Installation and
Operating Manual
Forno Bravo
Residential Assembled Ovens
Primavera, Napolino. Andiamo, Strada
12
©Forno Bravo, LLC 2021. All Rights Reserved.
Ver. 3.1
11. Types of Wood Fired
Cooking
Your Forno Bravo 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—typically only until the
dome goes white.
The main cooking styles are:
Fire-in-the-Oven Cooking
Fire-in-the-oven cooking (650°F 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 Forno Bravo Pizza Oven can be pizza-
ready in about 45 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.
There are two ways to know that an oven is ready
to cook pizza. First, when the oven dome itself has
gone clear, and there is no visible black soot. At this
point, you should move the fire to one side, while
continuing to maintain a large fire going with the
flame reaching the middle of the oven.
Alternatively, if you are using an infrared
thermometer, the floor should read approximately
650°F-700°F. Pizzas are baked right on the floor next
to the fire. Leave the oven completely open, and add
one piece of wood every 15-20 minutes to maintain a
large flame.
For a visual description of how your Forno Bravo
oven absorbs, holds and uses heat to cook, see our
Wood Fired Cooking eBook.
