Can A Pizza Oven Be Square? (Explained) 2022
Last updated on October 26th, 2022 at 05:21 pm
The shape and size of an oven have a lot to do with the quality of pizza that you can obtain from it, just as the time taken to make the pizza and the number of materials consumed in making an amount of pizza.
More importantly, the shape of the enclosure of an oven dedicated to making a pizza is essential. A particular oven shape is required to achieve an optimal result in baking pizza.
A pizza oven cannot be square-shaped. The ovens used to make pizzas are best as an oval-shaped enclosure with a dome-shaped exterior. Other oven shapes are best suited for other pastries like bread and cookies, but when used to bake pizzas, an optimal result is usually not achieved.
Why Can’t a Pizza Oven be Square?
A square-shaped pizza oven usually has a barrel enclosure. Unfortunately, such an enclosure does not allow for proper heat circulation as required when baking pizza.
For this reason, you cannot use a square-shaped oven for baking pizza and expect optimal results.
A pizza oven should have a dome shape because a pizza made from an oval or domed shape presents a better outcome. The square-shaped pizza oven is mainly used for making bread and cookies.
A square-shaped oven usually comes in a barrel shape, i.e., the chamber encloses the heat and pastry.
Unfortunately, this constraint does not allow many pizzas to be made at once, so more time and materials are consumed in making fewer amounts of pizzas.
The barrel-shaped chamber usually enclosed in the square-shaped dome oven does not allow adequate heat circulation via radiation. The reason is that the edges of the roofs are sharp.
When the heat rises from the fire piece to hit the roof, the sharp edges send the heat directly while the other edges do not get to reflect heat at all.
This process does not permit a heat reflection across the chamber, creating cool spots.
Why is a Pizza Oven Dome-Shaped?
Pizza ovens are domed-shaped because the heat efficiency of a domed pizza oven is relatively better.
As a result, the heat within the enclosure is reflected evenly across all chamber areas. Also, the domed-shaped oven has a better hot airflow across the roof and the chamber floor.
A pizza oven is designed with a dome shape for the following reasons;
#1. Better Radiation
For heat to properly bake pizza, the heat ought to be radiated. Heat moves from one point to another by radiation.
The heat radiated is that which is reflected in the food. The heat reflected the food is stored by the brick when the heat source is burnt could either be coal or firewood.
The dome-shaped oven reflects the heat to the pizza at all angles. This shape produces a better radiant heat than the barrel-shaped oven, which allows for a higher baking temperature.
Also, a higher baking temperature means that the pizzas would last for a short period in the oven.
#2. Better Convection
Convection is the movement of hot air around the oven. Pizza is baked practically in hot air. The hot air in the dome-shaped oven is appropriately circulated.
Cool air enters the dome-shaped oven from the front; it is then heated up and spread around the chamber.
For home ovens, convection currents are circulated by a fan, but convection currents are circulated naturally in pizza ovens. The circulation of convection currents creates a more constant temperature.
Convection flow happens more efficiently in a dome-shaped oven, causing the heat to distribute evenly.
This even distribution of heat eliminates cold pockets around the oven chamber, so the pizzas get to bake evenly and speedily.
#3. Heat Conduction
Another important mechanism employed in the baking of pizza is heated by conduction. Conduction is the heat transfer from a hotter surface to a cooler surface by contact.
For example, the heat stored by the oven floor is transferred to the pizza when the pizza is placed on it.
Though not peculiar to the dome-shaped oven, this mechanism provides an optimal outcome in preparing pizza.
The heat acquired via contact with the oven floor with other mechanisms such as radiation and convection makes the cooking of pizza the best outcome.
#4. Less mass, Fewer materials
It is factual that the domed-shaped oven requires lighter materials to make. Every brick supports the dome’s center shape, creating a more robust structure with less material.
With fewer amounts of brick and concrete used in the construction of the oven so also a less amount of heat is needed to heat these materials.
Also, the heat accumulated by the surrounding material is easily released to the chamber in the form of radiation current.
This feature contributes to even heat distribution and ensures that the pizza is baked correctly and on time.
In preparing pizza in a dome-shaped oven, less wood is needed to create adequate heat.
#5. Higher Temperatures for Longer Periods
Higher temperatures are achieved easily with efficient heat circulation via convection and radiation currents.
Due to the material used, the heat is held for more extended periods, which means that a higher temperature is achieved and held for longer periods at the same instance.
A higher temperature ensures that a pizza is baked well because most pizzas bake best at a temperature of 485C/900F.
You must maintain this temperature for 60-90 seconds to obtain a perfect pizza. This feature of a dome shape allows the oven to heat up faster, with less wood to burn.
If it takes too long to heat up, then you might use the oven less.
#6. Better Positioning of Heat Source
Round pizza ovens are equal in width and length, making them best suited in preparing pizza. However, when a pizza is ready, the shape and the space of the chamber are important too.
The room allotted to the fire piece in the chamber makes it easier to place more pizza in the enclosure alongside the fires.
An oval-shaped oven can accommodate the fire and the pizza at once. The fire can be placed by the side closer to one end of the wall. You can then set the pizza in the space in front of it.
In this arrangement pattern, the pizza can also be placed by the side closer to the other end of the wall and behind the fire.
In addition, this arrangement in the dome-shaped oven prevents the formation of cold spots. Cold spots are areas where adequate heat does not circulate within the oven chamber.
These spots rarely exist in the dome-shaped oven, making them most suitable for preparing pizza.
Compared with the barrel-shaped ovens that are often longer than wider in diameter, space is inefficient and hence less cost-effective.
Also, the formation of the cold spot is increased in the barrel or square-shaped oven because of the positioning of the fire.
What Shape Should a Pizza Oven Be?
A pizza oven should be made in a domed shape. Although a pizza oven could take any shape, the dome-shaped pizza oven is best optimized for pizza preparation.
The most important aspect of a domed-shaped pizza oven is an oval enclosure, which provides several advantages favoring the preparation of fantastic pizzas in good time.
Conclusion
Ovens may come in different shapes; these shapes are suited for different purposes. To achieve great results when preparing a pizza, the best form to use is the dome-shaped oven.
The dome-shaped oven has an oval chamber; this chamber is best suited for your pizza. It allows for high temperatures for more extended periods because there are no cold spots.
It does this by combining radiation, convection, and conduction heat.
