Welcome to our guide on outdoor pizza ovens. If you’re a pizza lover or enjoy outdoor cooking, investing in an outdoor pizza oven can take your culinary adventures to the next level. In this article, we explore different types of outdoor pizza ovens, their key features, and the benefits they offer. Whether you prefer the traditional charm of a wood-fired oven or the convenience of a gas-powered one, we’ve got you covered in this guide.
So, let’s dive in and discover everything you need to know about outdoor pizza ovens so you can make an informed decision for your outdoor cooking paradise.
Wood-Fired Pizza Ovens: Classic and Authentic
Wood-fired pizza ovens are renowned for their ability to produce delicious, crispy, and flavourful pizzas. These ovens use wood as their primary fuel source, and the burning wood creates intense heat that cooks pizzas quickly and evenly. They are typically made of materials like brick, clay, or stone, which retain heat for a long time, allowing for consistent cooking. The wood-fired ovens provide an authentic cooking experience and adds a touch of rustic charm to your outdoor living space. We love these because they are perfect for creating Neapolitan-style pizzas with that coveted smoky flavour.
Pros of Wood-fired pizza ovens: Authentic tasting pizza with a crisp texture and smoky flavour, feel like a real outdoor chef cooking with fire.
Cons of a Wood-fired pizza oven: The rustic charm can turn into an ashy mess when its cold or wet, the need to fire up the oven using wood.
Gas-Powered Pizza Ovens: Convenience and Efficiency
Gas-powered pizza ovens offer a convenient and efficient way to enjoy outdoor pizza cooking. These ovens utilise gas burners as their heat source, providing instant and precise temperature control. With gas-powered ovens, you can quickly preheat the oven and start cooking without the need to tend to a fire like a wood-fired oven. They are often made of stainless steel or other durable materials and are designed for easy operation and maintenance.
Pros of Gas-powered ovens: ideal for those seeking a hassle-free pizza cooking experience without compromising on taste and quality, easy to keep clean and usually portable.
Cons of Gas-powered ovens: We find the need to change your gas bottle when empty means we don’t cook when it starts to get low for fear of running out, no smoky authentic taste to your pizza.
Outdoor Pizza Oven Features to Consider
When choosing an outdoor pizza oven, these are the key features we think you should consider:
- Size and Capacity: Determine the size and capacity of the oven based on your needs and the number of pizzas you plan to cook at once. Remember, if you’re entertaining you don’t really want to be cooking one pizza at-a-time so opt for capacity
- Material: Look for durable materials like brick, clay, stone, or stainless steel that can withstand high temperatures and provide excellent heat retention. The first 3 material might dictate how mobile the oven is so consider where you are going to put it before deciding on the material.
- Temperature Control: Consider ovens with built-in temperature gauges or control mechanisms to ensure precise cooking temperatures. an oven that doesn’t get up to temperature is going to cook slower and less effectively so knowing the optimum temperature is crucial.
- Insulation: Opt for ovens with proper insulation to retain heat and improve energy efficiency.
- Portability: If you want the flexibility to move your oven around, choose a portable model with wheels or a lightweight design. If mobility is what you want then you may need to compromise on material and size.
- Accessories: Some pizza ovens come with additional accessories like pizza peels, cooking stones, or thermometers to enhance your cooking experience. We would recommend allowing some extra budget for the stones, peels, cutters to help enhance your claim to being an outdoor pizza chef.
Benefits of Outdoor Pizza Ovens
Investing in an outdoor pizza oven offers numerous benefits, here are some we found during our exploration of pizza ovens:
- Versatility: Besides pizza, outdoor pizza ovens can be used to cook a wide range of dishes, including bread, roasted vegetables, meats, and even desserts.
- Enhanced Flavour: The high heat and even cooking of pizza ovens result in perfectly crispy crusts, melty cheese, and well-cooked toppings, enhancing the overall flavor and texture of your pizzas.
- Outdoor Entertainment: An outdoor pizza oven becomes a centrepiece for gatherings and social events, allowing you to entertain friends and family with delicious homemade pizzas. Once you’ve done cooking it turns into a fire pit (traditional non-gas ovens only)
- Cooking Experience: Using an outdoor pizza oven provides a unique and enjoyable cooking experience, allowing you to connect with the art of pizza making and experiment with different flavours and toppings. Plus, we love cooking outdoors whenever we can so this is a real plus for us!
- Increased Property Value: Adding an outdoor pizza oven to your outdoor living space can increase the value of your property and make it more appealing to potential buyers when built in a way that complements your outdoor living space. It can give potential buyers a vision of how they might live their outside life.
We think that outdoor pizza ovens offer a fantastic opportunity to elevate your outdoor cooking and create mouth-watering pizzas in the comfort of your own garden, patio, terrace or wherever.
Whether you choose a wood-fired oven for that authentic taste or a gas-powered oven for convenience, the joy of outdoor pizza cooking awaits. Consider the features, benefits, and your specific needs when selecting an outdoor pizza oven, and get ready to enjoy unforgettable pizza parties and culinary delights with your loved ones. So, fire up your oven and indulge in the magic of homemade pizzas in your outdoor oasis.
