Kalamazoo AFPO-C-2-NA-NG, Use And Care Manual

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Cooking with Your Pizza Oven
IMPORTANT:
The Artisan Fire Pizza Oven is a high-performance piece of equipment that gets very
hot. Use caution when working with the oven and do not leave the oven unattended. Use insulated
gloves with a long cuff to protect your hands and forearms from heat.
Essential Equipment
ƒ Leather insulated gloves with long cuffs to protect your hands and forearms.
ƒ Long-handled brass brush, preferably “push broom” style, for cleaning the cooking deck
ƒ Heat-resistant pizza peels for transferring pizzas into the oven and rotating pizzas while cooking
(Check out Kalamazoo’s Pizza Master’s Essentials Kit for the best pizza peels available.)
ƒ Aluminum pizza screen to slow down the cooking of the crust when needed
Other Helpful Accessories
ƒ Dough divider/scraper
ƒ Large-diameter pizza cutting wheel
ƒ
Heavy-gauge deep dish pizza pan
ƒ Cast iron skillet and/or fajita pans
ƒ Digital scale
ƒ Artisan Fire Pizza Oven Cover
Preheating
The Artisan Fire Pizza Oven is ready to cook in as little as 20 minutes, however, we recommend at
least 45 minutes of preheating for optimum performance.
IMPORTANT: Before cooking, become familiar with all the information in this Use
and Care Guide regarding safe operation of your pizza oven.
IMPORTANT: Always remove the door before operating the pizza oven. The door is
for use only when the pizza oven is OFF. It is not intended for cooking. It is intended
only for keeping foreign objects out of the oven when it is not in use.
General Operating Tips
Roasted Meats or Vegetables
ƒ Upper burner on HIGH
ƒ Lower burner LOW
ƒ Preheat cast iron skillet in the oven
ƒ
Cook food in preheated skillet
ƒ Rotate skillet for even roasting
ƒ Place a wire cooling rack between the pan and
the cooking deck for more gentle heat
Plank Cooking
ƒ Upper burner on HIGH
ƒ
Lower burner LOW
ƒ Place a wire cooling rack on the cooking deck
ƒ Place dry planks (3/4-inch-thick) topped with food
on the wire rack
ƒ Rotate plank frequently and keep away from the
back of the oven
Temperature Range
ƒ When the oven is fully pre-heated, with both
burners on HIGH, the ceiling temperature in the
Artisan Fire Pizza Oven can exceed 900ºF. Only
the thinnest of pizzas with a reserved amount of
toppings should be cooked at the upper end of
the temperature range. Specialty flours may be
needed to avoid burning the dough.
ƒ When the upper burner is set to LOW and the
lower burner is LOW or OFF, the oven cooks at a
very low and slow speed. Temperatures can be as
low as 300ºF.
Why no Thermometer?
ƒ
With the intense and dynamic heat characteristics
of the Artisan Fire Pizza Oven, we have found that
a thermometer is misleading at best, resulting in
poorly-cooked pizzas. After hundreds of tests, we
have developed the guide on the left for basic
burner settings. We recommend you learn to trust
your eyes and experiences to determine how
quickly a pizza is cooking and when it has reached
perfection.
Thin Crust Pizza
ƒ Crust formed to less than 1/8” thick
ƒ Upper burner on HIGH
ƒ Lower burner on LOW
ƒ
Cook for approximately 3 minutes
ƒ Rotate pizza 3 to 4 times during cooking
Medium Crust Pizza
ƒ
Crust formed to 1/4” thick
ƒ Upper burner on MEDIUM
ƒ Lower burner turned OFF a couple of minutes
before putting pizza in the oven after preheating
on LOW
ƒ Cook for approximately 8 minutes
ƒ
Rotate pizza 3 to 4 times during cooking
Deep Dish Pizza
ƒ Use heavy-gauge aluminum pizza pan
ƒ
Upper burner on MEDIUM
ƒ Lower burner MEDIUM
ƒ Cooling rack placed between pan and
cooking deck
ƒ Cook for approximately 40 minutes
ƒ Rotate pizza every 5 to 8 minutes
Calzones
ƒ Upper burner on MEDIUM
ƒ Lower burner turned OFF a couple of minutes
before putting calzones in the oven after
preheating on LOW
ƒ Cook for approximately 7 minutes
ƒ
Rotate calzones once during cooking
IMPORTANT: Never put greasy,
oily or buttery foods directly on the
cooking deck. For cookies, meats and
other items, use a pan or cast iron
skillet.