How we test
This is a reader-run bake-record method. The publication claims no completed bakes or product tests; record the ingredients, equipment, conditions, observations, and date for your own run.
Formula worksheet · How to log a bake
In short
A tested formula record names the tester, equipment, ambient conditions, finished dough temperature, schedule, and date. Untested formulas do not publish. For products we have not used, we compare published specifications and label the page as specification-only rather than implying hands-on testing.
Who this is for
- Readers deciding how much weight to give a number on this site
- Anyone who wants to reproduce a reader bake record exactly
- People comparing our equipment guidance against a review site's
What "tested" means here
A formula is tested when a named person has mixed, proofed, shaped, and baked it, and recorded the result. Anything less is a draft.
| Recorded for every test | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Tester and date | So you know who stands behind it and how recent it is |
| Flour brand and lot where known | Flour behaviour varies between lots of the same product |
| Full baker's percentages | So the formula can be scaled and compared |
| Finished dough temperature | The variable that silently rewrites a fermentation schedule |
| Schedule with temperatures at every stage | A time without a temperature is not reproducible |
| Ball weight and shaping method | Changes how the base opens and bakes |
| Oven type, surface, deck and dome temperature | The bake half of the result |
| Bake duration and turning | Especially decisive in a small, very hot chamber |
| Outcome notes and known failure modes | Including what went wrong and what we would change |
What this publication has not tested
This publication has not tested the equipment on the market, and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
Where a page compares products we have not used, it says so and compares published specifications only. You will see a specification-only label rather than a fabricated verdict. We would rather be less useful than be confidently wrong about something you are about to buy.
Nor does any single setup represent every kind of oven. A formula record should name the setup it was developed on, so you can judge how much translation your own kitchen will need.
Reproducibility, honestly
A logged formula records what happened in one kitchen with one flour. It is a starting point, not a guarantee.
Flour lot, ambient temperature and humidity, starter vigour, mixer friction, and oven calibration all move the result. That is precisely why we publish the conditions rather than only the outcome — so you can see which of them differ for you.
If a formula does not work for you, the log is the diagnostic tool. Compare the recorded conditions to yours, change one variable, and record it.
How we handle a formula that fails
It stays unpublished, or it publishes with the failure described.
A formula that produced a poor result under stated conditions is genuinely useful if we say what went wrong and why — that is a documented failure mode, not a wasted afternoon. What we will not do is publish it as though it worked.
Safety-relevant testing
We do not run our own safety testing and we do not present ourselves as competent to.
Content involving gas appliances, carbon monoxide, high-temperature burn risk, construction, or food-handling temperatures cites current official guidance and the manufacturer manual; case-specific clearance is outside scope. Where we quote a safe internal temperature or a clearance requirement, it comes from that authority, is dated, and names the jurisdiction it applies to.
Important. Portable gas pizza ovens are outdoor appliances. We will never publish guidance that implies indoor or enclosed-space use, and we do not publish oven modifications that defeat a safety interlock.
Conflicts in testing
If a test used equipment we were given, or a formula we developed and may later sell, the page says so.
That matters more over time. This publication intends to become a real pizza business eventually, and a formula library is exactly the kind of asset that creates quiet incentives. The disclosure is easier to write now than later.
Where to go next
Frequently asked questions
How many times is a formula baked before you publish it?
The rule is at least once, with the log attached, and more than one independent bake for anything offered as a starting point rather than as one logged run, because a starting point gets used without anyone reading the caveats. No formula on this site has met that bar, so none is published.
Why does the test date matter?
Because flour reformulates, equipment changes, and method improves. A date lets you weigh a result rather than assume it is current, and it tells you when a record is due a re-bake.
Do you test in a domestic oven or a pizza oven?
The record must say which. A formula developed at very high deck temperature will not behave the same in a domestic oven, and pretending otherwise is how readers end up blaming themselves for a mismatch.
What is a specification-only comparison?
It means we read the published technical data and compared it, without using the products. It is honest and it is useful for narrowing a shortlist, but it cannot tell you how something feels in the hand or holds up over a year.
Will you test my formula?
There is no submission route, and nothing is published as tested without a dated bake record behind it. The formula worksheet uses the same fields as the table above, so you can log your own bakes in a form anyone can check.
Why publish failures at all?
Because a documented failure mode saves the reader the afternoon it cost whoever recorded it. A formula that collapses past a certain schedule length is a more useful piece of information than a formula that simply omits the limit.
Keep a test log yourself
The formula worksheet uses the same fields as the table above, so your own log records the tester, equipment, and date for every bake.