Where do you measure temperature in a wood burning pizza oven?

Answer 1

Traditionally, you don't.

All the best Italian dishes and recipes are made by instinct and passed on from generations.

A good Pizza maker will know when his wood burning oven is hot enough. However...when you have not had generations of experience to work from, it will be useful to know a couple of basics. First, the cooking surface (Either at oven base level, or the level of any raised grill inside the oven cavity) is the temperature of your food. This is the first and most important temperature to know. The second one is a related indicator of how your oven's contents are progressing. Since your oven is most likely domed on the interior, it radiates heat back to the center point of the base of the oven. Knowing what the heat coming back at your food registers at will give you some indication of how fast the cooking will progress. Therefore, looking at the mid point (or a little higher) on the back or side of your oven gives you such an indication. Finally, for the really nerdy amongst us, checking the STACK (chimney) temperature will give you an indication of the rate of combustion, thus letting you know when the fire itself has begun to wane and thus may need tending. Between checking these three temperatures I recommend a good Barbera or Chianti...things will fall into perspective much easier.