Tim Cole Explains The History and Science Within Your Forno Bravo

Did you ever stop to think about what separates a good pizza oven from a great one? There’s some science behind it, and a history lesson as well.

Let’s Start with The History

Wood fired ovens have been used to bake bread for thousands of years. In Ancient Egypt (circa 4000 to 5000 BC), these ovens would run all day long, first used to bake bread for people of status, and then used by members of the community who could come bake bread and pay a tithe for using the oven.

What made it possible to bake bread all day long is the ability of the ovens to obtain enough thermal mass to hold heat for extended periods of time, without constantly adding fuel.

A Few Points for the Science Buffs

Think of the walls of an oven like a battery. Once you heat up the oven (like charging a battery) it will hold heat even after the fuel burns out. The thicker the dome (the bigger the battery), the longer the heat energy will be stored and the longer you can keep cooking without adding more fuel. This ability to absorb and hold heat is what we refer to as thermal mass.

If you choose a smaller, thinner dome, it will heat up faster, but also lose heat faster during baking. If you need a lot of heat (like a pizzeria), a larger, thicker dome will hold its heat for a longer period (more thermal mass). All our ovens can cook pizzas in 90 seconds, but our largest Modena ovens can hold enough heat to turn out 280 pizzas in an hour!

Forno Bravo Crack-Resistant Domes

All Forno Bravo ovens (whether you’re buying for commercial or home baking) are made from commercial grade refractory materials that will stand up to large fires and high temperatures in continuous use.

When your heat goes from 60°F to 1000°F, you place allot of stress on the oven. To prevent our ovens from cracking, we add several materials to our refractory mix for superior strength. Poly fibers are used to bond the concrete mixture to give it structural strength and prevent cracking, and alumina silica is added so that the oven can heat up fast and cool down fast (thermal cycling) without compromising the structure. What this all adds up to is a super-durable oven that will stand up to the most raging fire you can light inside of it.

Naples Style Vents

Around 1600 BC, few thousand years after the Ancient Egyptians, bakers in Naples, Italy developed a new vent system for their wood-fired ovens. By trapping heat above the dome of the oven, Naples Style vents reuse heat energy that would normally be expelled, holding thermal mass inside the oven longer. Using this same technology, our Napoli Commercial Ovens achieve the best heat retention in the industry. They use less fuel and extend cooking time so much that you can shut your oven down at night and it will still be as high as 600 to 700 degrees the next day. This accelerates the oven’s “recovery” time and saves you money!

Depending on your needs, you can choose from different types of vents and different sizes of ovens. If you’re baking pizza, you’ll want to be able to crank the heat way up. An oven that that exceeds 1000°F will give you a lot of flexibility as you can cook other things while it heats up or cools down from it’s peak.

Not sure which pizza oven is the right choice for your home or business? Try out our selection wizard or ask us a question today.