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Pizza: Static or Convection Oven?

Pizza: Static or Convection Oven?

Static or ventilated pizza oven?

Have you decided to prepare pizza and don't know whether to use a static or ventilated oven? Having this doubt is absolutely legitimate. This is in fact a very important choice and one that absolutely cannot be overlooked or left to chance. The type of oven is able to influence the cooking and final quality of the pizza and, consequently, to create a good final product, you will necessarily have to evaluate a series of factors.

Static or ventilated pizza oven?

Below we will try to resolve your doubts by asking ourselves the question: static or ventilated pizza oven? Which is the best? How can you make up for the lack of a good wood-fired oven? Here is some information to understand how to best cook pizza.

The wood-fired oven is necessary to prepare delicious pizzas, but it is possible to obtain an excellent result also using other types of ovens. Even if you want to make a perfect pan pizza, you may need to learn how to use the oven as best as possible.

You can prepare many dishes, such as focaccia pizza, baked pasta, sponge cake, etc.

Using the oven

Static or ventilated pizza oven?

Going into specifics, when we talk about oven cooking, many people spontaneously ask themselves, in addition to what temperature to put, whether it is better to opt for a static or ventilated oven. For those who were not aware of it until now, in fact, nowadays there are ovens that provide a single cooking method, while others, especially the cutting-edge ones, allow you to choose which method to cook the various foods.

Some ovens even show the symbols for chicken, pizza, desserts, etc., giving good advice on which mode to choose. In any case, you can experiment with a different pizza recipe depending on various factors. Let's see together how important it is to know how to choose the best oven based on your needs. Electric, ventilated, static oven? What are the differences? What is the best solution?

Static or ventilated pizza oven? The differences

Static or ventilated pizza oven?

Before establishing which type of oven is most suitable for cooking pizza, let's look at the main characteristics of these two types. The main difference between a static oven and a ventilated oven lies in the way the heat is distributed. What function does the latter have?

Specifically, the static oven works by radiation. The heat, therefore, spreads through a resistance located at the bottom or top of the oven. Using this mode, cooking occurs more slowly and is more delicate and homogeneous.

Static or ventilated pizza oven?

Using the static oven, therefore, the dishes are well cooked and dry both internally and externally. It is important to remember, however, that using this mode you can only cook one dish at a time.

The ventilated oven, however, works by convection. Using this mode creates a real flow of air inside the oven which has the effect of drying the food. The final effect is to create a sort of crunchy crust on the food being cooked, while the inside remains moister and softer. Unlike what happens with the static oven, in this case it is possible to cook multiple dishes at the same time.

Static or ventilated pizza oven: which one to choose then?

 Ventilated or static pizza oven? So which one should you focus on? The static oven mode is particularly recommended for delicate foods that require cooking much slower than usual and uniformly. It is perfect in particular for all those who need to rise in the oven with the use of instant yeast for cakes, desserts etc... or those preparations that require perfect cooking with consequent impeccable drying even on the inside, such as the following foods shown below:

Static or ventilated pizza oven?

As regards the ventilated oven mode, it is often indicated for those foods that require a higher type of drying on the outside than on the inside. For this type of method we are talking about, it is recommended to cook:

Pizza in the home electric oven: the differences

Making pizza in the oven at home: what advice should you follow? What is the right pizza oven temperature?

Static or ventilated pizza oven?

If instead you want to opt for the creation of a homemade pizza in an electric oven you can prepare a perfect margherita pizza with simple and few ingredients in a very short time. In fact, regarding the question cooking pizza in the home oven , we recommend following this specific recipe for pizza in the electric ventilated oven. First of all you need to make small blocks of dough, then spread them well on a baking tray and season with the ingredients you want to add on the pizza such as: tomato, mozzarella, oil etc., and then put the pizza in the oven. The main tip concerns cooking pizza. This should cook at around 220-230 degrees, while for home oven pizza cooking you will need to indicate 20 degrees less.

Static or ventilated oven: the temperature varies, here are the main differences

Static or ventilated pizza oven?

Between a ventilated or static oven, the temperature also makes the difference. First of all, it should be highlighted that the temperature that is actually perceived in the oven is never the one reported by the manual thermostat, the digital one in fact comes closer to the real one, while if we are talking about analogue it usually reports values that are not very real.

For this simple reason that we have just mentioned, particularly if you have little experience in using your oven, it is highly recommended check the temperature often with a special oven thermometer, low-cost, easy to use for anyone and efficient from all points of view.

In summary, without too many turns of phrase, in any case between ventilated and static ovens there are usually significant temperature differences ranging between 20 and maximum 25 degrees. All this means that based on the temperature to be obtained it will be necessary to raise or lower it by more or less twenty degrees to be able to convert one mode to the other in this way.

Static or ventilated pizza oven?

And what about the ventilated oven pizza cooking times in spite of the electric ventilated oven pizza cooking time? Surely, in the second case the times will be longer. It takes around 30 minutes or 40 minutes, also depending on the seasoning chosen. In short, for a pizza in a convection oven, a longer process will be necessary, but the result will be equally excellent. Even if you want to prepare a pizza in a convection oven at home, all you need to do is organize the temperature and cooking times well.

How to convert the temperature between ventilated or static oven

Static or ventilated pizza oven?

At this point, another question that is important to answer is the following: how do you convert the temperature between a static or ventilated oven? For example, if you have to cook a dessert at a maximum temperature of 180 degrees using the static oven, and only have the ventilated oven, you will have to reduce the degrees by 20, considering that the ventilated oven at 160 is approximately equivalent to 180 degrees of the temperature of a static oven.

The same applies if you act vice versa: if the oven you have is static and you have to cook food at 180 degrees ventilated, in the static oven you will necessarily have to raise the temperature by 20 degrees, therefore bringing everything to 200 degrees in the static oven. Nothing particularly complex.

Pizza cooking: which oven to choose

Static or ventilated pizza oven?

So the main question could be: ventilated oven or not?We then come to choosing the most suitable oven for cooking pizza. In this case, we can say that there is no single answer. The type of oven you choose will depend on the type of pizza you want to make. If, for example, you are more oriented towards a more crunchy pizza, then you can opt for the convection oven. What is the fan oven pizza cooking time? We are referring to a relatively short time, around 30 minutes per pizza.

Otherwise, you can go for a static oven. This type of oven, in fact, is particularly suitable for foods that require slow and uniform cooking and perfect drying both inside and outside, such as pizza and bread.

The choice of oven will therefore depend on your preferences and the type of pizza you intend to make. Naturally, once purchased, the oven will need to be looked after and maintained as much as possible. For this we suggest you read our advice on how to clean the pizza oven.

Ventilated oven pizza cooking

After having spoken in depth about the differences between ventilated ovens and static ovens, let's try to be as clear as possible regarding the information relating to pizza cooking in ventilated ovens.

When we talk about cooking pizza in a ventilated oven it is important to remember some simple rules in order to obtain the best result. Remember that to have a good appearance and an excellent flavour, pizza must be made following specific rules. Beyond this it could be very useful to try to put some secrets into practice to obtain good results.

Static or ventilated pizza oven?

A tip would be to place a bowl with water on the bottom of the oven. This will improve the leavening process of the dish, making the dough softer and tastier. So, based on what has been said, it is absolutely possible to make a good pizza in a ventilated oven. But in order for the results to be satisfactory, it could be helpful to use some small tricks for cooking pizza in a ventilated oven, such as the one presented previously.

How long should the pizza cook?

How long should pizza cook? Here is a question that is important to know how to answer. You need to know the cooking times for a pizza for each oven.

Static or ventilated pizza oven?

For example, for cooking pizza at home no more than 45 minutes of cooking should be set. But how best to cook homemade pizza? In this case the advice is to set the symbol for cooking pizza and choose the pizza cooking temperature indicated for a ventilated static oven.

The temperature may vary depending on several variables, but generally it is recommended to set a temperature ranging from 180 degrees to 200 degrees.

How to manage the oven and pizzeria

If, however, yours is a restaurant business, things change and you will also have to take into account the pizzeria management. Especially if the pizzeria also carries out catering activities, it may be necessary to better organize and manage orders and orders, so as not to cause confusion.

Static or ventilated pizza oven?

Help in this sense can come from restaurant management systems, such as Ristomanager. It is a very easy to use software that can be downloaded onto your smartphones and tablets, which allows you to manage and have the entire restaurant activity under control. From management of restaurant reservations, to that of tables, to the organization of the warehouse and staff. With Ristomanager everything is monitored and everything is under control.

In this way the restaurant or pizzeria can be managed in the best possible way, without the risk of errors in service or cooking, often due to poor organisation.On the other hand, managing a restaurant or pizzeria in the best possible way is not at all a simple thing.

There are in fact many activities to monitor and plan and, without the help of a manager and a good division of tasks, management can become very complicated indeed. In addition to the actual organizational aspect, which goes from the warehouse to the staff, there is also that relating to costs. In fact, especially in the initial phase, these are not always considered in their entirety. One of the main causes of failure of restaurant businesses is a failure to plan all the costs and expenses to be incurred in opening and managing the restaurant on time.

Download the restaurant management software and you will see that it will be easier to have everything under control. In this way you will also be able to identify the weak points of the business, and possibly evaluate other investments or changes in management.

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Written by

Stefano Basile

Founder of Ottobyte | Software Developer

Stefano Basile is an entrepreneur and software developer with over 15 years of experience in business and restaurant management. Founder of Ottobyte, he has dedicated his career to developing innovative software solutions for restaurant management.

Learn more about Stefano

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