Ceramic Kamado pizza temperature and bake time
For a Neapolitan pizza at 60% hydration, start at 400°C air temperature, 400°C on the baking surface, and about 85-115 sec. Adjust the Oven Lab for your dough.
Ceramic Kamado is a Kamado oven, reaching up to 400°C, outdoor, powered by charcoal, 46cm inner diameter, weighing 90kg, fitting 1 pizzas, and heating up in 40 minutes. A thick-walled ceramic kamado running charcoal with the dome shut. The ceramic behaves like a small masonry oven: slow to charge, then extremely stable, holding 350 to 400C with the deck barely moving between bakes. The one thing it will not do unaided is protect the base, because the fire sits directly below the stone. A heat deflector or an inverted second stone is not optional here, it is the difference between a leoparded base and a black one. Pros: ceramic mass keeps the deck steady bake after bake, reaches 400c, close to true pizza-oven territory, holds usable heat for hours on a single load of charcoal. Users of this oven often complain about about 40 minutes to charge the ceramic before the first bake, burns the base without a heat deflector between fire and stone, heavy, expensive and permanently outdoors, specs here are typical values, not your specific kamado.
- If the base catches before the top is done, drop the flame or swap to biscotto. The stock stone is the usual culprit.
- Give the deck the full 40 min. Air temperature lies. The stone is slower.
- Bake on a stone, not the grate. Direct charcoal will torch the base.