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Operation
Cherry:
Slightly sweet fruity smoke that’s great with just about everything. Good with all meats.
Hickory:
The most common hardwood, sweet to strong, heavy bacon flavor. Good for all smoking, particularly
pork and ribs.
Mesquite:
Sweeter and more delicate than hickory, it’s a perfect complement to richly flavored meats such as
steak, duck or lamb, but be careful as it can overpower.
Oak:
Favorite wood of Europe, a mild smoke with no aftertaste. Oak gives food a beautiful smoked color. Good
with red meat, pork, fish and big game.
Pecan:
Sweet and mild with a flavor similar to hickory but not as strong. Good for chicken, beef, pork and
turkey.
FIRING UP YOUR OVEN
Your outdoor oven will bring years of enjoyment and countless delicious dishes once you have mastered the
art of building and maintaining a fire that creates an evenly distributed, high-temperature cooking stone. Invest
in a laser thermometer to show you the exact temp inside your oven.
Start the fire in the outdoor oven approximately one hour before cooking. Split wood into small pieces about
10” long by 1/2” thick. Using kindling and newspaper, start a match lit fire within the stainless steel wood caddy
in the center of the cooking stone. Continue to feed the fire with two or three larger pieces until it becomes well
established. At this point, slide the stainless steel wood caddy and fire to the left side of the outdoor oven using
the ash sweep. It doesn’t take much wood to bring the oven to 370°C on the thermometer.
Close the outdoor oven door, vented enough to keep the flame burning, and continue to add wood as needed.
The flame will reach the top of the dome and curve around to the other side; this is normal, just make sure the
flames don’t come out of the outdoor oven opening. The goal is for the cooking stone and dome to absorb the
heat.
Once the cooking stone reaches between 340°C -385°C you are ready to start cooking.
High Temperature Cooking:
When the oven stone is between 340°C - 385°C, you are at a perfect
temperature to cook pizza. Pizzas are placed with the 11.5” square peel on the cooking stone and take less
than 3 minutes. Remember to rotate the pizza, with the 8.5” round peel, to ensure even cooking. A great trick to
check if your pizza crust is fully baked, is to lift your pizza (while cooking) with the 8.5” round peel. If the pizza
folds over the sides of the peel, the crust is not fully cooked.
Medium Temperature Cooking:
When the cooking stone is between 230°C - 315°C, you are at a good
temperature to roast meat, vegetables, fish and seafood.
Depending on the dish, you may want to cover it initially to allow it to cook fully before removing the cover for
browning. You will also want to rotate the pans and roasts, alternating the side facing the fire.
Grilling:
It’s a lot of fun and achieves great results, keeping things crisp on the outside but juicy on the inside,
thanks to the convection flow of heat in the oven.
To grill, move the embers to the front-middle of the cooking stone, and place a freestanding grill grate over
