What My Wood-Fired Setup Does When It's Not Making Pizza

Santa Maria Style Wood-Fired Grill (URL)

Pizza is what gets people to buy a wood-fired oven. It's rarely what keeps them using it three nights a week. Once mine was set up, I realized the same fire that cooks a Margherita in 90 seconds can also sear a steak better than my indoor stovetop, grill the way my grandfather's Argentine neighbors did, bake matzah at Passover, and pull a perfect pie off a perforated peel without a soggy bottom. Here's what that actually looks like.

Grilling Steaks the Way Restaurants Do

The trick to a steakhouse-quality sear isn't the cut of meat, it's the heat retention. A stainless steel cooking grill placed over live wood coals holds and radiates heat far more evenly than a standard backyard grill grate, which is why you get that deep, even crust without the middle overcooking before the outside catches up. I use mine for everything from ribeyes to grilled vegetables when the oven's already hot from a pizza session — no reason to let good coals go to waste.

Argentina's Secret: Santa Maria Style Grilling

This one surprised me. A Santa Maria style wood-fired grill uses a height-adjustable grate on a crank system, so you control doneness by raising or lowering the meat over the coals instead of adjusting a dial. It's the traditional method used across Central California and South America for whole cuts and large gatherings, and honestly, once you cook this way it's hard to go back to a fixed-height grill.

Baking Matzah for Passover

This is the one people don't expect. Traditional matzah needs to bake fast, at very high, consistent heat, to stay unleavened within the required window. A dedicated matzah oven is built specifically for that speed and heat consistency, which a standard home oven genuinely can't replicate. If you've ever wondered why wood-fired ovens show up in kosher kitchens around Passover, this is why.

The Perforated Peel That Changed My Grilling Game

I didn't think a peel could change how I cook, but a perforated stainless steel pizza peel lets excess flour and moisture fall away instead of burning onto the oven floor, which means less smoke and a cleaner crust. It's 304-grade stainless, which matters more than people think — lower grades of stainless can pit or discolor with repeated high-heat exposure, and 304 is the same grade used in a lot of commercial kitchen equipment for exactly that reason. Worth checking that grade is called out specifically before you buy any peel or grill accessory. For a sense of what that certification and grading process actually verifies, Intertek's ETL listing standards are a useful reference point.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a pizza oven be used for grilling too? 

Yes placing a stainless steel grill grate over the coals turns a wood-fired pizza oven into a high-heat grill, ideal for searing steaks and vegetables.

What is Santa Maria style grilling? 

It's a traditional grilling method using an adjustable, crank-operated grate that raises or lowers food over open coals to control cooking temperature, rather than adjusting a fixed heat source.

Why do matzah ovens need to be different from regular pizza ovens? 

Matzah must bake within a strict time window to remain unleavened, so matzah ovens are built for very fast, very consistent high heat that standard ovens can't reliably produce.

Does the grade of stainless steel matter for outdoor cooking tools? 

Yes  304-grade stainless steel resists rust, pitting, and discoloration under repeated high-heat and outdoor exposure far better than lower grades, which is why it's standard in commercial-grade equipment.

Once the oven's already hot, there's very little reason to only make pizza with it. Grilling, searing, and even Passover baking all use the same fire  just a different accessory.