I spent weeks testing popular at-home pizza tools, from a simple steel slab to a high-end outdoor oven. Here’s what I found was worth the money, no matter your budget.
The price range for at-home pizza gear is as wide as the topping choices. On the affordable end, there is the humble carbon-steel slab that slides into the oven you already own. At the other extreme is a hulking hybrid oven that burns propane or wood and becomes the centrepiece of your outdoor cooking setup.
For the budget option, I chose a pizza steel over a cheaper pizza stone. Made from carbon steel, a pizza steel is virtually indestructible, conducts heat far better than a stone and excels at producing a crisp, charred crust. The main drawback: it preheats slowly, requiring about an hour at 500F (260C).
A step up is a dedicated countertop electric pizza oven. Unlike a pizza steel, a good electric oven can reach temperatures around 800F in just minutes, allowing for a Neapolitan-style pizza almost as soon as you crave one. The tradeoff is price: these ovens can cost as much as $700.
At the top end is the outdoor pizza oven, usually fuelled by gas, though some models burn wood chunks or pellets. These ovens can reach temperatures well above 800F, and many have room for between one and three 12in pizzas at a time, making them ideal for entertaining.
To test, I used standard supermarket bread flour, canned tomatoes, olive oil and mozzarella, preparing batch after batch of the same pizza dough. Each pizza was consistently sized at about 12 to 13in, and I carefully measured the sauce and cheese to ensure every pie received the same amount of toppings.
