How much oven do you need?
A good question. Here are the factors
to consider:
Capacity: bigger ovens hold more
food, but take longer to heat and consume more wood.
Mass and insulation: Thicker
masonry takes longer to heat up (and uses more wood), but holds its
heat longer, meaning more even temperatures and also superior
bread-baking performance. Thicker insulation helps retain that heat.
Portability: The pre-assembled
ovens allow the option of taking it with you when you move. In the
case of the Primavera ovens, which weigh a couple of hundred pounds,
this is a very realistic option. The Toscana series are
heavier—you'll need a forklift to move it (on both ends of the
trip). And the Casa 2G ovens are site-built, so they are basically
a permanent feature of the house.
Note that managing an oven full of
pizzas is a skill that takes a lot of practice. The La Fortuna team
makes thousands of pizzas a year, and we have dedicated dough shapers
and pizza toppers. Even so, it is difficult for us to work quickly
enough to get more than 6 pizzas in our 43” (110 cm) oven at a
time—by the time #6 goes in, #1 is ready to come out. What does
this mean for you? Simply that unless you make pizza several times a
week, you're unlikely to be able to work quickly enough to fit more
than 2-3 pizzas at a time in your oven.
Is it possible to have too much oven?
Sort of. An oven that is “too big”
uses more wood and takes longer to heat up. Having an oven that is
bigger than you need costs you money in the wood you burn, and also
is less convenient because of the extra waiting time for heating up.
Having said that, if you are not confident choosing between 2 sizes,
in most cases, it's probably a good idea to go with the larger. Yes,
you will use some extra wood, but even prime firewood is not that
expensive, unless you are firing the oven several times per week.
