The house came with a 650kg “Portugese” pizza oven which was apparelyly placed insitu with a crane. Personally, I would have bought one of those stainless gas jobs however we have it so we use it and love it. Takes 2 hours to get up to heat, no biggie since we only use it when we have six or eight people here for a meal. Not worth firing up just for the Missus and me. A helluva lot of fun though. We have a large outdoor talble adjacent to the oven so it’s all part of the entertainment for the meal seeing the pizzas flying in and out of the oven. The oven get to over 500c and the pizzas need no more than 90 seconds to be perfect (thin crust type pizzas) which always amazes our visitors. Even better, when our sons are here they take it over and do a much better job than me.

All in all, for us the pizza oven is really worth having.

I agree with @tompoland a pizza oven is absolutely worth it. I have a 12” Ooni gas jobbie that works really well and would recommend it. If you have a gas hob though, you can get very good results just with your regular oven and a pizza steel.

These two were done in my oven. The trick is to cook your pizzas on a piece of 6-8mm steel cut to the size of your oven, or a thick cast-iron saute pan. I think mine cost about £20 from a steel fabricator I found online. Heat it up for a good 5-10 minutes directly on the hottest burner on your gas hob, and you should be able to get it up to at least 300-400’C.

Once it’s at temperature I put the base directly on the steel and cook it for about a minute, then add sauce and toppings, and put it under a hot grill for another couple of minutes or so until cooked, each pizza taking around 4-5 minutes to cook. It works well, and gives almost as good results as with my Ooni. I struggle to get the cheese melted in the same way though, you can see it’s melted but not browned on the oven pizza. It’s almost there, but it is a lot more work than using a dedicated pizza oven.

Here’re a couple done on the Ooni, which is literally a two-minute cook and very straightforward. You can see the improved cheese browning and better colouration on the crust.

The difference between an oven/hob pizza and one done on the Ooni is less about finished product and more about consistency and workflow. To my mind it probably shares some similarity with using a manual espresso machine such as a Robot and a machine like an LM. One is fire and forget, the other needs a little more work to get there, you can make great coffee on either of them.

Decent DE1 • Mazzer Philos

    Might be worth having a quick look into pricing/availability on gas locally too so you can factor it all in.

    I know round here recently some shops were limiting gas to refills only and new containers weren’t being sold.

    JammyDodger

    I do similar but have a Silverwood baking tray made for an Aga, it’s extra thick aluminium that I put in the oven at max temp to preheat. I make the pizza on a thin baking tray that I use as a peel and just slide from the prep tray to the hot one. I take the preheated one out the oven briefly as it makes it easier to transfer.

      My advice is don’t buy anything that isn’t Ooni or Rocbox. I own the original pellet Ooni, however I will eventually get round to buying a Gozney Rocbox to cook with gas as pellets add nothing but extra work. If you can justify it, buy the Gozney Dome which is endgame and then never buy another outdoor oven.

      Either way I’d say treat this like home espresso aka a hobby, it took me a good while improve technique and consistently turn out decent pizzas. I’ve burnt a lot of pizzas at 500c and had a lot of bases stick and become disasters!

      I really rate this book for dough recipes, the overnight proved doughs are much easier to handle and stretch

      The weather over here isn’t always condusive to outside pizza ovens so ooni have come up with this…for indoor and outdoor use and from all the reviews I’ve seen on YouTube it seems as good as gas or wood fired pizza ovens, and just as quick to cook a pizza (90 seconds to 2 minutes). Only thing missing is the taste of smoke, oh and you have to be satisfied with 12 inches.


      Found the 16 inch gas only Ooni for £435. Think that’s what I’ll go for

        dutchy101

        That’s exactly the one I’m going to get also. I forgot to say you get the added benefit of sort of two fuel rails on the 16. It’s like a right angle rail so the flame is on two sides.

        Also whilst I wouldn’t recommend indoor use, you also haven’t got to worry about a chimney on the Koda 16.

          We have the Koda 16 and its great.

          I also noticed a big difference in using decent ingredients (similar to coffee!) and currently use Mutti tomatoes and Caputo flour although we have used others.

          Also you need a ‘peel’ - the perforated metal ooni is pricey but works well for us.

          Then (similar to coffee!) there’s more accessories to buy - lazer thermometers etc

          Enjoy!

          Yeah another vote for Caputo flour! The Pizzeria flour is great for the dough and the semola for shaping the pizza and getting it into the oven. Also far easier to clean up than regular flour.

          Fave tomatoes are either La Fiammante or Casa Marrazzo.

          Another +1 to gas. Game changer getting the gas conversion for my Ooni.

          And yes it’s great making your own dough but the frozen ones that come in box of 2 in supermarkets are very good for emergency or for just a couple of pizzas and with good ingredients on top and cooked well it’s hard to tell vs hand made. Still hand make for big pizza parties.

          I would like to upgrade to get a better shape and less issues with wind.

            simonc I would like to upgrade to get a better shape and less issues with wind.

            It sounds like you may be having too many carbs?

            Decent DE1 • Mazzer Philos

              Ooni 16 inch gas oven currently reduced to £425 in Lakeland. I get a 15% student discount through work so it’s £360. Trigger pulled.

              Got a 16 inch paddle off ebay for £22.

              All set. Absolute result

              Enjoy Dutchy! Don’t forget to show us the results 🤤

              (ps Captuo is now available on Ocado - in the past I’ve had to drive round the country or split 25kg bags & as above La Fiammante San Marzano tomato’s are 👌)

              5 days later

              Great looking pizzas particularly as it’s the first time you’ve used the oven! Think my first ones looked like burnt toast 😂