat efficiency for evenly reflected internal heat and creates a more effective flow of internal hot air, giving a hot oven with very few cold spots. Though other styles of oven such as square or rectangular ovens, or square or rectangular ovens with arched roofs are also used.

We recently added a domed pizza oven to the TURAS Petromax Kitchen, built over a reinforced concrete base, modular arched bricks were combined to create an impressive domed oven with a flue and chimney which was then coated in cement mixed with vermiculite (a natural insulating mineral).We have tested it many times in the past couple of months, and well we plan to keep testing it for the foreseeable future (yum). Another benefit of a pizza oven is speed and convenience. In a regular oven, pizza can take between 8 and 15 minutes to bake, but in a proper pizza oven, a pizza can be cooked in only 1-2 minutes (wood fired pizza ovens can reach temperatures of up to 370C).

Wood

Wood that has dried properly will almost always burn hotter than wood that still has moisture in it, basically because much of the heat energy is used to evaporate the remaining water.First of all unseasoned wood will be smoky and will smolder, the experts will also tell you that wood should be cut in the springtime and then stacked in a sheltered area for up to 12 months with some woods like oak taking anything up to 24 months to fully dry out.It is important to note that in general wood burns most efficiently when the moisture content is at 20% or less. Damp wood burns at a cooler temperature, resulting in incomplete combustion and giving out more smoke which is not healthy or enjoyable. use hard wood and not soft wood in your oven. Hardwoods get your oven hot and gets the best results…..Happy Cooking