Do I want a pizza oven?

I’m considering building a pizza oven into the corner of the garden. There are plenty of guides on how to build one but I’m interested if those that have them actually regularly use them? I know you CAN cook bread and roasts in them but does anyone actually bother?

Are there any downsides or maintenance issues?

Thank you for your advice.

How often do you eat pizza?

I sometimes think about this, making one of the ‘two terracotta pot’ ones, but then I think it’d be nice to do, we’d enjoy it when we did use it but we’d rarely, rarely use it. They’re the fondue sets of outdoor living I reckon.

Do I want a pizza oven?

You obviously do.

Middle class bling, unless you genuinely live on pizza and are happy to cook outdoors 12 months of the year.

You could try a fancy pizza slab thing to put inside your indoors oven.

I considered it but then thought just how much pizza can I eat in one sitting?

Fire up the pizza oven well in advance to heat through properly, make up the dough, spread all the toppings on, cook 2 – 3 pizza in a few minutes and then put out the fire.

It seems a lot of faff and incredibly wasteful unless you are going to be cooking 10-20 pizza per session

It seems a lot of faff and incredibly wasteful unless you are going to be cooking 10-20 pizza per session

I agree, but on the other hand we are using our firepit a lot. I was thinking that I could move the burning logs out of the oven and use them in the firepit once the pizza is cooked.

Our oven is a very small thing that just doesn’t get very hot.

Do you make you’re own pizza at the moment? I’d say there’s way more potential for improvement by the method, rather than the machine, sort of a MTB type analogy!

My sourdough firepit pizzas have been good but I just can’t get the top hot enough to get that charred crunchy effect.

firepit

sourdough

look, what are you asking us lot on here for? just get on and build the thing!

Yes

Cheers guys.
Thank you for arriving at the correct answer for me 🙂

Yes!
We’ve had ours nearly 3 years now and use it fairly often for pizzas but also anything from roasts, burgers and steaks etc.
The one we have is insulated, so thick insulated base below the floor of the oven, then a very thick layer of what is like loft insulation, then render. It retains the heat for up to 24 hours after cooking. So after pizzas we can pop on a slow cooked joint and leave overnight for the next day.
I’d say it sometime is a lot of hassle to fire up, even worse on cold or damp days as the oven takes longer to heat up. However, pizzas taste great, excellent for entertaining when friends and family are round.

gas for the ease

Our Uuni/ooni portable one (on gas) gets plenty of use, but it’s easy to fire up, get hot in 20 mins and cook. Plus we’re veggie so it’s what we do instead of bbqs when the weather is good.

A couple of friends have proper ovens they’ve built – they’re great when you have dozens of friends over for a party but all the time and prep to get it ready is too much for a family meal. One now bought a gas-fired ooni to use for that.

I make my own pizzas from scratch at least once a week. But i just use a pizza stone and have the oven on max (leave it for 40mins at least to get stone really hot). Pizzas are pretty much perfect so no real need for an outside oven.

and are happy to cook outdoors 12 months of the year

I had my first BBQ on new years day and at least one a week since, so reading that line I thought, ooh, that’s me.

There are some cool self build approaches using balance balls and stuff for shaping, personally I just (literally arrived yesterday) went with a ooni as I can’t work out where I’d build one in the garden and it’d require more work than I’m likely to bother with.

+1 for an Ooni or similar.. quicker (and better) pizzas than in the oven and portable enough to take away on holiday etc.

Still waiting for my Ooni and being an over they don’t just cook pizza.

I have a Roccbox which gets used every week so yes you may want to have a look at a Kamado as an alternative to a Pizza oven.

Yes I do very regularly use one – but only because it takes 15 minutes to heat up rather than an hour or two.

You do.
I bought one of the tall ones from Aldi two years back. Was looking forward to using it now the weather’s here, but then noticed it’s got a pair of great tits nesting in the chimney (stoppit at the back…).
Good job I clocked them flitting back and forth before chucking in and lighting the charcoal otherwise it may have been a slightly different pizza topping that I’d imagined. It’s used sporadically in the summer, not at all in winter. Cost about £60 iirc. It’s now out of action for the foreseeable…

to be honest, if I had the space in the corner of my garden I wouldn’t build a permanent pizza oven, but a decent, weatherproof, covered ‘kitchen area.
something out of bricks with a granite top.
I’d then invest in an ooni gas oven (waddya know.. I’ve got one! ) and a decent Weber BBQ of a size that fit my needs (ooh… one of them too) and then simply use the DECENT outdoor work space with the ooni/weber/both on it.

you’ll get much more use from it, and will be much more versatile.

not sure if the cost would be equal, but I personally think it’d be better..

DrP

You also need a paella ring Dr P.

No point having an al fresco kitchen and only going half way.

If you own a trampoline and an inflatable sex pond then a pizza oven is the next logical step to reaching peak middle-class.

I think you’ll find the middle classes have fully built in and plumbed sex ponds. Inflatable sex ponds are for the council estate types.

Ooni?

Have you seen how much those things cost? I’m not that middle class.

The agro-tourism place we stayed at in Italy last year (trying v hard to achieve peak STW in this post) had a big brick pizza oven. They invited the 8 families staying onsite, to free pizza and drinks one night which was great. They did however start the fire up over three hours before trying to cook in it…so lots of wood, planning ahead and on that basis I decided whilst a nice idea it wasn’t for me.

If you own a trampoline and an inflatable sex pond then a pizza oven is the next logical step to reaching peak middle-class.

Stw middle classes. – bagged vw t5 surely.

Anyway do it. Pizza oven is miles apart from a stone in your house oven. Twice as hot for a start and it makes a huge difference.

Would I build a wood fired one….nope

Gas ftw. Just like the bbq the gas stuff just gets used more often as it requires much less fannying around.

Something like a blaze box for the bbq is a reasonable option by the way. Cheaper and 90% of the performance with (on a gas bbq) 5%of the faff.

My wife bought a pizza oven that sits on the worktop. It is fantastic. Heats up in minutes and produces great pizza in no time.

it is by far the best pizza we’ve made at home and we’ve been making pizza for a very long time. Admittedly it doesn’t have the Smokey flavour of a wood oven, but it doesn’t take all day to get up to temperature.

Something like a blaze box for the bbq is a reasonable option by the way.

Interesting that the temperature gauge only goes to 450c … When an ooni is ready to cook when the stone is >500c!

Have you seen how much those things cost?

£250 – bearing in mind all my holiday plans are cancelled, I’ve not been out to a pub or restaurant in months and I’m unlikely to be for several months I think I’m worth it! I appreciate I am also lucky enough to still be employed at the moment (as is my wife).

but it doesn’t take all day to get up to temperature.

30 minutes for the Ooni, so hardly all day.

To be fair 50c is nothing once you have graduated from the confines of the house oven being 250.

30 minutes for the Ooni, so hardly all day.

was referring to a wood oven

The Ooni looks great, but we were after something that we could use indoors.

the one we have is made by breville and as my memory tells me, they have a long history in the fancy cheese on toast maker.

edit –  to answer the original question, yes!

I use my ooni indoors… haven’t died yet..

DrP

was referring to a wood oven

30 mins is the wood ooni.

The gas ones 15.

To be fair 50c is nothing once you have graduated from the confines of the house oven being 250.

What I meant was that, like car speedometers, it the temperature guages range is 50-450c then it’s very likely the max temp it will reach is probably in the region of 3-350c

Got one of these bad boys – awesome for pizza and pretty tidy as a bbq too, especially with the dome on. Plus it weighs less than 10kg – I’ve taken it on a bike ride before 🙂