An outdoor pizza oven might seem a luxury, but it can be the perfect addition to your backyard space for restaurant-quality pizzas! When you get an outdoor pizza oven, you won’t have to order and pay delivery fees for pizza again.
Investing in an outdoor pizza oven lets you make high-quality pizza anytime. All four types of outdoor pizza ovens cook restaurant-level pizza very quickly. Since outdoor ovens cook pizza in less than five minutes, you can host a pizza party without waiting long between cooked pizzas.
Not only does pizza cooked outside taste delicious but having an oven on the patio lets everyone make their own. Once you’ve identified the right oven for you, you’ll never choose pizza delivery again. Keep reading to see why you need to get an outdoor pizza oven.
Reasons To Get an Outdoor Pizza Oven
People who own pizza ovens swear by the taste and quality these ovens produce. Once you have baked a pizza in a wood-fired pizza oven, it could spoil you for all other pizzas. The taste of a pizza cooked in an outdoor oven has a fundamentally different flavor that you can’t replicate anywhere else.
Here are some reasons to get an outdoor pizza oven:
The Pizzas Baked in Outdoor Ovens Have a Distinct Texture and Flavour
An outdoor pizza oven will simultaneously bake a pizza in three different ways. From the unique shape of the oven to the fiery cooking temperatures, an outdoor pizza oven delivers a superior piece of pie.
- Conduction cooking is what gives you that perfectly crispy crust with soft doughy insides. The bricks or the liner of a steel pizza oven hold the temperature evenly, so each part of the pizza cooks flawlessly.
- Convection cooking circulates the heat, so the pizza cooks on all sides without having to turn it. The domed shape of the outdoor pizza oven lets the flames travel up the half-circle to distribute the heat through exceptional circulation.
- Radiant cooking happens when the dome and hot bricks send the heat back to the pizza. The intense heat produced as a result of radiant cooking ensures that the pizza cooks quickly, giving it the distinct charred, crispy crust.
You Can Flavor Your Pizza With the Wood That Fires the Oven
Like a smoker, when you change the wood that fires the pizza oven, you can taste a subtle difference in the flavor. Any hardwood is perfect for firing your outdoor pizza oven as long as it is very dry to produce little smoking. Here are some hardwoods to give your pizzas a subtle, delicious flavor.
- Cherry wood
- Applewood
- Oak
- Ash
- Peachwood
- Cherry wood
The Cooking Heat Stays Outside
Since the pizza oven is outdoors, the heat also stays there. On a hot summer day when you crave pizza, but the thought of turning on the oven is ruining your craving, you would likely order pizza delivery.
However, since the entire pizza-making and baking process stays outside with an outdoor pizza oven, you can enjoy restaurant-quality pizza at a fraction of the cost.
A side benefit of the outdoor pizza oven is that the pizza cooks in a few minutes, so you can feed a crowd quickly with customized pizza toppings.
Making and Cooking the Pizza Is an Experience
Going out to eat pizza or ordering pizza delivery is great, but spending time in the backyard talking and creating personalized pizza is an experience that leaves everyone with memories. Your friend and family can have a blast on pizza night and laugh about the crazy pizzas and flavor combinations they’ve tried.
Four Types of Outdoor Pizza Ovens
You will find four main types of ovens in your search for the right pizza oven. Each pizza oven functions in a specific way to bake pizza. The outdoor pizza oven is distinctly different from the indoor pizza oven.
Here are the four types and what they offer:
Outdoor Wood Pizza Oven
This outdoor pizza oven heats with wood to bake the pizzas quickly at a high temperature. You place the wood in the firebox and light it, where it burns until the temperature reaches around 750°F (398.88°C). The high temperature heats the bricks to cook the pizza, aided by an interior fan to circulate the heat evenly.
Outdoor Gas Pizza Oven
An outdoor gas pizza oven operates similarly to the wood-fired pizza oven, but the oven runs on propane or natural gas. In this oven, you use the exterior knob (like the ones on a gas grill) to turn the oven to the proper temperature. These pizza ovens have the advantage of technology and easy use to heat fast and cook pizzas quickly. They also have a dome shape to circulate the heat evenly.
Outdoor Coal Pizza Oven
The exterior walls of the coal-fired pizza oven have heat-proof fire brick with black steel that lines the entire interior of the oven. It has a steel door where you slide the pizza in and out. The coal pizza oven heats to 1,000°F (537.77°C) for the crispiest pizza crust of any oven. The coal pizza oven burns anthracite coal for a clean fire that gives a long burn time, and when the oven is ready, you push the coals to the side and cook the pizza on the oven floor.
Outdoor Stainless Steel Pizza Oven
The stainless steel outdoor pizza oven has the advantage of portability as it can be moved from the garage to an outdoor spot to cook and returned to the garage when done. It is easy to use and less expensive than other outdoor pizza ovens.
This oven type works by heat reflection, while different pizza ovens work by thermal induction. Because steel does not stay hot once the pizza oven is on, you might need to turn up the heat between pizzas as sliding in and out of the oven can lower the temperature.
Ensuring You Get a Perfect Pizza From the Pizza Oven
There is something magical about cooking and eating outside, as if somehow the food just tastes better. The heat emanating from the floor will crisp the outsides, while the heat from the dome will ensure the top cooks perfectly. Here is how to make sure your pizzas turn out flawless every time.
- Start the pizza oven at least an hour before you plan to cook. This gives the oven plenty of time to heat to the proper temperature to flash cook the pizzas without burning or undercooking them.
- An infrared gauge will help you attain the ideal temperature. Even a new pizza oven can be off in temperature, so this gauge will give an accurate reading for restaurant-style pizza.
- Only use very dry wood. Ash and oak are excellent for building a fire that burns consistently. Make sure to use only untreated wood since you don’t want chemicals ruining the taste and quality of your pizza.
- Turn the pizza three or four times for even cooking. The most expensive pizza ovens can have slightly uneven cooking due to lower temperatures in some areas. Turning the pizzas ensures each part of the pizza cooks well.
Conclusion
If you eat pizza regularly, you shouldn’t consider a pizza oven a luxury but a necessity. There’s no question that the pizzas made in an outdoor pizza oven are miles beyond any pizza you can get. You can have delicious, customized pizza right in your backyard.
