Our 9 Favourite Pizza Ovens: Wooden, Gasoline, Electrical, and Grill (2025)

Contents

Who We Are and How We Examined AccordionItemContainerButton WIRED reviewer Adrienne So has examined many pizza ovens and made greater than a thousand pizzas over the previous seven years. WIRED reviewer Matthew Korfhage is a longtime meals author who’s written about pizza on each coasts over 15 years, from sausage slices in Portland to the story of Mexican pizza in Philadelphia. We take a look at every pizza oven over the course of some weeks, utilizing do-it-yourself dough (Adrienne likes Ooni’s basic pizza dough recipe), recent dough procured from native pizzerias, store-bought recent dough, and frozen pizzas. We use infrared thermometers to ensure the temperature of the cooking floor is constant (and is what the built-in thermometer says it’s). The place related, we additionally cross-check built-in thermometers on every oven in opposition to our personal ambient thermometers. Pizza ovens are additionally fairly a bit extra versatile than you may assume. Over years of testing, Adrienne has used her pizza ovens to sear steaks, quick-cook salmon, and pan-fry broccoli. Matthew has air fried wings in a pizza oven, grilled pork chops, charred asparagus, and blackened hen. AccordionItemContainerButton It is taken me a few years, and lots of 1000’s of pizzas, to refine my pizza-making method. And to be sincere, my Neapolitan-style pizzas do not actually meet the usual set by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, the world authority on Neapolitan pizzas. (Ooni pizza ovens, together with earlier fashions of our top-rated Karu 2, are the one fashions we advocate that the AVPN has additionally really useful.) However over time, I’ve collected a number of ideas for these of you who discover making a pizza to be a bit of bit awkward or intimidating. If you happen to’ve refrigerated your dough, carry it to room temperature first. Sprinkle flour or cornmeal generously on the peel earlier than you assemble your pizza. Be affected person and stretch it from the within out. It’s dishonest, however I additionally am responsible of utilizing a tiny rolling pin ($10) to assist me get the dough as skinny as attainable. An genuine Neapolitan pie will use a number of particular components. Whenever you’re making your personal dough, attain for 00 flour, which is milled particularly for pizza and pasta. Recent mozzarella will make your pizza damp, so I exploit a mixture of recent and shredded, low-moisture cheese for the cheesiest, meltiest pie. If you happen to’re not sticking to a strictly Neapolitan recipe, we even have a number of favourite pies we might wish to advocate. Cizmar and I like a very good Buffalo pie with Frank’s Crimson Sizzling and pickles. I additionally lately tried Brightland’s Pizza Oil in a squeeze bottle; whereas it is good as a ending sauce to drizzle over pies, you may make your personal for less expensive by placing olive oil and herbs in a squeeze bottle. Pizza ovens are extra versatile than you may assume: I cook dinner every thing from salmon to steak to hen thighs in mine by preheating a forged iron pan in a scorching oven and popping the meals proper in. For extra steering, Ooni has a cookbook; chef Francis Mallman’s books are additionally a very good supply of inspiration. —Adrienne So AccordionItemContainerButton Is your patio already occupied by a large Traeger? Your grill or smoker in all probability has a pizza attachment which you can purchase for lower than a brand new oven. Senior director Martin Cizmar’s favourite is the Yoder Smoker wood-fired oven attachment ($499), which has saved him from many an evening of pellet fireplace flameouts. It sits underneath the smoker’s hood, atop a metal sheet that sits over the firebox. The sheet is a diffuser and has holes of accelerating dimension as you progress away from the fireplace in order that the part farthest from the flame will get extra publicity. The design gives a constant temperature alongside the oven’s ground, and it really works effectively, with the farthest corners of the oven nonetheless cresting 650 levels Fahrenheit. You too can flip your regular, indoor oven right into a pizza oven. Whereas most ovens max out at 500 levels Fahrenheit, one strategy to impart extra warmth to your pizza is by pre-heating a baking floor with a excessive thermal mass—which can preserve temperature stability and immediately ship its stored-up warmth power. A straightforward manner to do that is by pre-heating a cast-iron pan or baking metal. A basic Lloyd pan is one most well-liked instrument for Detroit- or Sicilian-style pan pizza, which work effectively in typical ovens. A number of of our favourite grill and pizza oven producers, like Kamado and Weber, additionally make ceramic pizza stones. Try our information to the Finest Transportable Grills and Grill Equipment for extra. Honorable Mentions Additionally Examined The Finest Equipment

Honorable Mentions

We have tried a number of pizza ovens. Listed below are a number of that we favored that did not fairly make the minimize.

Small pizza oven sitting on a black shelf outdoors beside a house

Ooni Karu, First Version for $349: Ooni continues to be promoting the earlier technology oven of WIRED’s high choose, the Karu 2, for about $100 much less. Like different Ooni pizza ovens, O.G. Karu is a superb oven—mild, moveable, and straightforward to scrub—and WIRED reviewer Adrienne So could not cease utilizing the factor after first testing it. Nonetheless the newer Karu 2 heats extra evenly, and holds extra gasoline than the first-generation oven.

Ooni Koda 12 for $399: The unique Ooni Koda 12 (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is a mere 21 kilos, making it probably the most mild and moveable Koda. Its skinny, powder-coated metal shell insulates effectively sufficient that it stays cool to the contact, even when the fireplace is burning. Simply slide within the baking stone, screw on the propane tank, and also you’re able to go. The door matches 12-inch pizza peels and 10-inch cast-iron skillets. Nonetheless, you need to not retailer it outdoors.

Gozney Roccbox for $499: When Adrienne So first reviewed the dual-fuel Gozney Roccbox (5/10, WIRED Assessment), she praised the quick restoration time that has made the Roccbox common amongst pizza pop-up cooks, permitting her to make 10 pies in lower than half-hour when cooking pizza with propane. That stated, few house pizza makers want such throughput, and the 44-pound system is heavier than different opponents. The optionally available woodbox was oppressively tough to make use of, for individuals who need the flexibility to cook dinner with fireplace. However the Gozney’s value, beforehand among the many most costly entrants, now appears fairly cheap.

Ninja Wooden-Fired Oven for $300: If you happen to’re searching for a remarkably sturdy and versatile out of doors oven, that is a fairly good choose with a high temperature of 700 levels. The door is a bit of sticky which makes baking pizza at excessive warmth a bit of difficult, however if you would like one system that may do every thing from smoke a pork shoulder to make muffins to bake a pizza pie, that is your choose.

The Piezano for $99: This TikTok-popular oven is reasonably priced, small, and handy. It appears to be like a bit of like a waffle iron, and comes with helpful double paddles for simpler placement. Astonishingly, its claims of heating the highest and backside components to 800 levels Fahrenheit are correct, and it takes about quarter-hour, which permits for brief cook dinner occasions. However observe the heating component on the high does not cowl the entire floor space, so you need to rotate your pies fairly steadily. Additionally, opening the highest like a waffle maker implies that it does not retain warmth very effectively. It dropped by 100 to 200 levels between pies and requires a little bit of restoration time.

Additionally Examined

Image may contain Appliance Device Electrical Device Microwave Oven Adult and Person

Present Yard Mannequin P for $699: No much less a TV meals personage than Alton Brown has signed on as an endorser of this 1,750-watt electrical indoor/out of doors pizza oven, which can warmth to 850 levels Fahrenheit utilizing a regular energy outlet. Warmth is comparatively even throughout the oven, and it will stand up to high temp in round half-hour. However cook dinner settings are constrained to a couple preset ranges (New-York fashion, skinny crust, Neapolitan, frozen), whose temps and cooking occasions is usually a bit fussy to fiddle with: No less than throughout early months, the app and on-device controls have a tendency to supply extra quirks than performance. Show temp and precise temp do not all the time match, and its high thermal components activate and off just like the lights in a David Lynch film in accordance towhat the corporate calls a proprietary algorithm. You can also make an important pizza on this factor, and you may make it indoors. Present says it plans so as to add extra features and cooking modes in future updates, and we’ll hold testing. Nevertheless it feels lower than totally baked for the time being, particularly at its value.

Pizzacraft Pizzaque for $130: This oven is cute and reasonably priced, and you may stand it in your driveway and cook dinner a very good pizza whereas sitting in your camp chair. Nonetheless, it simply does not get as scorching or cook dinner as evenly as a better-insulated oven does.

The Finest Equipment

Some pizza ovens give you proprietary equipment to set you in your pizza path. However I’ve additionally discovered a number of extras to be useful alongside the way in which:

A handheld infrared thermometer for $47: Even when the oven has a built-in thermometer, a handheld infrared thermometer is an effective way to test the temperature on completely different areas of the pizza stone. It is also necessary to ensure the stone has time to reheat after every pizza.

A picket pizza peel for $34: If you happen to personal a number of peels, it is fast and straightforward to prep one pizza whereas one other is baking. WIRED reviewers Adrienne So and Matthew Korfhage every personal a number of peels, together with a helpful small turning peel. However for launching, the dough is way much less prone to stick on a picket peel, particularly in case you first sprinkle on some semolina or flour.

A cast-iron skillet for $25: You too can use a cast-iron pan in your pizza oven to sear steaks or pan-roast broccoli. Lodge’s pans work simply as effectively as far more costly choices.

Warmth-resistant gloves for $20: That forged iron will get extraordinarily scorching, so you will additionally want a very good pair of mitts. (Even these will not defend your arms for lengthy, so you will want a spot close to the oven to set the pan down.)

Hearth starters for $20: If you happen to’ve ever been intimidated by the thought of cooking with wooden, do not be! These fireplace starters make it fast and easy. Simply mild the top with a match, drop it within the gasoline tray, and line up a number of oak sticks on high. You’ll want to hold your wooden dry in case you do not wish to create a smoke stack in your yard.