Cooking With the Best Outdoor Pizza Ovens

In the late aughts, Ooni revolutionized homemade pizza-making when it introduced the first outdoor, portable pizza oven.

- By Bradley Ford

Since then, with popularity soaring, it's been hard to keep up with the number of new pizza-oven brands and models. Testing them, we've learned as much about making pizza as we have about the ovens used to cook them-and in the process we've made pizza night an event the entire family looks forward to.

HOW WE TESTED

Before testing these pizza ovens, we heated them each for 30 minutes to season them and burn off any oils or contaminants from manufacturing, then let them cool completely. Firing up each oven on High, using their propane burners for 15 minutes, we measured the temperatures on the pizza stones with an infrared thermometer. Then, we made pizza in the ovens, using the same dough for every pie. This ensured that any difference in how the pizza cooked came from the ovens, not the recipe. For fuel, we burned propane and oak firewood (for the models that burn wood). During cooking, we noted how well each oven performed, the differences between them, and their ease of use. Finally, and most enjoyably, we assessed (read: ate) the pizza.

THE CASE FOR PIZZA OVENS

I had never seriously considered a dedicated pizza oven because, frankly, the cost seemed a bit excessive. Being a test editor is keeping an open mind, though, and testing these ovens changed everything. I learned how easy it is to make the best-tasting, and looking, pizza ever. I haven't had take-out pizza since.