My wife always wanted an outdoors pizza oven so this summer we had wood burning oven built as part of our patio. I was a little “reluctant” because I thought, “How many pizzas does she think we will be eating?”

I have since learned there is a lot more to a wood burning oven than just pizza. You can bake bread, roast meat and chicken (I may try to roast our turkey this Thanksgiving), braise, just about anything you can do in an conventional oven.

We purchased our oven from Wildwood Ovens and I just posted an interview I did with Michael Gerard, the Chef/Owner who has been teaching me how to cook in my oven. The first time I tried making pizza was a disaster. My wood was wet and I couldn’t get it hot enough. The next experience went much better. My pizza still needs work, but I braised some short ribs overnight that were incredible.

If you want to learn about the advantages of cooking in a wood-burning oven and read some of Michael’s tips on how to do it right, check out my Novice2Pro Interview with Michael Gerard.

What Makes Cooking In A Wood Burning Oven Better?

According to Michael, making pizza in a wood burning oven is better because, “The higher temperatures afforded by our ovens (700º F), cause rapid rise spring to the dough, this produces a crust that has dimension and structure, crispy on the edges and bottom and tender and forgiving on the inside. Bubbles and air pockets run through our crust, many describe as light as air.

According to Alton Brown in his great reading cookbook and a must for home cooks, I’m Just Here For The Food, he thinks the advantage to roasting anything in a earthen oven is even heat distribution. He says with traditional metal ovens, “it’s almost impossible to get all this heat into the food evenly. Some ovens are better at it than others, but I’ve never seen a metal oven that roasts as well as a pile of dirt (be it in the form of clay, ceramic tile, or what have you).

He goes on to describe how a metal oven cannot generate heat beyond 500º F or retains heat; only reflect it off its walls. A clay or earthen oven can be heated up to 700 degrees and will radiate the heat evenly over time thus roasting foods that taste better.

Chef Brown even shows you how you can build your own miniature makeshift clay oven in your kitchen oven using firebricks. You get the bricks really hot by using the self-clean setting, then turn off the oven and roast your food. He does mention he has not found a single manufacturer condoning this technique but if interested, you should check out I’m Just Here For The Food.

I have not roasted anything in my oven yet but you can be sure when I do I will be letting you know if I can taste the difference. I did braise short ribs with some onion, fennel, tomatoes and brown stock that was incredible.

After making some pizza at 700º F, I let the oven cool down to around 500º F and put in my Le Creuset enameled cast iron oval French pot filled with short ribs I prepared in the house, covered the front opening of the oven and let them cook all night with just the heat held by the oven.

When I woke up the next morning, the short ribs were tender and after removing most of the fat rendered from the meat, I had a wonderful, flavorful sauce. I can’t wait to try some other braises. I will post some recipes once I get a little better at this style of cooking.

My Le Creuset 6 ¾ quart enamel pot has a handle on the cover made of heat resistant plastic that Le Creuset says should not be used in oven temps higher than 450º F so I removed the handle from the cover and used a layer of aluminum foil under the cover to help seal it. It seemed to work just fine.

Help From Other Wood Burning Oven Fans

If any of you have experiences with wood burning ovens and would like to share them or some of your favorite recipes, I welcome you to send in a post below.

A reader asked what is best for baking, a gas convection oven or an electric oven so I asked Chef Leslie Bilderback, a certified master baker what she thought.  As you will see from her anwer, it’s not about gas or eclectic but more about convection or non-convection. I have a 6-burner gas stovetop but the attached oven is electric where Chef Bilderback has a gas stovetop and oven.

So here is Judy’s Ask A Chef Question and Chef Bilderback’s answer. By the way, you really want to read my Novice to Pro Interview with Chef Leslie and if you are thinking of going to culinary school, you definitely want to read her book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Success as a Chef.

Judy asks, “Would you please inform me if a gas convection oven is better to bake cakes, cookies, etc than an electric oven. I am ready to purchase a gas convection oven to bake with. Thanks

Chef Leslie Bilderback replys,

“In my opinion, convection  ovens are only useful if the fan can be disabled.  The fan makes it hotter, which is useful when you want to cook something faster.  This works for cookies, biscuits, muffins, puff pastry, and other laminates, and small stuff.  Larger items will brown on the outside, and look done, before they are done on the inside.  This is terrible for large loaves of bread, pound cakes, white meringues, or anything that’s delicate, like custards.
 
Gas or electric is not an issue for me in terms of ovens, but I must have a gas stove, and the oven is attached, so that’s what I have.   
 
If you can disable the fan, then go for it.  Otherwise, stick with a conventional oven.  
 
FYI, convection ovens were developed for restaurants to speed things along.  The fan was supposed to circulate air so that things brown evenly.  Unfortunately, it didn’t work.  Things still brown unevenly with the fan.  It is always necessary to rotate pans throughout baking. 
 
One more note…Don’t be in such a hurry… stop and smell the rosemary!  Some of my most enjoyable kitchen experiences happen while waiting for things to be done!

Bill sent me this email about his Wusthof knives. I’ve never seen the stress cracks in the handle that he describes but I’m wondering if any of you have had a similar experience. If so, please provide some details.

If you are thinking of purchasing any new knives, check out my article on buying kitchen knives. There is also an article on how to buy a chef’s knife. Not only is it the most important knife in your kitchen, the article will give you tips on purchasing any type of kitchen cutlery.

Here’s what Bill described and how I responded.

“I bought several Wusthof knives thinking I was buying a quality product from what I have read in different blogs.  This past weekend I noticed that one of my small paring knives had what looked to be stress cracks in the Bakelite handle.  I examined my other knives to find that several of them have these fractures.  I only hand wash the knives and towel dry so it can not be from the dishwasher so I am perplexed to say the least.

Have you ever encountered this and if so what should I do?  It looks like it will be just a matter of time before the handles separate from the blade itself so I am wondering if I should replace them with something different.  It seems to be a big expense though when I thought I was buying quality in the first place.  Please help. -  Bill”

Getting Help From Wusthof

I have not seen this with any of my knives and I own several brands but Bill should contact Wusthof  at info@wuesthof.de and ask them if they have seen this happen before and if so, what should he do about it.

Wusthof is a top manufacturer of quality cutlery. If his knife is defective, there is a good chance they will replace it. In fact, I went to their web site at www.wusthof.com/ and here is what they say about their warranty:

Beyond the legally required guarantee time, WSTHOF offers a very lenient unbureaucratic service covering material and workmanship defects.
We are assured of our quality and wish you much pleasure with our products.

Your satisfaction is the quality measurement for our assortment.

In case you require assistance please contact our customer service.

Should Bill Replace His Knives?

Personally, I wouldn’t replace them until I heard from Wusthof and even then, I wouldn’t replace them until they were unusable. In the meantime, I would start doing my homework by reading about different brands but more importantly, I would get to kitchenware stores like Williams Sonoma and ask to hold several brands in your own hands.

You are looking for a knife that feels good in your hand, like it belongs there.  If you are doing any amount of cooking at home, you’ll be spending a lot of time with your knives so how they feel in your hand is important.

You can support the store you are in by purchasing it there or go online and find the best price. If you do buy it online, don’t forget to add the shipping and make sure the company is established in case you need to return it. I personally like Cooking.com and Kitchen Universe.

Even if you are not a big fan of cooking, you typically have to cook most days of the week. Unless you have a lot of money and have someone cook for you or you go out to eat all your meals, you are going to be spending a lot of time in the kitchen. You Have To Eat.

So it amazes me that many home cooks don’t own at least one good knife in their kitchen. Some of my friends have beautiful kitchens with top quality cookware but are using inexpensive, low-end cutlery.

I try to tell them they are not only making cooking more difficult than it has to be, these cheap knives are more dangerous because they tend to slip off what you cutting more frequently than a sharp quality knife.

And speaking of sharp, it does no good to own an expensive, top name knife if you don’t keep it sharp. I use an electric knife sharper by Chefs Choice. You can read about it here but I’ll be working on a few articles about keep your knives sharp in the future.