There is nothing more crucial to the overall effectiveness and lasting value of a pizza oven than ensuring cleanliness. Although it may seem like a daunting task, it is one that should not be avoided. Cleaning will help prevent food having a strange taste and will expand the lifespan of your outdoor pizza oven.
If you follow these tips, it can be a simple and routine job, ensuring that you continue to have a fully working, clean pizza oven to cook up delicious pies. Take a look at the following top tips for carrying out this task:
1. Don’t Clean It While It’s Hot
After cooking, the pizza oven stays hot for quite some time. It may sound like an obvious point to make, but it’s surprising how much damage and how many injuries are due to attempting to clean a hot pizza oven.
Doing this can not only result in burns, it could also permanently damage the equipment. In ovens that include a pizza stone, cleaning while hot can cause cracks in the stone, resulting in costly damage or fragments of stone ending up in your pizzas.
2. Don’t Allow Dirt to Build Up
A build-up of dirt in the pizza oven can lead to many problems. Not only can it give a strange taste to your food, but it has the potential to set on fire, which can be dangerous to anybody operating the oven and those around it. It will also cause irreversible damage. Protect yourself and your expensive equipment by getting into a good routine of constant cleaning.
3. Use a Brush and Scraper
It’s essential to use proper tools when cleaning out the pizza oven—a sponge or cloth will not do. Food pieces can easily get charred and stick to the inside of the oven.
Instead, use a scraper to get these pieces off to prevent build-up. A heavy-duty brush is also ideal for removing dirt thoroughly. Cleaning won’t be easy and it’s important to remember to put real strength in and give it a good scrub.
4. Get Rid of Spilled Toppings Fast
To prevent the build-up of old food and to save yourself from a harder task of cleaning out a build-up, clean up spilled toppings immediately. Use an appropriate tool to pull them out once the pizza is cooked; this prevents them from having the chance to overcook and burn, as well as stick to the inside of the oven.
5. Start a Fire
This may seem drastic and contradictory to the first point of not cleaning the oven while it’s hot, and I emphasize not to put your arms inside during the fire, but it has been said that by starting a 370-degree Celsius fire, this can be very effective in cleaning the inside walls of the oven. It can burn away the accumulated soot.
6. Don’t Forget the Mechanisms
It’s easy to forget about the other parts of the oven and focus only on cleaning the actual cooking area. Remember that the air intakes and oven bearings also need attention. They can get clogged with grease, which can affect the overall performance of your oven.
7. Check with the Manufacturer
This seems like a given, but many owners take maintenance into their own hands and forget to check with the manufacturer concerning oven functions. The manufacturer knows best how to maintain its products, and there may be certain products or methods of cleaning which they advise against. Always check for their best cleaning suggestions and pay attention to what products they advise for the upkeep of the oven.
Outdoor pizza ovens often have a lengthy lifespan, up to 25 years. However, many are ruined and don’t last even half of this time due to the failure to take proper care of them. Make sure regular cleaning becomes part of your routine to ensure longevity.
