Slow Food From Your Wood Fired Oven

Slow Food From Your Wood-fired Oven

Orchard Ovens’ domestic wood-fired oven owners continue to delight us with their enthusiasm and inventiveness as home cooks.  Their stories about their lifestyle with a wood-fired oven and the brilliant entertaining opportunities that it provides, fill us with joy. 

One thing many of them like to do, is to make the very most of the fantastic heat retention properties of a domestic Valoriani wood-fired oven.  They waste nothing from the energy they created through wood burning, using all the residual heat  (left after cooking has ended for the day) to cook dishes that benefit from a more languid approach.

Some are also slow food advocates and find this method of cooking completely in line with that ethos.

All of this happens after the fire has died down and when the temperature has fallen sufficiently to allow a dish to cook slowly and gently, often overnight.  And the great news is that you can do this, whether you have a bespoke, built-in Valoriani oven, a ready-to-go, static-base or wheeled woodfired oven, or an oven that you have built with one of ValorianiDIY pizza oven kits.

The general tip is to prep your meat or load your ingredients into a suitable dish, make sureyour temperature is suitably low (perhaps 150°C) and that the fire is completely out.  Pop the dish into the oven, firmly shut the door and leave well alone for several hours, or overnight.

Using foil can be advantageous, especially when you first start experimenting with slow cooking.  It can prevent your food from drying out or burning.  Similarly, if your dish requires liquid, make sure there is enough in there to not dry up over a 7 or 8 hour period.

Here are some slow-cook woodfired oven dish suggestions.

1. Slow-cooked chicken cacciatore
2. Braised pheasant alla Toscana
3. Overnight roasted turkey
4. Pot-roasted pork cooked in red wine
5. Traditional Italian classic – osso buco
6. Leg of lamb with rosemary
7. Slow-cooked lamb shoulder
8. Tuscan cannellini beans
9. Tandoori roasted chicken
10. Tuscan ribollita
11. Brunswick stew
12. Lancashire hotpot
13. Beef barbacoa
14. Slow-cooked chilli
15. Traditional Bolognese ragù, cooked the wood-fired way
16. Butterbean and tomato soup
17. Roast gammon joint
18. Moroccan lamb tagine
19. Hummus
20. Jersey Bean Crock (as cooked by one of our Orchard Ovens’ customers)

When you start using your oven in this way, anticipate a few mistakes.  That’s how you learn. You might not be an overnight success at first, but at least you will have tried.

Don’t be afraid to ask us for advice on how to cook something in a Valoriani oven, if you arestruggling.  We may not have cooked the exact same dish, but we will be able to guide you and find out how you are getting on with your oven at the same time!

Just call us on 07743 847647 and let’s have a foodie convo!