Wood-Fired Recipes — Cooking with Fire
There is a assumption about wood-fired ovens that this collection exists to disprove. The assumption is that they are for pizza. They are not — or not only. A wood-fired oven is the oldest cooking technology in the world. Before pizza, before bread, before any of the things we now associate with it, there was fire and there was food and there was the heat that fire produces. Pizza came later.
This is a collection of wood-fired oven recipes that are not pizza. Some are cooked in a Gozney Dome in the back garden of a house in Ramsbottom, Lancashire. Some — from November, when my Alfarería Duero arrives at Casa Adora and Paco finishes the outside kitchen — will be cooked in a handmade Spanish wood-fired dome in rural Andalucía. Two ovens, two kitchens, two countries. One approach to cooking with fire.
From the Gozney — Wood-Fired Oven Recipes from Ramsbottom
My son Chris has been cooking on his Gozney Dome for several years. The Dome sits against a Lancashire stone wall in his back garden, on a steel stand with a kamado smoker underneath. He uses it the way most people use a hob — for whatever needs cooking, not just pizza.
The Gozney Dome runs at temperatures a domestic oven cannot approach. What this means in practice is a sear on meat that sets in seconds, a fond in the cast iron that a hob cannot build, and a smoke from the wood that changes the flavour of everything it touches. It also means you cook by feel and by eye rather than by timer — which is, in my experience, how the best food gets made.
Chris sends me a photo of the finished dish, the ingredients, and a few words about what he did. I write it up in my voice. The cooking is his. The words are mine.
Creamy Dijon Chicken Thighs from the Gozney — A Ramsbottom Recipe
Wood-Fired Full English — Chris's Gozney Brunch in Ramsbottom
Gozney Salmon — Chris's Cast Iron, Ramsbottom
Coming November — Wood-Fired Oven Recipes from Casa Adora
From the BBQ — Wood-Fired Cooking at Casa Adora
The Alfarería Duero arrives in November. Until then, the freestanding BBQ at Casa Adora is the open fire — and olive wood is the fuel. The dome will change what's possible. The approach is the same.
Shish Tawook Recipe — BBQ Chicken Skewers, Casa Adora
The Alfarería Duero is a handmade wood-fired dome oven from a Spanish pottery in the Duero valley. It arrives at Casa Adora in November, when Paco finishes building the outside kitchen. I have been thinking about what to cook in it since I ordered it.
A traditional dome oven works differently from the Gozney. The Gozney is responsive — you control the heat by managing the fire in real time. A traditional dome is fired, allowed to reach temperature, and then the fire is raked out or moved to one side. The oven cooks on falling temperature, using the heat stored in the dome itself. You cook by feel, by the colour of the dome, by the smell of the food. It is slower, more patient, and produces a different kind of result.
This wood-fired oven recipes collection will keep growing — from Ramsbottom as Chris cooks, and from Casa Adora from December. In the meantime, the Gozney leads.
Find more recipes and food adventures here.
Wonky photos, proper food, genuine adventures — The Flexible Chef
