Home Pizza Oven Guide
How to choose the right pizza oven!
WOOD FUELLED PIZZA OVENS
GAS FUELLED OVENS
HYBRID PIZZA OVENS
PIZZA PEEL GUIDE
How to choose the right home pizza oven!
Price and size of the oven.
Choosing the right home pizza oven should be driven by your love of baking and desire to make the best possible pizza at home, but clearly (and practically), there are obvious factors to consider. First and foremost is the cost of an oven. Pizza ovens on our site range in price (starting at £249.99 up to £5875), mainly dictated by fuel type, inclusion of a stand and the number of pizzas you want to make within each cooking session. Most ovens accommodate 1 to 2 pizzas cooking alongside one another but others can cook up to 6 at a time. This may be excessive for the average family but not if you bake pizzas for large groups on a regular basis or you are a pizza trader or a small catering business. You may feel that cooking one or two pizzas at a time is fine and adds to the sociable experience of preparing food for your family and guests while sipping a cold beer, in which case, you should consider the Alfa Forni One, or the Alfa Forni 5 Minuti. If you’re looking to bake 4 pizzas or more, check out the Alfa Forni 4 Pizze or the Alfa Allegro.
Heat, weight and portability.
All our ovens get seriously hot. The perfect temperature to bake a pizza is 450C and all ovens on the site surpass this. Using the right fuel helps too, for wood fuelled ovens we recommend using silver birch logs as they light easily, burn to a high temperature and do not smoke a great deal. Getting the right temperature is crucial and maintaining a high heat helps deliver a consistent and successful bake. Whilst pellet fuelled ovens are great, managing the feed of pellets and keeping a high heat is sometimes tricky.
Wood, gas or hybrid?
Each fuel type has its advantages and it really comes down to what you feel is the most important part of baking a pizza. A wood fired oven infuses the pizza with a delicious aromatic, smoky taste that you identify with authentic Italian pizzas, however, the heating time to get the fire to the optimal temperature is around 45 mins (depending on the time year and outdoor temperature). If speed of heating your oven is important, go for gas. The flavour is still great but not as intense as a wood fired oven. If you want the luxury of both a wood fired and gas oven, a hybrid is the one you want. To see all our ovens with these 3 categories, here’s link to all:
If you’re still unsure, please email us us or call 0300 030 1077, we’d be happy to answer your questions.
What do you need to get going?
Once you’ve decided which oven is right for you, it’s best to choose a few accessories to help aid the baking and eating process! Here’s a short-list of recommended items to get you going:
- Choose a few cooking accessories to help prepare your dough and perhaps a cutter to slice your pizza once cooked.
- Choose a peel. This is important. Check out our guide to choosing the right peel for you.
- Order wood to fuel your oven such as silver birch.
- Treat yourself with a decent bottle of olive oil for dressings and topping your pizza.
What makes the perfect pizza?
Having all the kit helps but doesn’t necessarily mean that the taste of your dough will be perfect too, however, we can help here too! We’ve partnered with Dough and Glory who make the best pre-made pizza dough around (they supply top pizza restaurants around the UK!). That said, there are pizza dough recipes galore out there, and one from Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana dictates exactly how to make the perfect pizza dough is definitely worth trying. Be brave, experiment, test and learn!
Pizza toppings create all manner of debate but in our opinion, keep it simple. The tomato sauce is key and where you can, use marzano tomatoes – they’re simply the best! Here are ideas to try: