Step Three of Three
Managing the Fire
In my Alfa, a pizza cooks in about 90 seconds — thrilling and unforgiving. The whole game is three things: floor temp, flame, and the turn.
First, actually preheat
A wood-fired oven needs a real preheat — 30–45 minutes with a healthy fire to saturate the floor with heat, not just the air. Rush it and you get a pale, sad bottom.
Floor, flame, and the turn
01
Floor temperature — the bottom of your pizza
Aim for a stone floor around 750–850°F. Too hot and the bottom scorches before the top cooks; too cool and you get a pale, crackery base. Read it with an infrared thermometer right where you’ll launch.
The floor loses heat exactly where the last pizza sat — give that spot a minute, or move the fire across it, and re-check between pies.
02
The flame — the top of your pizza
The leopard spots come from live flame radiating off the dome, not the floor. Keep a real, rolling flame going the whole bake, fed with small pieces of wood — enough to maintain an active flame without choking it.
03
The turn — even color all the way around
Because the flame lives on one side, the edge facing it chars in 20–30 seconds. Using a turning peel, rotate the pie ~90° every 20–30 seconds so every part of the rim gets its time.
Total bake: ~60–90 seconds. Pull when the cornicione is puffed and leopard-spotted and the cheese is molten.
Peter’s Rule
Put it together
Preheat until the floor is truly hot → launch onto a 750–850°F floor → keep a rolling flame overhead → turn every 20–30s → pull at leopard spots.
Now go make some pizza
That’s the whole process — dough, launch, fire. Start with the pies I make most, and come back to these three guides whenever something goes sideways.
Back to Step One: The Dough and Step Two: Shaping & Launching, or browse all guides.