Hey guys, Chef Tony here - today we’re discussing, everything to consider when you’re in the
market to buy a pizza oven.
Let’s get to it!
The first, and probably most important thing is to decide what type of fuel source you
would like to use for your oven.
The main options being wood, gas, pellet, and there are even a few options that are
multi-fuel.
Let's look at the most popular, which is Wood Fired.
With wood fired, there are two different options - there are single chamber, or dual chamber
wood fired ovens.
With a single chamber wood fired oven, the fire and food are in the same chamber.
This is the most traditional style and the type you may have seen at a nice restaurant
or your favorite pizzeria.
A single chamber oven preheats a little faster than a dual chamber, and is the best option
for making authentic Neapolitan style pizza.
Because the pizza shares a chamber with the glowing hot coals, a single chamber will provide
your pizza with plenty of infrared energy for cooking.
With that being said, a single chamber also has a larger learning curve, and requires
the most effort.
But is also the most rewarding and entertaining to use of all the choices that we will talk
about today.
Now with a dual chamber style wood fired oven, the pizza is cooked in a top chamber, and
the fire is lit below in a second chamber.
It cooks more like a traditional home oven, except for being fueled by wood and being
able to safely reach much higher temperatures than your regular home oven.
The top, or cooking chamber has a heat and air path, through the sidewalls of the oven.
That allows the heat and smoke from the combustion chamber to roll over your food, before exiting
through the chimney.
A dual chamber wood fired oven allows for more space inside the cooking chamber, and
it will generally have a larger front opening.
This style is a little easier to light and tend to, and temperature control is less tricky
and tends to be more stable compared to a single chamber oven.
A dual chamber wood oven will perform all baking tasks with ease, and is the most versatile
of the wood fired options.
However, it will struggle and may even fall short sometimes for turning out Neapolitan
style, cooked in 90 seconds type of pizzas.
Next up, pellet fueled options.
These generally work with a gravity fed pellet hopper, and are manually controlled.
They’re fairly easy to operate, and share most of the features of a single chamber woodfired
oven.
This can be an appealing wood fired option, because oftentimes it can be easier to keep
pellets stored and on hand, than a pile of cut wood for a traditional wood fired pizza
oven.
The next fuel type is gas fueled pizza ovens.
These preheat in about half the time as they're woodfired counterparts with just the turn
of a control knob.
They are mostly configured with conventional style gas burners as they’re heat source
- but there are several luxury options that also include infrared style burners - meaning
that even replicating Neapolitan style pizzas becomes a definite possibility.
And of course, with constant heat coming from a gas burner - you will enjoy consistent heat
that will make great results easy to replicate pie after pie.
Pie after pie.
Gas ovens are also easier to keep clean, because you won’t need to sweep out wood ash after
cooking.
And a final option to consider is a multi-fueled pizza oven.
These allow you to fire your pizza oven with either wood fire or gas.
This may be an option for anyone who is torn between which fuel source option they want
to go with.
Once you’re decided on your fuel source, you’ll want to think about what configuration
makes sense for you.
Built in is a great option If you want your pizza oven to be a central hub of your outdoor
kitchen.
With a built-in masonry type oven, you’ll have the ability to choose what style of material
you’d like to clad it with, making them great for someone who wants a pizza oven to
match the finish of their outdoor kitchen.
On the other hand, freestanding ovens can be a solid option if you would like to roll
your oven out for service, and then be able to roll it back for storage, No problem.
There are plenty of quality pizza ovens that come on cart that will look great in your
backyard.
Countertop models are another configuration to consider.
Maybe you want your pizza oven to be stationary but not exactly built into your outdoor kitchen.
There are plenty of good looking countertop models to choose from.
And finally, there are portable pizza oven options - who knew?
This is for those who love authentic pizza, but would like to be able to bring that with
them wherever they go.
These are great for wherever the road may take you - or just for having a small and
portable option for moving around your backyard.
The only compromise you have to make with the portable option, obviously is the size,
but with the smaller size also comes a faster preheat - so cranking out multiple pies quickly
isn’t really a problem.
Now we’ll look at Pizza Oven Construction Most pizza ovens are assembled from metal
exteriors with refractory interiors—tough outside, insulated inside.
Stainless steel will often last way longer - but there are quite a few powder coated
or painted steel exterior options as well.
And, there are always those DIY-friendly ready-to-finish kits out there as well.
The main thing to keep in mind is that you want to make sure the oven is insulated with
quality refractory insulation, the more efficient the oven, the faster and hotter the preheat.
Once you’be made your oven choice, don’t forget to grab some pizza cooking accessories
to make your life a little easier.
Of course pizza peels are a must - I generally recommend metal for newcomers - or pretty
much anybody really.. because it’s a bit thinner, and that means it’s easier to get
it underneath the pizza, than a wood type pizza peel.
Also, there are about half that size turning pizza peels for when you need to maneuver
the pizza around during cooking.
Those are a great thing to have as well.
And if you’re like me and you just want to keep it simple, there are some great multi
tool sets that come with all the tools necessary to tend and clean a wood fired oven.
As for serving, a Mezzaluna knife cutter is handy for quick slicing of pizza - and we
all know that faster cutting, means faster eating!
I hope that answers all of your pizza oven questions.
Thank you for watching.
Ciao