Imagine for a moment, what it would feel like, to be sitting in your backyard with friends and family, taking a bite from a delicious, slightly char-grilled freshly baked pizza…. One you have just made in your very own wood-fired pizza oven.
Purchasing a pizza oven isn’t something you do very often, so you will need to ask yourself a few questions before buying one, after all, you want the right pizza oven for your needs, wants and budget.
Features a great pizza oven should have:
- The oven should be well insulated to retain heat for many hours
- An even cooking surface is important for the perfect pizza
- The materials should be durable, high quality and should increase the life-span of the pizza oven
- What you should consider before you buy a pizza oven
- Do you want a portable or free-standing pizza oven? Where do you want your oven to stand, it should be in a sheltered area not far from the house? A built-in pizza oven will add value to your home. If you choose a portable style, then the location can be easily changed at any time.
- Pre-heating time. A brick oven takes a longer time to heat up than portable models, but it retains the heat for longer
- Size – the size of the oven – how much space do you have for a pizza oven? And, what size pizza’s do you want to make?
- Budget
2018 top choices for pizza ovens:
- Fornino Professional Series Wood Fired Pizza Oven – this stylish oven takes just 20 minutes to heat up enough to bake your first pizza. This stylishly designed stainless steel portable pizza oven has a cooking surface large enough to cook 3 large or 6 small pizzas at the same time. This portable oven comes with the cart it sits on, but you could build your own pizza corner if you wanted, but portable does give you flexibility. The triple layer of insulation gives you excellent heat retaining qualities, it also comes with all the accessories you need, including a cover.
- Portable Pizza Oven – MAXIMUS – is an excellent example of a lightweight and portable wood-fired oven. The outer layer is aluminium with an inner layer of stainless steel with an insulated ceramic blanket between the layers, the oven heats up quickly and is ready to cook in less than 30 minutes.
- Kamado Joe Classic – this is not your typical wood-fired pizza oven, in fact, you can do more than cook pizzas – you can use it as a barbeque, a smoker, to grill or to slow cook. With a top and a bottom vent you can heat the grill up in 15 minutes and be ready to cook your first pizza, all you need is a diffuser plate and a thick pizza stone and you are ready to bake a pizza. The Kamado Joe has a heavy ceramic body – perfect for heat retention, and cleaning the grill is easy with the slide-out drawer to remove the ashes.
- MorsoForno Pizza Oven – gives you everything you need when it comes to outdoor entertaining. It acts just like a smoker, grill, oven and a heat source. You can build a fire using either wood or charcoal – or cook food directly on the bricks. Make perfect breads and pizza in just minutes. Why not add the Morso Tuscan Grill as a coal insert – you can cook steaks and vegetables with those great well-defined grill marks. This all-rounder oven also lets you bake, slow cook and smoke, all with the addition of a separate stainless-steel door. Made from solid cast iron construction with a range of optional accessories available to buy separately.
What are the benefits of using a wood-fired pizza oven?
In a nutshell, a wood-fired oven gives you heat that is efficient, the ovens are durable and require very low maintenance – which, in the long run, keeps your costs down. They are versatile – you cannot just cook pizzas, but also slow cooking, roasting and grilling. When you have a wood-fired pizza oven in your yard, it will quickly become the centrepiece of the home, while a built-in pizza oven will add value to your home.
As with any purchase, there can be a down-side to having a wood-fired pizza oven, often just *teething problems* – it can take a while to learn how to heat a pizza oven, how to cook a pizza without burning it, and how to use the oven most efficiently. Spend some time with it; it’s all *trial and error*. Once you have everything mastered, you’ll be cooking pizzas like a pro in no time.
