6
Curing and Lighting Instructions
Curing Instructions:
First Lighting of the Toscana oven – After all construction is
completed, all elements of the oven and chimney system must
be completely dry. This means that the unit must stand without
any firing for a minimum of 28 days.
Only after that period of time can a first lighting take place.
The first fire must be small and well-controlled, started with a
small amount of kindling. Add no more than eight pounds of
wood, preferably small logs not more than 3” (three inches) in
diameter. You will probably burn no more than three to four of
these small logs. Do not let the fire burn for more than one hour.
After this first lighting – when the oven has started to “cure” Do
not set another fire for at least 24 hours.
Second Lighting – Start the fire slowly and gradually as you
did with the first lighting, but this time you can burn up to ten
pounds of firewood, probably four to five logs that are 3” (three
inches) in diameter. With the second lighting you can let the fire
burn two hours – no more.
Don’t “over burn”. If you start to use the oven and begin a
routine of “over burning,” you can permanently and unalterably
damage the unit.
Under no circumstances should you be burning household
trash, including chemicals and combustibles, cardboard boxes,
your office papers, scrap lumber or stray branches from your
yard, particularly pine.
WARNING:
Burning of above mentioned materials will cause
an unsafe condition and will void your warranty!
Heating the Pizza Oven for cooking:
Start the first fire slowly with a small amount of paper and
kindling (small dry wood splits or twigs) stacked in a crossed or
teepee fashion toward the center, rear of the oven. Slowly add
small but larger pieces of dried hardwood of about three inches
(2”) to four inches (4”) diameter. The temperature will begin to
rise in your oven however it may take about 15 minutes to begin
a faster temperature ascent.
NOTE: Take care not to feed your fire too fast so as to smother
it. As you add more wood, a temporary decrease in temperature
my occur. This is normal and as soon as the new wood begins
to burn, your temperature will rise.
The next step is to ensure that your fire continue to build and
heat the entire oven. When a temperature of about 500 degrees
is reached, spread the coals throughout the oven (toward the
rear of the oven) while continuing to feed the flames.
When the temperature of 600 - 700 degrees is reached, use
a hoe to rake all the coals together to one side of your oven.
(either side is acceptable). You are now ready to cook in the
center and on the side without coals. Sweep the heated center
of the hearth. This will need to be done quickly so the brush
doesn’t catch on fire.
The pre-heating of the oven will vary depending on the fire
within the oven and if the optional oven door is used.
Cooking Pizza in your Toscana Pizza Oven:
1) Roll out your dough to desired thickness, be sure you put
corn meal under dough so dough will slide off the pizza
peal, provided in your accessory kit (or purchased on your
own). Let stand about 5 minutes to let the dough rise.
2) Spread desired pizza sauce in a thin, even layer on top of
the dough. Cover with toppings as you wish.
3) Place pizza on peel and slide into the oven. Watch pizza
carefully as it will cook quickly. Check constantly. Raise
pizza edge with metal spatula to check bottom.
4) Turn pizza every 30 seconds to a minute to ensure even
cooking throughout. The crust will begin to puff and turn
brown. Depending on the thickness and toppings, your
pizza should cook in approximately 3-5 minutes.
5) Remove pizza with pizza peal let cool a little and cut to
desired size pieces and ENJOY!
Pizza Oven can be finished with non-combustible materials
such as Brick, or Stone. If you are interested in stucco please
contact a local stucco contractor about an application stucco
with higher heat levels than normal.
Above is the Optional Powder Coated Steel Door