Forno Bravo ovens are easy to use – from firing to cooking. With just a little bit of practice, you'll quickly become an expert at wood-fired oven heat management.

Lesson 1: Visualize How Your Oven Works, Then Fire
Before you start cooking, take a moment to visualize how your oven works. Your goal in firing the oven is to transfer and store enough heat in your oven's cooking surface and dome to achieve a balanced cooking environment – one that takes advantage of conductive heat from the cooking surface, reflective heat from the dome, and convective heat from the hot air circulating through the oven.

For step-by-step instructions on firing your oven, photos included, visit Firing Your Oven on our website.

Lesson 2: Consider the Different Cooking Environments
There are three main cooking environments, all suited for different types of food:

• Fire-in-the-oven: With a live fire, your Forno Bravo oven cooks simultaneously in three ways, with reflected heat, convection and conductive heat. This is the super-high temp environment you need for pizzas or fast-cooking tapas.

• Coals-in-the-oven: For this type of cooking, let your fire die down and allow your oven to cool. You can use the heat of the coals and a hot oven to roast, brown, sear and grill.

• Retained heat: Rake out the coals from the fire, and then close the oven door to let the oven temperature moderate. With this type of cooking, you can bake bread, desserts and small roasts. As the oven temperature falls, you can slow-cook beans, soups and stews, and long-cook meats and ribs.

For graphics illustrating the different methods, visit Oven Operation on the website.

Lesson 3: Learn About Controlling Your Oven Temps
There are at least four ways to test the heat of your cooking surface:

• Use an infrared temperature gauge. This is an easy, hands-off method for accurately measuring high temperatures; all you do is point and shoot. Other types of oven thermometers are available depending on your individual preferences.

• Perform the flour test. If you want to learn how to "feel" how your oven is working without high-tech gadgets, you can start by using flour to test the cooking surface temperature. Simply throw a pinch of flour into the oven, and count how long it takes to burn and smoke. A hot, 750ºF hearth will scorch flour in a few seconds.

• Use the Mississippi method. Count the number of seconds, using "One Mississippi, Two Mississippi, etc.," that it takes for your hand to become uncomfortably hot inside the oven. One Mississippi is a very hot oven; bread bakes well in a Four Mississippi oven.

• Learn by trial and error. Don't be afraid to experiment!

Further Reading
If you haven't already downloaded the Forno Bravo Wood-Fired Cooking eBook, we invite you to do so. First of all, it's free! Secondly, the eBook includes some excellent wood oven theory and oven management instructions.

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