Mia
One of the most well-known dishes across the world has to be pizza. Despite initially being a simple creation, different cuisines from many cultures have made their own twists on it. As a result, pizzas have become one of the most well-known staple foods, especially with the wide range of toppings, sauces and crusts you can make them with. From the simplest cheese pizza to four topping, stuffed crust and cream-based pizzas, it’s become one of the most favourite foods.
What some people may not know, however, is that even the most simple of pizzas can be baked in different ways. One such way is by using a wood-fired oven. As the name suggests, these ovens use hardwoods as a fuel source to heat the insides of a dome-shaped oven. This method was the first way to make a pizza and has since become more of a popular and authentic experience from the past, due to the invention of gas pizza ovens.
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Healthier for you
A rather surprising fact about wood-fired pizzas is that it’s actually healthier than any other type of pizza. Due to the high heat that comes from wood-burning, the pizza cooks quite fast. This in turn, helps keep the nutrients of many of the vegetable toppings. The lower heat cooks them slower in other oven types, which pulls the nutrients out. Vegetables, like spinach, onions and bell peppers lose the antioxidants with the drawn-out cooking.
Hotter temperatures mean shorter waits
Thanks to the simplicity of pizza, many people rely on them for a quick solution to dinner after a long and busy day. While stopping by a pizza shop can be quite convenient, many people may not have the time to wait for the staff to put it together and bake it. Instead, they may buy a few frozen pizzas to put in the oven whenever they need it. The main problem is that you still need to wait around 15 minutes or more for it to bake properly.
Wood-fired pizzas are great because they can be made and cooked in far less time than your standard oven. Many wood-fired pizza ovens can reach upwards of 500 degrees fahrenheit to 700 degrees. On the other hand, many home ovens can only reach a maximum of 500 degrees. Combined with the need to preheat the oven first, you end up waiting almost 45 minutes before you or your family can eat the pizza. A wood-fired oven’s high temperatures drastically cuts this time down, leaving pizzas to cook for at least two to five minutes depending on how thick the dough is. Depending on the model of your oven, your cooking time can be even shorter, with some people being able to cook a pizza entirely in a minute
The pizzas will be cooked evenly the first time
Many wood-fired pizzas are also bound to come out perfectly the first time. Thanks to its shape and heat source, the ovens they’re made in are heated evenly. This means that you won’t end up with odd cold chunks of cheese and meat in one area while half the crusts are almost crisp. The even distribution of heat in a wood-fired oven guarantees that the pizza won’t be an off-putting soggy, or overly burnt mess, leaving the dough crispy yet soft and delicious.
Pizzas have a smoky flavour
Burning hardwood creates a type of smoke, much like using charcoal to barbecue does. This wood smoke seeps into the pizzas made in the wood-fired ovens, giving them a smoky taste even once it’s pulled out of the oven. The gas or electric oven you may have at home don’t give this same taste due to the use of different fuel sources.
Have a great texture
Many people may also find that these pizzas also have a great texture once they get to eat it. As mentioned, wood-fired ovens use high temperatures to cook pizzas, often drastically shortening the time needed to cook them properly. Thanks to the high heat, the ingredients quickly cook or brown, but still retain enough moisture when it comes out of the oven. This leaves the bottoms of the pizza crispy, the inside of the crust soft and puffy and the toppings juicy.
Can include any kind of toppings
When it comes to wood-fired pizzas, the toppings aren’t restricted to just pepperoni, cheese and other flat toppings. You can add far more depth to your pizzas when making wood-fired pizzas, quite literally and figuratively. As long as it can fit under the pizza oven’s domed top, you can have as many toppings as possible. It’s also delicious to add more things to the crust. Deep dish pizzas provide for a wide range of toppings and sauce bases, while wood fired pizzas allow for complete customization.Takeaway
Pizzas have long since become incredibly popular since the first Italian pizza was made, becoming a classic and authentic dish that everyone loves. However, due to how they’re made, wood fired pizzas have become more popular in recent times for many different reasons. By using wood as a fuel source, the pizzas gain a smoky taste that is similar to what people love about charcoal barbeques. The pizza ovens also cook at high temperatures, allowing wood-fired pizzas to be made much faster than other types. And to make them better, these pizzas also tend to be far moisture and evenly cooked due to the higher temperatures and temperature distribution. Thanks to this, wood-fired pizzas are healthier and more delicious.
