The Pizza Heaven

The Best Wood for Pizza Oven

Articles / Pizza ovens / By / October 22, 2023

Are you using the best wood for your pizza oven? If you’re not, you’re probably not making as good pizza as you could be making!

Can You Use Any Wood in a Pizza Oven?

Softwood vs Hardwood

Hardwood is the best choice for a pizza oven. The benefits of hardwood are that the dense wood burns at a hotter temperature, and for longer than softwood. Hardwood also creates hotter coal that keeps the pizza oven hot longer.  

A wood-fired pizza oven should be around 485°C or 905°F. Softwood doesn’t produce enough heat to make your pizza oven that hot, and is therefore not ideal as pizza oven fuel. Because  softwood is less dense, it also burns faster, and you need to feed the fire more often. 

Another benefit of hardwood is that it releases less sparks and smoke when it’s burning.

Dry Firewood

You should use dry wood for your pizza oven, because it catches fire more easily and burns at a higher temperature than greenwood.

Green wood, wood that has been recently cut, contains a lot of moisture. This moisture lowers the temperature the firewood is burning at. The reason is that it requires a lot of energy to evaporate all the excess water when the wood is burning. Greenwood has a moisture content of 100%, while pizza oven fuel should have below a moisture content below 20%.

When you dry wood moisture will evaporate over time. This is what’s called air-drying or seasoning.

What is Seasoned Wood?

Seasoned wood means that the wood has been left out to dry for a long period of time. Seasoned wood typically has a moisture content of 20% or lower, which is great for your pizza oven.

Why You Should Use Seasoned Wood for Your Pizza Oven

The reason seasoned wood burns at a higher temperature is that a lot of energy is wasted through evaporation of moisture when the wood burns if the wood contains a lot of water. This is energy that otherwise would be used to heat your pizza oven. That means your pizza oven will get hotter when you use seasoned wood.

Well seasoned wood also catches fire more easily than greenwood, or not properly dried firewood.

Kiln Firewood – an Even Better Alternative

“Kiln dried” is a term you may encounter when you’re looking for firewood for your pizza oven. This is a relatively new, faster method of drying than traditional seasoning. It’s done by stacking the wood inside a kiln, a drying chamber, where the wood is heated to make it dry faster. 

A huge benefit of kiln drying compared to traditional seasoning is that it limits mold growth, because it kills the mold during the drying process. You can therefore be sure that your wood doesn’t contain mold if you get kiln dried wood.

Don’t Use Toxic Wood!

It’s also important to only use clean wood in your pizza oven. Keep laminated, painted, or any kind of wood that contains chemicals far away from your pizza oven. These kinds of wood will release toxic gases during burning, which is not good for your food, nor for you as a chef breathing these gases during cooking.

What is The Best Wood for Pizza Ovens?

The best wood for pizza ovens is a well seasoned, or kiln dried hardwood. It should also have high density and burn at a high temperature, with little sparkes and smoke. Let’s take a look at some good options!

Beech Wood for Pizza Oven

Beech is one of the most common types of firewood for pizza ovens in Italy. The reason. Beech is also growing everywhere, and is therefore cheap and easy to get. It burns at a pretty hot temperature, but it’s has a pretty high moisture content when you chop it, so it needs to be seasoned properly before it’s used.

Oak Wood for Pizza Oven

Oak is a commonly used type of wood for pizza ovens in Italy, and of the best types of wood for your pizza oven. It’s a dense firewood that burns well, at a high temperature with little smoke. Oak also burns slowly and will last long in your pizza oven.

Top Pick Smoak Firewood 12-inch White Oak

As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. At no additional cost to you.

Maple Wood for Pizza Oven

Another great option is maple. Like Oak it burns at a hot temperature that makes it a great choice for your pizza oven. It also burns very clean with almost no smokes or sparks. Maple has lower density than oak, you therefore have to use more maple for your oven than oak.

How Much Wood do You Need for Your Pizza Oven?

The best way of building a fire in your pizza oven is using the log cabin fire. It’s really hard to build the log cabin inside the oven, because the opening is usually pretty small. It’s therefore easier to build the fire outside of the pizza oven and slide it in place when it’s lit. To do this, build the log cabin on top of a wood base, so you can easily push it in place. Just make sure not to build the fire too big and tall so you can’t get it in through the opening of the oven.

The fire should be placed in the middle of the oven to make sure the tiles, where you’re going to bake your pizza, get nice and hot. It’s also a good idea to place some larger logs around the edge of the oven before you slide in the log cabin, since it’s harder to place wood in the back of your oven when it’s a fire there.

The  exact amount of wood you need depends on the size of your oven, but a good starting point is around 20-30 kg, or 45-65 lbs of firewood. It usually takes 2-3 hours for the pizza oven to reach temperature.

If you have a smaller, portable pizza oven you need less wood, and it takes shorter to heat the oven. It really depends on the size of the oven.

How to Store Wood for Your Pizza Oven

You should store wood for your pizza oven in a dry place. If firewood is stored outside, in the rain, it can absorb moisture, which you want to avoid. You should also avoid storing it on directly on the ground. Having a foundation under the firewood will help preventing to get wet when it’s raining.

Even if you get kiln wood, that doesn’t come with mold, mold can start growing on your wood if it’s stored in a place with a lot of moisture. You therefore need to keep your wood dry.

If you store firewood outside, a firewood cover will help you protect the wood from the environments, and keep it dry.

Patio Watcher Firewood Rack Cover

As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. At no additional cost to you.

Conclusion

The best wood for your pizza oven is well seasoned hardwood that burn at a high temperature with little sparks and smoke. Soft firewood will burn faster, and produce less heat, and is therefore not ideal as pizza oven fuel. It’s also important that the wood is properly seasoned, or kiln dried, to make sure the oven reach high enough temperature to cook pizza. Some of the best choices for firewood for your pizza oven is beech, birch, oak, maple, and olive wood.

If you want to know more about Italian pizza, check out our guide to Neapolitan pizza.

Andreas
Latest posts by Andreas (see all)