Adding a pizza oven to your outdoor space is a growing trend in the U.S. Due to faster cook times, ease of use, and better taste, more and more families are opting to cook their own gourmet pizzas instead of opting for delivery. With pizza being one of the most adored foods in America, there is arguably nothing better than having your own pizzeria in the comfort of your backyard.
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Frequently Asked Questions
There’s a lot to know before purchasing a pizza oven and knowing if it’s a good investment for your home. To get you started in the process, we’ve answered some of the most frequently asked questions consumers wonder when purchasing a pizza oven.
Why Use a Pizza Oven?
Cook Faster: We all have cooked a pizza that didn’t quite cook all the way to the middle and was left cold and doughy. This is not an issue when using a pizza oven. Pizza ovens can go up to temperatures of 700-800 degrees Fahrenheit while most home ovens max out at 500 degrees.
Boost Flavor: For those who have tried pizza baked in a pizza oven, you can very obviously taste the difference. Pizza ovens have even heat distribution to thank for this feature. The result is a delicious, smokey flavor that you and your guests will love.
Save Energy: In many cases, there is no gas or electricity needed to operate a pizza oven. The only energy source you’ll be using is from the fire. Pizza ovens also help health-conscious individuals keep nutrients in pizzas topped with healthy fruits and vegetables with the shorter cooking process.
How Do You Actually Use a Pizza Oven?
The first thing you’ll want to do before investing in a pizza oven is to make sure you have a well-ventilated space you can put it in. Pizza ovens get extremely hot; you’ll want to be able to set aside some space for it for safety purposes.
There is no need to season a pizza oven. Baking pizza in it oven time will season the stone itself. All you’ll need to do to make sure the crust doesn’t stick is sprinkle the baking surface with some cornmeal. To make sure your pizza doesn’t burn, continue to rotate it throughout the cooking process. After a few minutes, you’ll have a perfectly cooked, smokey tasting pizza.
Do Weather Conditions Affect How a Pizza Oven Works?
Weather conditions do affect the cooking of your pizza. Since you’ll likely be using your pizza oven outside, the cold air can change how much time it takes your pizza to cook. The ideal conditions for using a pizza oven are a warm and sunny day. Make sure you’re adjusting your oven temperature according to the weather. On cool days, turn it up a bit, and on very warm days, lower the cooking temperature a few degrees.
Do You Preheat Pizza Ovens?
It’s absolutely essential to preheat your pizza oven before cooking your pizza in it. In contrast to traditional ovens where you can generally stick in the pizza any time before the oven preheats, you’ll want to give your pizza oven at least 15 minutes to get hot before you put the pizza in. It takes longer to preheat than a traditional oven or grill, but that’s because it gets way hotter.
Can You Cook Any Pizza in a Pizza Oven?
Be Aware of Your Crust: The thing to be aware of is the thickness of your crust, which will adjust the cooking time.
Toppings Affect the Cooking Time: Most people have said that thin crust pizza with only a couple toppings cooks the best in a pizza oven. A thick crust pizza with a lot of toppings can be challenging to cook perfectly in your oven if you haven’t developed proper pizza oven techniques yet.
How We Reviewed
Image by Andreas Riedelmeier from Pixabay
To find the best outdoor pizza oven for our users, we looked at and researched several models available on the market today. We checked for maximum temperature, typical cook time, oven capacity, construction, and versatility. For the pizza ovens that exceeded top marks in all areas, we added to our list so we could present to you the best outdoor pizza ovens you should be investing in.
Overall Price Range of Outdoor Pizza Ovens
Pizza ovens don’t come cheap. However, for those who love to cook and entertain, they’re an investment that can last you well into the future. A standard backyard pizza oven will usually cost over a few thousand dollars with some models costing as much as $10,000. Commercial pizza ovens can go from $5,000-$30,000. With such a steep price-tag, it’s essential to know that the pizza oven you choose is the best option for you and your family.
Our Top Picks!
With so many options on the market today, knowing which pizza oven will work best in your backyard can be an intimidating process. To make things easier, we’ve listed our top pizza ovens to help you find the best outdoor pizza oven for your backyard space.
Chicago Brick Oven
If you’re on the market for one of the most authentic wood-fired brick pizza ovens that you can buy, the Chicago Brick Oven is perfect for you. This pizza oven was crafted to resemble the traditional brick ovens used to cook pizzas in Italy and was modernized to meet the needs of today.
Key Features:This pizza oven is shaped like an igloo which is made with cement; an awesome material for retaining heat inside the oven. The heat-vacuum created by the cement igloo allow for temperatures to go up to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The in-chamber cooking strategy of this pizza oven gives you a perfect smokey, wood-fired taste every time. Your family and friends will be amazed at how great your pizza comes out every single time.
Pros and Cons: The amazing flavor created with this oven does come with a bit of a trade-off. Before you can begin cooking with the Chicago Pizza Oven, you need to perform a process called curling. This required heating up charcoal and letting it burn in the oven. It’s easy to go through a whole 15-pound bag of charcoal in a single day. Although this pizza oven is spectacular, it is not for anyone short on patience.
Warranty: The Chicago Pizza Oven comes with a one-year limited warranty. While it isn’t as great as some of the other warranties we found, it’s still nice to know you’ll be covered in your first year from any defects.
Forno Toscano Pizza Oven
This Forno Toscano is a great modern take on the traditional stone pizza ovens. This modern version of a brick pizza oven allows you to make your own authentic Italian pizza in the comfort of your backyard.
Key Features: For awesome cooking efficiency, the Forno Toscano Pizza Oven has 12 centimeters of wool insulation which surrounds the 3-millimeter thick stainless steel cooking area. The high-quality manufacturing doesn’t stop there, though. This oven is made with two layers of brick: one refractory layer and one cooking stone up above. This helps the oven to heat up super fast.
Pros and Cons: Something to keep in mind before buying this oven is the amount of attention this oven requires. It’s not simply an oven you can stick a pizza in then go relax while it cooks. You’ll need to spend time rotating and keeping an eye on the pizza during the cooking process. Although this oven does require you to do some additional work, we still did find it to be one of the best pizza oven options on the market today.
Warranty: This pizza oven comes with a 4-year warranty which is pretty good compared to other warranties out there.
Napoli Pizza Oven
This ultra-sleek pizza oven is a leader in the innovation department. This pizza oven is exceptionally striking and even comes with blue LED lights built in.
Key Features: TheNapoli Pizza Oven is different than many other ovens in that it doesn’t use a direct flame to cook the pizza. Instead, it’s powered by infrared burners with 40,000 BTUs of heating power. Because it is powered similar to a traditional oven, that means you can cook all sorts of dishes in it including roasts, steaks, and baked goods.
Pros and Cons: The interior of this pizza oven is made with a refractory material that mirrors infrared heat onto the ceramic cooking area. One of the design features we loved most about this oven was that the entire cooking surface could be pulled out, making it super easy to check on your food or pull your pizza out of the oven. We did find that this pizza oven doesn’t get quite as hot as some other models on the market, but it can still quickly heat up to 700 degrees Fahrenheit with the help of powerful burners.
Warranty: One of our most favorite things about the Napoli pizza oven is the lifetime warranty. Pizza ovens are such an investment; it’s refreshing to know that you won’t have to worry about replacing it if anything happens to it. Lifetime warranties are rare in the pizza oven world, and we found it refreshing that Lynx made this available to their customers.
Bella Pizza Oven
The Bella Pizza Oven is one of our favorite pizza ovens ever. This oven allows you to get that authentic Italian flavor while letting your family join you on a backyard culinary adventure.
Key Features:This solid stainless steel oven features a real firebrick cooking surface. The 14 gauge stainless steel over means that this oven can withstand some of the highest temperatures, a common feature of high-end cooking supplies. The floor of the Bella Pizza Oven is made with real firebrick similar to those in Italian pizzerias. The advantage of this is that once it’s hot, it will stay hot for optimal cooking.
Pros and Cons:This pizza oven is also extremely easy to operate. When it came down to usability, this was definitely one of our top pizza oven picks. On top of easy operation for cooking pizzas, this oven can also grill steaks, roast chicken and even bake a loaf of bread. If you’re looking for something that’s versatile and allows you to cook more than just the perfect pizza, the Bella Pizza Oven is a spectacular choice. We really found it hard to find something not to love about the Bella Pizza Oven. Our only critique is that we wish the warranty lasted a little longer.
Warranty: The Bella Pizza Oven comes with a two-year warranty. While this is nice, we expected such a high-quality and high-priced item to come with something a little longer. However, this pizza oven is still one of the best in the game, and it’s worth considering for your best outdoor pizza oven pick.
The Verdict
Overall, we found that the best pizza oven for you depends on your family’s needs. Our favorite was the Bella Pizza Oven because of versatility, taste, and cooking time. The best pizza for your family will depend on the size of your space, the taste you’re looking for, and the level of usability you desire. We are positive that our top four pizza ovens will be able to satisfy your taste for authentic Italian pizza in the comfort of your own backyard.
Fetured Image by Lars Beulke from Pixabay