Oven & Fire

A wood-fired oven is not a dial you set — it is a fire you manage. This collection covers building and maintaining the fire, how long a full heat-up really takes, reading dome and floor temperatures with an infrared thermometer, and positioning coals so the oven bakes evenly instead of charring one side of every pie. The advice here is written for real backyard ovens, from compact portables to masonry builds. Temperatures are given in both Fahrenheit and Celsius, and we are honest about the tradeoffs: what changes when your oven only reaches 650°F, and why chasing maximum heat is not always the right goal.