NY pizza in DIY wood burning oven

[NYnewbie]

Got the crazy idea to make a DIY pizza oven in my backyard. I was given the maybe wrong impression that with the high radiant heat, I can churn out pies in 3 minutes and the heat helps the dough cook rapidly. The more I read about NY pizzas, it seems that instead of trying to bake a pie at 650 degrees in 3 minutes, I'll get better results cooking below 550 for 7-8 minutes.

Now I'm super confused (and hungry). Any tips are appreciated.

[scott r]

If you want a classic sit down NY coal style pizza like johns, Grimaldi's, Totonnos, Lombardi's or Patsy's a wood burning oven can get you there.    If you want the classic slice style pizza such as Joes', John's Ben's, Rays, your best bet is actually a home oven turned all the way up either with a stone or maybe even better, with a pizza steel. 

Most wood burning ovens tend to want to run hot and bake fast.  That can be too much for the slice style NY pizza, but it can be done.   These ovens are better suited to other styles baked in 4 minutes or less such as Neapolitan.

[TXCraig1]

It's certainly possible but it will need to be a fairly large oven. A little plie of bricks isn't going to get it done. It will need to be big enough to get the pie far enough away from the fire that you can get an even heat. It will probably need some sort of insulation or significant thermal mass as well.

I agree with scott - for NY style, a home oven is the way to go. I have 4 wood and or gas fired ovens ranging from 40 pounds to 4000, and I still bake NY in my home oven on a 1/2" steel plate.