Top Tips for Firing Up Your Pizza Oven After Winter

If your pizza oven has been sitting around the garden, unloved over the winter months, you’re not alone. Although an Igneus Pizza Oven can be used all year round, we appreciate that most people will stick to spring and summer for most of their use. With it being that time of year when the weather starts to improve and the days get longer, you might be eager for that first fire. However, firing up your oven after a long break isn’t quite the same as a normal cook.

During the cold, damp months, pizza ovens can absorb moisture even if they’re kept under cover, particularly here in the UK where conditions are rarely dry for long in winter. Firing up as normal can lead to issues such as cracking or poor performance. Instead, it’s important to treat that first fire as a “gentle reintroduction” to the heat cycle, rather than the full-blown, roaring fire you might be used to. In this article, we go through our top tips to get you started safely.

Check Your Oven Before Lighting

Before lighting, it’s important to fully inspect the oven. Start by checking for any obvious cracks in the stone, which might have developed during changing temperatures. Because pizza stones are a porous material, they absorb moisture easily. Freezing temperatures can cause that moisture to expand and cause tiny hairline cracks in the stone.

Look for any signs of moisture inside the oven. This could appear as damp patches on the floor or dome. If you do spot any moisture, leave the oven uncovered in the open air for a few hours to give the moisture a chance to evaporate. It’s also a good idea to clear out any leftover ash, debris, or even cobwebs that may have appeared over winter. 

Finally, check that the chimney or flue is clear so smoke can escape freely when you do fire up the pizza oven. 

Built the Heat Gradually

This is probably the most important step. One of the biggest mistakes people make is trying to bring the oven up to full temperature too quickly. Because of the inevitable moisture absorption in the stone, if you introduce intense heat too quickly, that moisture rapidly turns to steam. This creates pressure, which can lead to cracking, a process known as thermal shock.

To avoid this, start with a small, gentle fire in the centre of the oven floor. Use only kindling to gradually build the fire, similar to the process of seasoning the stone when the oven was new. Doing this allows the oven to warm up gradually and gives the heat time to slowly penetrate all materials and draw out any moisture. After around 20-30 minutes, you can then spread the embers across the full surface of the stone and slowly increase the size of the fire over time. Think of this process as reconditioning your oven. 

The First Cook of the Season

Once the oven has been reconditioned, it’s ready for that exciting first cook of the season! As always, it’s important to make sure the cooking surface is clean and free from any remaining ash or debris. A quick brush down is all that’s needed.

It’s also vital to allow the oven to fully stabilise at your desired cooking temperature of around 450°C before launching any pizzas. Giving that little extra time will help ensure consistent heat throughout the oven.

For the first cook after a few months out of action, we always recommend keeping things simple. Use a familiar dough recipe and simple toppings rather than trying anything too ambitious. This gives you a chance to ‘get your eye in’ again! You may also notice the oven behaves slightly differently at first, but this will quickly settle after the first couple of uses. 

Final Thoughts

Firing up your Igneus Pizza Oven after winter is an exciting moment (and for us pizza lovers, one we’ve been dreaming about for a long time in the ‘off season’!). It does, though, benefit from a little bit of patience in order to protect your investment and deliver better results in the long run.

If you’d like to learn more about the range of Igneus Pizza Ovens or have any questions you need answering, our friendly team is here to help. Call us on 01423 575885 or explore our full range of ovens and pizza oven accessories here.