Imagine this: you get home from a hellacious day at work, and your appetite is demanding pizza. No, not a pizza from the local store, but a fresh homemade pie: topped with three different kinds of cheeses, your favourite vegetables, pepperoni and maybe some ground beef. Yummy. Rather than popping it in your basic oven, you decide to utilize your pizza oven tonight. This makes it extra delicious, and now your difficult workday fades into a distant memory.

Wait a minute…your pizza oven is dirty, greasy and unusable. You didn’t clean it?

From the moment you purchase a pizza oven, you need to keep it in pristine condition. This means that it must be cleaned on a regular basis – after every use would be a good idea. Otherwise, you can’t make those scrumptious pies after a long day at the office. Here are five cleaning tips to keep your pizza oven in top shape:

1. Done the Pie? Crank up the Heat

After you have completed your Hawaiian, vegetarian or meaty pizza, you should crank up the heat on your pizza oven. It would be wise to increase it to 400 degrees Fahrenheit for about half-an-hour. This is a pertinent step because it helps you burn off all the residue left behind. After the 30 minutes are over, turn off the oven and let it cool down – it may take a while.

2. Only Clean the Oven When It’s Cold

You may want to get it over and done with so you may attempt to clean the pizza oven after you turned it off. Wrong. Not only will you burn yourself, you won’t do an effective job at all. Simply put: you should only clean the pizza oven when it is cold.

3. Refrain from Using Cleaning Products

We may be tempted to utilize cleaning products, or even the same oven cleaner we use for our conventional stove. Do not do this. In fact, avoid utilizing cleaning products altogether. By using a Lysol wipe, a Fantastik spray or other types of tools, you’ll damage the pizza oven.

Also, you shouldn’t even use water.

What do you need? Let’s find out.

4. A Damp Cloth & Dry Towel

Yep, that’s right. All you need to clean your pizza oven is a damp cloth and a dry towel. This is just as effective as incorporating any other type of cleaning item.

Wipe down the oven with a damp cloth and then dry it with a fresh towel – be sure to really dry it so you can make it look shiny.

5. No, You Don’t Need an Oven Brush

 

Many of us make the mistake of utilizing an oven brush to tackle stains, grease and dirt. Akin to various cleaning products and wet towels, you should refrain from using oven brushes. Not only could this damage the pizza oven, the bristles may also get left behind, which could end up in the food when you’re cooking the pie.

Whether you own a restaurant or you’re an avid cook in your home, outdoor pizza ovens are great appliances to have around your household, especially if you love everything pizza. By having a pizza oven, you don’t need to rely on mediocre pies from the pizza restaurant down the street. You also don’t need to depend on your basic oven that will not properly cook your pie.

A pizza oven will ensure that you’re making a pie like the pros. The dough is evenly cooked, the cheese has properly melted, the sauce is adding an impressive smell throughout the home and the vegetables and meat have seeped into the sauce and cheese. We are salivating just thinking about it. But it is essential to keep your pizza oven clean. If not, you will not generate the same results.