The traditional and most popular type. They require the most patience and skill, as they usually take longer to get up to temperature than gas, and need almost constant attention to get the flames to the right size and consistency. The weather outside is frightful—oh, and inside too, since we’re home for Thanksgiving and our Boomer parents for some reason insist on keeping the thermostat at 57 degrees. You know what would hit the spot and warm our weary bones? A hot, cheesy Neapolitan pizza topped with fresh mozz, guanciale, and spicy honey. LGIG—let’s get it going! Sustainably sourced wood logs are available. Where possible, we'd suggest buying these for a reduced environmental impact. Charcoal pizza ovens In each pizza oven, we cook three of the most popular types of pizza – margherita, pepperoni and veggie – to see what results we get when cooking with a variety of textures and flavours.

Honestly, get an Ooni for yourself, and your life will absolutely improve (since the pizza will be flowing year-round), but give an Ooni as a gift, and you’re the GOAT. Keep a consistent temperature 400°C is usually ideal for cooking pizza, but it can vary depending on what type of pizza you're cooking. A consistent heat will cook your pizzas evenly and keep them from burning unexpectedly.Propane burns hotter than butane and is therefore the preferred gas for use with pizza ovens. The majority are propane-only, but some work with butane too. Wood-fired pizza ovens Try other dishes too Pizza isn't the only thing these ovens are good for. If you have cookware that can handle the heat, there are endless possibilities – try roasting a joints of meat, steaming a pot of mussels or even baking bread.

They're often able to cook up a range of different pizza types and require very little tending unlike those that cook with an open flame. These are made to sit on top of a gas or charcoal barbecue, and are usually made up of a simple metal box with a pizza stone inside. They heat up from below using the barbecue grill. It adds plenty of extra flavour and can help to bring a slow-burning stability to the heat the oven, but charcoal burns so slowly that you can’t easily top up the fire with more of it when the heat dies down, so it shouldn't be used on its own. You'll also likely find that a BBQ pizza oven is a slower cook than other oven types. It won't cook pizzas in 90 seconds flat like some freestanding ovens do, and because the heat source is below the pizza stone, the stone is often much hotter than the rest of the oven.Bristle brush Especially useful for wood-fired ovens where ash is likely, a tough bristle brush is handy for removing ash from the pizza stone ready for cooking, as well as for cleaning out your oven after use. Turning peel This smaller paddle has a rounded edge to help you slide it under one side of the pizza and turn it while it's cooking, without the need to take it out. This peel is a handy tool, but it's not essential like the standard pizza peel.

This can result in pizzas with very crispy bases and underdone tops. You might need to use a pizza peel to hold your pizza aloft in the oven for a while to help the top catch up with how well done the base is. Electric pizza ovens Rotate it regularly The strongest heat usually comes from one direction, especially in gas and wood-fired ovens. You'll want to rotate the pizza a few times during cooking to make sure it cooks evenly. Once every 30 seconds is a good rule of thumb, but keep an eye on it while it cooks.

When getting the flames going, heating the oven to temperature and cooking pizzas, we note any design elements or features that impact our cooking experience. Time to reach cooking temperature Pizza cutter A good pizza cutter is key for slicing up and serving your pizza. The larger the circular blade, the better. This prevents the pizza cutter from moving your toppings around and makes it easier to cut through extra-puffy pizza crusts. They often take up a lot of kitchen counter space, though, and cooking at such high temperatures can still have smoky results and be problematic when cooking indoors.