FAQ
Do I need to buy a pizza oven to make great pizza?
No — and I say that as someone with three oven classes on the bench. A 6mm pizza steel in your kitchen oven with the broiler running is a credible NY-style machine and the benchmark I keep publishing against the specialty ovens. What a dedicated oven buys you is the 60-90 second Neapolitan bake a home oven physically can’t reach. Get the steel first, learn dough and launching on it, and buy the oven when you actually crave what only it can do.
Gas or wood — does wood really taste better?
I’ve run this exact test more times than I can count: same dough batch, gas on one side of the night, wood on the other, in a dual-fuel dome. At 90-second bake times the flavor difference is far smaller than the internet insists — the pie simply isn’t in the smoke long enough. Wood buys you a ritual, a flame to manage, and slightly different heat behavior. Those are real things worth paying for if you want them. “Authentic wood-fired flavor” at Neapolitan speed is mostly mythology, and I’ll keep saying so.
What hydration should a beginner start with?
62-65%. Wet enough to get real oven spring, dry enough that your hands can learn the craft without the dough learning your forearms. The 70%+ doughs you see on social media are camera-friendly and beginner-hostile. Move up a point or two per batch once your launches stop sticking — my dough log says hydration mistakes cause more ruined bakes than any oven shortcoming.
Why does my pizza stick to the peel?
Three causes, in order of frequency: the dough sat on the peel too long (build fast, launch faster), too little flour or semolina under the base, and over-wet dough for your skill level. The fix that changed everything for me: the shake test — a quick jiggle of the peel before you commit. If it doesn’t slide, lift the edge, throw flour under, and go. Hesitation at the launch is how toppings end up welded to the stone.
What stone temperature should I launch at?
Check the stone with an IR thermometer — never the air, never the clock. For Neapolitan-style in a hot dome oven: 380-430°C. For NY-style on a steel in a home oven: 290-320°C with the broiler doing the top. If your bases burn before the top finishes, the stone is too hot or too conductive for your style — that’s the problem a gentler biscotto stone solves in 450°C electrics.
How long should I cold-ferment dough?
24 hours minimum, 48 as the sweet spot, 72 if your flour is strong enough — that’s the schedule my dough log keeps converging on. Flavor and extensibility improve dramatically over the first 48 hours. Past 72, weaker flour starts collapsing into a slack, tearing mess. If you take one thing from this site: the fridge does more for your pizza than any object you can buy.
Can I use a pizza oven in winter?
I bake outdoors in Swedish winters, so yes — with caveats. Heat-up takes longer, recovery between bakes stretches out, wind steals more heat than the cold itself, and propane regulators get lazy below freezing (keep the tank full and sheltered). This is exactly where oven build quality shows: thin shells that look fine at +20°C reveal their insulation at -5°C. An indoor 450°C electric is my all-winter answer when the weather wins.