No more wood-fired oven?

[whodatoven]

There is a yahoo article today talking about an easy way to cook Neopolitan pizza. What do you think?

the-game-changing-cookbook: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance

PROBLEM #3: You love Neopolitan-style pizza, but don't want to invest in a brick oven.

SOLUTION: Make an oven out of a steel sheet.

Get a ¼-inch-thick sheet of steel from a metal fabricator (Search online for a local one), have it cut to the size of your oven shelf and insert it in the rack closest to the broiler. Preheat the oven at its highest temperature for ½ hour, then turn on the broiler and slide your pizza onto the metal plate. It should emerge perfectly cooked in 1.5 to 2 minutes.

WHAT'S GOING ON: Pizza in a brick oven cooks at about 800 degrees—way hotter than the highest setting of most home ovens. The metal sheet is more conductive than a brick oven's stone, so it can cook just as fast at a lower temperature.

[mn8tr]

I am sure that it would work just fine for the cooking part. What you won't get is the wood smoke flavoring (so what's the point). Lastly most of us built our ovens for more reasons than just cooking pizza (or just cooking for that matter).
Its more about a different "kind" of cooking and the continuation of centuries old methods. The satisfaction of building something with your own hands. Not to mention the fun we have cooking for friends gathered around the oven and enjoying each others company. If you are unable to build your own oven due to space or deed restrictions I can understand but if you are able you won't regret the experience.

ps Not trying to be a snob just expressing...

[whodatoven]

mn8tr,

I think you're right that the brick oven probably still has its place. But, man, talking about convenience - space, time, and money-wise.

I'm not convinced it is the same though. Would love to hear someone actually do both and compare.

[dmun]

I'm not convinced that a steel sheet is any better than a pizza stone in this application. It's essentially what they're doing with it. It also depends on the heat output of your broiler. Most domestic gas ovens have pathetic broilers. I call mine the "beiger".

As for me? I hate to heat up my kitchen oven to 500f. It fills the house with acrid fumes.

[fxpose]

Besides, there is no cool factor using your kitchen oven. That's important.

[JoeyVelderrain]

I don't have smoke flavor in my pizza, by the time it gets up to pizza heat 750-800f it is nothing but clear gases coming out of my smoke stack.

[azatty]

Originally Posted by fxpose

Besides, there is no cool factor using your kitchen oven. That's important.

Rule Number Six: If you're going to do something, you should look cool doing it.

[fxpose]

My 14" Lodge cast iron pizza pan is about 1/4" in thickness. I used to use that in my kitchen oven. I would assume this is like using a steel plate. Only diff is you can make a bigger pizza with the steel plate.

[stonylake]

if you love the pizza and don't want to invest the time or energy, go pay someone (restaurant) who does.... do it right or go home.

[whodatoven]

stonylake, what if the pizza from the steel sheet modified oven is just as good....