Wood Stone Cooking Section - Cooking with Coal

Cooking Coal-Fired Pizza

Interest in coal-fired pizza in the U.S. is back! Both pizza lovers and pizzeria operators are clamoring to recapture the original North American pizza experience, but working with a coal-fired oven isn’t for the uninspired. A coal-fired oven requires an exceptional amount of commitment and skill. If you are currently baking and serving pizza out of a coal-fired oven our hat is off to you, and we believe that you will be able to see how our ovens can make your cooking life better.

Many people love the pizza that comes out of coal-fired ovens. Is it the fuel source, or is it the level of commitment that it takes to be successful in front of a coal-fire that makes the difference? We will leave questions like this up to the market but we do know that after you master managing a coal-fire, making and baking a great pizza can seem pretty simple.

Challenges of Coal
A coal fire is much more challenging to start and is more difficult to manage than a wood fire or gas burner. Simply getting anthracite coal burning requires an ignition source in excess of 750 F that is usually provided by a bed for burning coal or wood. Dry wood by comparison, burns more quickly and starts burning at around 500 F. Coal has roughly twice the heat energy of wood (13,000 BTUs per pound for coal and roughly 6,500 BTUs per pound for wood) so accessing and managing its potential energy when and where you need it can be challenging.

Unlike a wood fire, a coal fire will not let you stir its fire or move it around without consequence. Balancing the open flame of a coal fire with the intensity of the coal bed becomes the daily challenge. If you load too much fuel, the intensity of the fire will melt metal along with your pizza. If you load too little fuel, you will find yourself starting all over to recapture the intense heat you lost by letting the coal fire burn too long.

Wood Stone has developed a coal-fired oven that helps answer these challenges and allows you to produce traditional coal-fired pizza as simply as possible. The oven is designed to create an environment that is consistent and reliable for using this traditional fuel source to produce the finest coal-fired pizza.

Materials - Wood Stone's custom ceramic domes and floors are built to withstand the exceptional heat and byproducts of burning coal which break down other coal-fired ovens.
Heat Management - This oven is designed to help users manage heat and floor temperature even during the heaviest cooking rushes. Wood Stone is the only company that has engineered a system that introduces air into the coal bed to assist with combustion along with a thermostatically controlled under-floor infrared heater to achieve consistent floor temperatures for the highest production.
Wood Stone Temperatures are measured 1 inch below the cooking the surface of the floor. This location gives us the saturated floor temperature versus a surface or air temperature that might not truly indicate the cooking conditions of the oven.
Ease of Operation - Manually adjustable radiant flame located opposite the coal fire to make the oven more responsive and the oven chamber brighter.
Service and Support - Unlike hand built coal-fired ovens, Wood Stone products come with 24/hour unparalleled customer service and support. With over 7,000 ovens in 60+ countries around the world Wood Stone is the oven leader.
Test Kitchen - Visit the Wood Stone test kitchen to learn first hand about cooking with coal. More than 400 people each year join us in our kitchen – find out why they have found the trip to be so valuable.

What you need to get started:

Safety glasses, fuel, fire starter, anthracite (coal), heavy hard-wood (optional), lump wood charcoal, 25 lb scale, large metal bowl, paper grocery bags, wood/coal cart, double compartment ash dolly, ash chute tool, ash shovel, in-line floor brush, natural fiber brush, utility peel, large pizza peels, and night doors for heat retention.

To help keep loading coal during service simple and clean, pre-fill paper bags with 10-20lbs of anthracite coal, truss them closed and store safely close to oven.

Daily Oven Operation:

	1) Remove night heat retention doors.
	2) Clean yesterday’s fly ash through ash chute in to double compartment ash dolly.
	3) Light a fire-starter, place on the metal grate inside the oven under a few larger pieces of lump charcoal or heavy hard wood (optional). Note: In a Wood Stone coal-burning oven there is an opening in the floor that is topped with an iron grate. Under this grate is an ash chute and an adjustable fan which allows the user to moderate the flow of air to the bottom of the fire and thus the amount of heat coming from the burning coal. Managing the fire properly requires attention and some fan adjustments – more about this later.
	4) As the wood/charcoal burns down and a good fire establishes itself, gently place 20-25 lbs of lump charcoal on this glowing bed of coals. The goal is to get as much of the lump charcoal burning as possible before we add the anthracite coal. Build and leave as much of the fire over the grate (small pieces will fall through the grate) as possible. As the entire 25 pounds of lump charcoal begins to burn and spark (about 20 minutes), create an indentation on the top of the live coal bed – this is where the anthracite coal will go when it is time. Note: An important point is that we want to load the anthracite coal up on this bed of lump charcoal while it still has lots of heat potential left in it (un-burnt portions) or the coal will not fully light.
	5) Add 20 pounds of anthracite coal directly on top of your glowing lump charcoal bed. Wood Stone uses Reading anthracite coal (average size 2-4 inches). At this time turn the fan on, quickly turning it to "2" on the fan dial. The fan introduces the air flow and oxygen needed to achieve the high temperatures that are needed (over 750 degrees) to ignite and maintain a coal fire. It will take approximately 30 minutes for the coal itself to begin burning at this point. Note: Managing the fan speed is important. Over use of the fan can extinguish the fire early or can overheat the oven.
	6) When the anthracite coal bed begins to glow brightly and a yellow flame appears you know that the coal is burning. Be careful, it is easy at this time to think the coal is raging when most of the flame you’re seeing is probably still being produced by the lump charcoal. The charcoal flame is blue yellow and the traditional lump charcoal is identified by the sparking.
	7) If you achieved a floor temperature of 500-530 degrees, add 10-20 pounds of additional anthracite over the top of the bed. At about 90 minutes into start-up, you are hopefully at a Wood Stone temperature of around 500 degrees.
	8) If the oven is run at 500 degrees for a full day (until 11pm), you should be able to put on night heat retention doors and return the following morning (8am) to a Wood Stone temperature of 350-400 degrees. Because the floor is saturated with heat, it should take 90 minutes to get the oven back up to your desired working temperature.
	9) Depending on desired temperature, add 10-20 pounds of coal through-out the day as needed, usually every 1.5 – 2 hours. During this time the fan will need to be adjusted. As temperature builds to or above the desired temperature, turn the fan (oxygen) down and the fire will slow down but an open flame (3-4 inches) continues to burn. If this flame falls to nearly nothing, turn the fan back to around 2-4. If there is still a strong flame - don’t add fuel. Great pizzas can be baked in this environment – some experimenting will be necessary. At Wood Stone, we go through approximately 100 pounds of coal each day to maintain optimal cooking results. However, the amount of coal is directly related to how much gas is used and what the desired baking temperature is.
	10) Operating this oven is like driving a car - when you're on a flat road (no pizzas) keep the accelerator and fuel consumption at about the same level. When you start to go up a hill (baking pizzas or getting ready for a rush) you need to accelerate (add fuel and/or air to the coal fire) to maintain the same speed (cook times and quality).
	11) End of day. Turn the oven off and put the night heat retention doors on.