About the Ovens
No hassle of building a pizza oven yourself, all my-woodfiredovens come completely finished!
Our pizza ovens and gourmet ovens are hand made in Portugal for you. Wood fired brick ovens are as old as Portugal itself. As in all Mediterranean countries people have cooked in them for centuries passing an oven from generation to generation.
The making of our Etna gourmet oven and Pizzaioli pizza oven:
First a cement base is poured. The floor is then covered with natural yellow sand and refractory terracotta tiles. Then the dome is build from natural kiln-fired, rounded clay bricks fired in a wood fired tunnel oven at 900 to 1000C. The total proces to become refractory bricks is 9 days. Care is taken to make the dome shape perfect for better internal heat radiation. A 2cm layer of insulating refractory cement is applied over the brick dome, whereafter the insulation is applied with then another layer of insulating refractory cement. The effect of this special insulation is a better heat retention and reduced exterior temperature, you can comfortable keep your hand on the oven even when the fire is raging inside. It is then overlaid with chicken wire and another layer of high quality refractory cement is applied over the insulation. Finally the oven is finished in white structural render. Being a flexible material, it helps avoiding excessive cracking, protects the oven from the elements, and adds to heat retention. This covering is often used for temperature-sensitive construction sites where heat insulation is important.
The oven is fully finished and can remain as it is. However if you wish you can easily personalise it by applying stucco, tiles, stone veneer, build it in, or just paint it to change the colour. You will receive an acrylic sealant in 1 of our house colours terra cotta, sand or charcoal with your oven which makes it easier to keep your oven clean.
The cooking floor of our gourmet and pizza ovens is made from refractory tiles that are resistant to high temperatures. For the best results pizza and breads should be baked directly on the oven floor, as the heat retained in the refractory tiles is an important detail for the cooking process.
The base of both the Etna and Pizzaioli wood fired ovens is in 7 cm thick reinforced concrete, with a steel loop on each corner for easy lifting.
The oven doors are hinged. The new Etna and Pizzaioli White have a stainless steel internal door structure, door and chimney outlet. The chimney outlets have a valve which allows for smoking of some selected foods. The chimneys and chimney caps are in stainless steel as well.
All our gourmet ovens and pizza ovens come with a laser thermometer for accurate indication of the temperature in the oven and of your food.