Varlamov then repeated the calculation for an electric oven, made of steel, and found that because of the higher thermal conductivity of the metal the temperature under the pizza would be much higher, around 300 degrees. He calculated that in this scenario the temperature where the dough touched the bricks would be 210 degrees. The local pizzaiolos divulged to Varlamov that the magic formula in the wood-fired oven was two minutes at 330 degrees Celsius. The key, he and his colleagues found, was getting the correct balance of heat flowing into the base of the pizza via conduction from the bricks below, while using radiant heat to warm the toppings. “It’s not just conservatism, it is the experience of hundreds of generations.” “I succeeded in explaining for myself Italian traditional behaviour,” Varlomov says. Their findings, currently awaiting peer review on the pre-print site Arxiv, reveal why Italians insist on cafes with wood-fired ovens. In doing so, he enlisted the help of materials scientist Andreas Glatz of the US Argonne National Laboratory, and Italian food anthropologist Sergio Grasso. He was inspired to analyse heat flow between the brick base of the oven and pizza dough. One day, he struck up a conversation with the pizzaiolos (pizza-makers) at his local café about the niceties of oven temperature. A Russian physicist living in Rome has analysed pizza-making and found why wood ovens are superior to electric ones: they give the perfect balance of well-cooked base and browned toppings.Īndrey Varlamov researches superconductivity at Italy’s Consiglio Nazionale della Ricerche (CRN).
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