Outdoor pizza ovens FAQs
Types of pizza oven
You’ll have a choice between wood-fired, gas and multi-fuel pizza ovens – the latter gives the option of wooden pellets, charcoal and gas attachments for optimum temperature control.
Pizza oven care and maintenance
You won’t need to worry about cleaning the inside part of your wood-fired oven, as the temperatures inside get so high that bacteria won’t be able to survive.
Even just using water can damage the oven, so this is best avoided. Any bits of food or spillages will be burnt to ash anyway, which you can then sweep away with a brush or remove with a vacuum. Make sure to do this after each use, as built up ash will make your food more likely to burn. If you go for an oven with a chimney, it’s also a good idea to sweep this out at least once a year.
To clean the pizza stone, gently scrape off any food before using a minimal amount of hot water and a brush to get rid of any remaining stains. Again, cleaning chemicals should be avoided here, as they may soak into the stone and transfer into your food while cooking.
To keep the outside of the oven looking its best, smudges and fingerprints can be removed from stainless steel with a damp cloth, before being polished with a microfiber cloth. To reduce the likelihood of cracks in a stone or brick oven, you should heat it up for a few hours before using it. Finally, it’s recommended you invest in a pizza oven cover to protect it from the good old British weather and keep upkeep to a minimum.
What to look for in a pizza oven
The most important thing is heat – can it reach the correct temperature (usually around 500C) fast enough? It may seem obvious, but you will also need to make sure it’s the right size; will it fit through the doorway; do the dimensions work with the outside space you have available?
Finally, go for a metal oven if you’re planning on doing more speedy cooking over a shorter period, as although they tend to heat up quicker, they are less effective at retaining heat.
Types of pizza oven accessories
While accessories aren’t always necessary, there are a number of different gadgets you can buy to improve your pizza oven experience, including a pizza peel – the shovel-like tool you use to take your dough in and out of the oven. Other accessories you might like to invest in are BBQ oven gloves to prevent burns, an electric fire starter, which allows you to easily light your charcoal or wood, and a thermometer gun, which measures the radiating temperature inside the pizza oven.
What else can you cook in a pizza oven?
Pizza ovens are great multitaskers. You’ll be able to rustle up roasted vegetables, baked or grilled fish, steak, jacket potatoes, smoked and barbecued meats and even freshly made bread.
The verdict: Pizza ovens
When it comes to the Witt Etna rotante pizza oven, we had one of those “I didn’t know I needed it, until I got it” moments. Awarded the full five stars with good reason, the simple addition of the revolving stone takes all the guesswork out of producing delicious pizza time and time again. Each pizza we pulled out had a wonderfully even bake and the oven ensures all the hard work you’ve put into your prep doesn’t go up in smoke.
If you’re looking to take your oven on the road, we find it hard to choose between the and the Gozney roccbox. The former may just win it thanks to its mobility because of its brilliantly compact design and the latter maintains its reputation for wonderfully tasty, no-turn pizza, thanks to its long, rolling flame.
Finally, an honourable mention has to go to the Ooni volt 12 for its mains-powered versatility, which means kitchen pizza doesn’t have to come out of the freezer, as you can combine fresh dough and fresh ingredients to produce pizzeria-grade food.
For more kitchen accessories, read our review of the best slow cookers
