Oven Temp

[jayseefeldt]

Im looking for the correct baking temp for a commercial baker prides oven to cook pizzas

[scott123]

Jay, welcome to the forum.

There is no single temperature for baking pizza. It depends on the style you're making, the model oven you're working with, the recipe you're using, and a host of other factors. You might even have different oven temps during the same day-  a higher one for when the pizzeria is busy and a lower one for when things slow down.

I took a look at your website and read a few reviews on places like Yelp, and it looks like, while you have a few detractors, you seem to also have a pretty loyal following.  The photo of your pizza on your website looks a bit generic/chain-like, but in certain markets, generic pizza can be highly profitable, so if that's working for you, I'm not knocking it.

I don't want to pry here, but, you're making pretty good money right?  In your intro post you mentioned a desire to 'make the best product you can right now.'  If I may ask, why do you want to improve your pizza?  Are you looking to grow your business? Win awards/gain recognition? Are you as a new owner, just looking to change things up a bit? Or it is something else?

The reason I ask these questions is that it helps us help you if we know what your goals are, especially since different goals require different approaches.  If, say, you're looking to grow your business, you need to take a very close look at your customer base, gauge what they want as well as gauge how much change they're willing to tolerate. It's a slow, careful process, because you generally don't want to alienate your loyal following.  If, on the other hand, you want to win awards, then that usually requires some uniqueness/some more drastic measures.

If I'm totally off base here and you really are just looking for an oven temp, tell us your:

oven model
oven specs
style of pizza
current bake time
number of pizzas a day
peak number of pizzas per hour
recipe (preferably in baker's percentages)
dough management details
stretching regime (sheeter, hand tossing, etc.)

and we can come up with a temp to set the oven at. Bear in mind, it's very rare that pizza oven baking stones have exactly the same baking properties, so it will just be a ballpark.

[The Dough Doctor]

Most commercial deck ovens, such as the Y-600 are set to bake at 500 to 550F. We typically set our deck ovens to bake pizza at 525F, unless the dough formulation or some other unique feature of the pizza dictates a different temperature.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

[scott123]

Most commercial deck ovens, such as the Y-600 are set to bake at 500 to 550F. We typically set our deck ovens to bake pizza at 525F, unless the dough formulation or some other unique feature of the pizza dictates a different temperature.

Perhaps that's the case in Kansas, Tom, but, here in NY, where the poster has his business, I've seen ovens set anywhere between 500 and 650, with a few older places going even higher than 650.

[The Dough Doctor]

Scott;
Nope, that's not just the case here in Manhattan, Kansas, but rather an across the board average baking temperature for deck ovens. There are places that bake as low as 400 to 450F on the low side to as high as 600F to 650F on the high side (they would go higher if the ovens would permit). so I still stand by my guns at 500 to 550F (525F) as an average temperature range. If the request had asked for a temperature to bake a specific type of pizza, let's say a New York thin crust, or a Chicago deep-dish, that would have been a different story.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

[scott123]

If the request had asked for a temperature to bake a specific type of pizza, let's say a New York thin crust, or a Chicago deep-dish, that would have been a different story.

Tom, I said, "here in NY," because I was referring to "New York thin crust."  That's the style of pizza the original poster is making.

[norma427]

Jay,

I bake my NY style pizzas and my NY style experimental pizzas at the oven dial set at 525 degrees F on my countertop Baker's Pride GP-61, but the deck does vary depending on where the temperature is measured or how many times the oven door in opened.

Norma

[franko9752]

For my NY style I use a BakersPride p22 electric deck oven and set the thermostat at 450 and the bottom deck reads on the IR gun around 525 and the top is around 575. I also start with the bottom deck and move the pie on to the top deck which i keep a screen on the top deck at all times as to not overcook the bottom of the pie.

[beaunehead]

Can anyone tell me , when a commercial pizza place "bakes" at 550 degrees or the setting is that.....is an IR reading of the decking material, whether "stone" or the "baking steel" , the way to measure that "cooking" temperature. In other words..is the goal that the temp of the deck/floor be around 550 when measured? Or....should the deck temp be higher -- or lower-- to get the effect of a 550 d degree commercial baking oven?

I have a used electric two-deck restaurant pizza oven in my garage...and have recently bought a "baking steel" to replace one of my fibrament stones....and tried to use an IR thermometer to measure the decking. But, I realize that I don't know what those numbers mean in the context of trying to cook at 550, which is what my ideal pizza place (in NJ)/ my ideal   does....

thanks

[The Dough Doctor]

Beau;
I'm not quite sure that I fully understand your question, but I'll have a go at it.
Commercial pizza ovens are calibrated in such a way so that the set temperature on the thermostat corresponds to the temperature of the deck, regardless of whether it's stone, composite or steel in the place where the thermostat heat sensor is located. They try to locate the sensor in a spot that provides a representative actual temperature of the oven deck. Depending upon the oven design, you can, and usually do have hot spots on the deck, hence the need to rotate and move the pizzas around in the oven during baking. Some oven companies have been pretty successful at designing their ovens to have a more uniform temperature across the entire deck surface, and infact, their literature and demonstrations promote the fact that the pizzas don't need to be rotated/moved during baking in their ovens. I have found these claims to be correct in principal, and work well when baking only a few pizzas at a time, but when you are trying to bake 6 or 8 pizzas at a time, and you are constantly opening and closing the oven door, those pizzas in the back of the oven get a different bake from those near the door opening, so it's back to rotating and moving the pizzas around again.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

[beaunehead]

Do-do[c]:

Whether you "fully" understood the question or not , you've provided a good and informative answer.

I am trying to simulate a 550 degree commercial pizza oven, to the best I can, with my small, electric Bakers Pride-type two deck oven that goes up to 650. My question was whether measuring the cooking deck , and if it comes to 550 degrees, that is more or less the same,i.e, measuring the deck temp at 550 on mine is what one would expect for what the deck measurement would be on a commercial 550 oven. So, thanks...

I was wondering whether the deck temp is the key temp in such ovens...rather than the ambient temp between the deck and the oven dome/top...which can't really be measured with an IR thermometer.

Now, I understand the variability of a larger deck, particularly when they are gas, but, "in principal" 550 measured at the deck is a "550 oven." This is exciting to me, as I can get closer to my ideal Joisey pizza...at least re: its baking temperature.

Thanks, doc.

[The Dough Doctor]

Beau;
One other thing, I don't know it it applies in this case or not is the thickness of the deck material and burned BTU's. Commercial pizzas ovens tend to have thicker decks, capable of holding more latent heat than the thinner deck of a home or noncommercial application oven. Additionally, the commercial ovens have massive burners putting out a lot more BTU's than any home oven can. Of course they are significantly more expensive to operate too. With the greater capacity burners the commercial ovens will have a faster recovery time than a home type oven, and here again, some of the newer deck ovens exhibit almost no variation due to heat loss from the deck when multiple pizzas are baked in the same spot on the deck for a period of time. This might explain why many home pizza makers use a higher baking temperature than many pizzerias do while still getting the same end results.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

[beaunehead]

Well, Doc...I think I need to experiment now that I know how to measure the temp with the IR thermometer.

I bought a 3/8" thick baking steel; have two Fibrament stones (one taken out to put in the steel). I think they are 1/2" or 5/8....

I need to find the oven setting that , optimumly, gets the decks to 550, I guess.