Types of Cooking

Your Sapore oven is capable of an almost endless variety of cooking styles. With almost all types of cooking, you should bring your oven fully up to heat, and then prepare it for the type of cooking you want to do by moving the fire and coals to one side of the oven, and then letting the oven temperature reach the range where you will be cooking. How long you fire your oven depends on how much cooking you will be doing, and how long you want your oven to hold its heat.

Remember that you can only take out heat from the oven that you put in. If you are going to be cooking a lot of pizza for a large party, or baking lots of bread or a large roast, fire your oven longer. If you are making pizza for the family for a mid-week meal, you can fire your oven for a shorter time.

All you need is the SAPORE oven.The beauty of your oven, is that you can use it as both a conventional oven, and a BBQ.

Throw away your BBQ, don’t heat up your kitchen by using your conventional oven, just use your SAPORE oven, this oven does it all!!

Bake, Roast, Grill….or simply enjoy the fire!

Fire-in-the-oven cooking (500ºF and up) is used for baking pizza, pizza-like flatbreads and certain types of appetizers, all of which cook in a couple of minutes. Your Sapore Pizza Oven can be pizza-ready in about 30 minutes. The goal with this type of cooking is to completely fill the floor and dome with heat, build up a large sized bed of coals and maintain a large fire where the flame reaches to top of the dome.
Pizzas can be cooked right on the floor, or on pizza trays, next to the fire, and a piece of wood every 15-20 mins to maintain a large flame.

This temperature refers to an oven that has been fired to maximum temperature. The goal is to saturate the floor and dome with heat, build up a large sized bed of coals, and maintain a large rolling flame. When the oven is up to temperature there is no visible black (carbon build up) on the dome and there should be a large fire going with the flame reaching the middle of the oven. If using a hand held thermometer the floor should read approximately 650° F. Pizzas are baked right on the floor next to the fire. The door is left off during Pizza baking and smaller pieces of wood are added approximately every 20 minutes to maintain a large flame.

Your brick oven makes a great grill. By raking a layer of hot coals across the cooking floor at the front of your oven, and sliding in a free standing cast iron grill into the oven, you can enjoy wonderful grilling/BBQ – with top and bottom heat. Meats and vegetables have very good grill marks that seal in moisture, giving you food that is crisp and not dried out. With heat from the grill itself, from the coals below it, and the heat radiating from oven dome above, your brick oven can cook faster than a traditional grill, leaving your food more moist and tender.

This temperature refers to an oven that has first been prepped to reach Pizza Oven temperatures and then allowed to drop in temperature. The goal is to have a deep constant heat throughout the oven for initial searing and then allow the oven to slowly drop in temperature to the desired level. There should be a medium sized bed of coals and a small flame 2–4 inches high, without any visible black on the dome. The door may be left off for shorter roasting times (under one hour) or positioned inside the arch opening to help regulate the heat for hours of roasting. The door is used to regulate both the air coming in to fuel the fire and the exhaust going up the chimney. Experiment with the exact placement of the door in order to not put the fire out or to create a smoky environment. If the oven is cooling off, add more wood and open the door more. Inspect food periodically during roasting and use the different heat zones in the oven to adjust for temperature. For example, move your pan deeper into the oven for more heat or forward for less heat. Add small pieces of wood as needed to maintain temperature. Roasting temperatures may start as high as 600° F for initial searing and drop to no less than 450° F.

When you want to sear meats, Roast Chickens and Meats, brown vegetables or casseroles before covering them with a lid or with liquid, or you want a dish to cook completely before the outside burns or becomes too brown, you should use a roasting temperature of between 600ºF and 450ºF.
This range is lower than for high heat fire-in-the-oven pizza cooking, but higher than for traditional baking. In order to roast, first bring you oven up to pizza temperature, and then allow it to drop in temperature and the fire to burn down but not out. Push the coals to one side. The fully fired oven combined with a low fire, enables you to sear and brown dishes, and then allows the oven to slowly drop in temperature for longer cooking. There should be no visible black on the dome, a medium sized bed of coals and a small flame of 2”-4” high. The door may be left off for shorter roasting times (under one hour) or positioned inside the arch opening to help regulate the heat for hours of roasting. Add small pieces of wood as needed to maintain temperature.

This temperature refers to an oven environment that has first been prepped to reach Pizza Oven temperature for total heat saturation, possibly used for other cooking, and then allowed to drop in temperature. The goal is to create a deep even heat throughout the entire oven to bake items that do not need the high heat or browning that a live fire provides. You are actually cooking with the retained heat in the oven dome and floor. The door is positioned inside the arch to completely close the oven. There should be no live flame at this time but some live coals are fine. As an option to create a very even oven or to hold the temperature, maintain the fully closed oven for at least thirty minutes and then remove the door to check the floor temperature. If the oven is too hot, leave the door off for 10 minutes then put the door back in place for 5 minutes before checking the temperature again.
A floor temperature of 450° F works well for baked pastas, casseroles or fruit cobblers. To bake, simply place your dish in the oven and close the door. If there are live coals in the oven keep the door cracked so the oven does not get smoky. You may wish to elevate delicate items off the floor after initial searing by using a trivet or inverted sheet pan to avoid overcooking.