Some pizza lovers swear by them, and wood pellet pizza ovens have recently overtaken gas pizza ovens as the oven of choice for pizza aficionados who like their homemade pizzas with an authentic earthy taste.
When choosing wood pellets, it is important to look for one that best matches your preferences because a wrong decision on the type of wood pellet could lead to problems such as a damaged oven and tasteless and burnt pizza.
So if you’re wanting a great-tasting wood-fired pizza, you’ve come to the right place.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through the best wood pellets for pizza ovens so that your pizza might even match the stone-baked oven taste of your favourite pizza restaurant.
What is a pellet pizza oven?
Pellet pizza ovens are designed to cook at high temperatures which can give your pizza an authentic smoky, artisan and authentic flavour. Indeed they are designed to make your homemade pizza taste just like the one you would get from a pizza restaurant.
This involves using wood pellets which we talk about below. Pellet ovens differ from gas ovens in that, much like a barbecue, there’s more clearing up to be done after as you’ll have to remove ash and debris.
Why you should use wood in pizza ovens
To get that real authentic pizza flavour, you really need to use wood in your pizza oven. it trumps a gas oven every time for flavour. However, wood pellets come in many different varieties with many factors to consider including chemical properties, moisture content, wood density and so on.
Wood is of course a naturally occurring substance which adds greatly to pizza flavour, especially when cooked outdoors. our guide covers the many different types of pellets available on the market today and what you should look out for before purchasing.
Categories of wood pellets
Depending on your preferences, different types of wood can be used for your pizza oven. The density of the wood will determine how quickly the pellets will burn, the maximum temperature and overall smokiness. All of which can have a large bearing on how our pizza turns out.
Hardwood Pellets for pizza ovens
Hardwood is a heavy wood that can withstand extremely high temperatures. Hardwood has a high density and produces less sap which means they are a popular choice of wood pellet for pizza ovens. Hardwood pellets can be used to cook for relatively long periods compared to other wood pellet types.
Softwood Pellets
Softwood isn’t the best when it comes to cooking pizza. Softwood is lightweight and doesn’t work well in extreme temperatures. Softwood pellets burn quickly and often don’t produce enough heat to make a pizza. They also produce a lot of smoke that may give an unfortunate pungent flavour to your pizza.
Greenwood Pellets
Greenwoods are fresh woods with a high amount of moisture. They are not suitable for pizza ovens because they can be difficult to ignite. When they are eventually ignited, they tend to burn haphazardly, which may cause the pizza not to cook properly.
Seasoned Wood Pellets
Seasoned wood is a dried wood that is perfect for pizza pellet ovens. Being more like hardwood, it burns consistently and can cook pizza at hot temperatures while maintaining stability.
Best Wood Pellets for Outdoor Pizza Ovens
Choosing the best wood pellets for the pizza oven is as essential as the pizza oven itself. The type of wood pellets you choose can go a long way to influencing the flavour of our pizza. Here are the best wood pellets for pizza oven
Oak Pellets
Oak pellets are one of the most popular pellets on the market in the UK and for good reason. They are reliable and sit somewhere in the middle when it comes to smokiness. The pizza flavour they produce is mild and they pair well with beef and chicken.
Birch Pellets
Birch pellets cope well with high temperatures and are known to burn steadily. Birch pellets produce less flame and smoke so are good for not tainting the flavour of our pizza too much.
Maple Pellets
Maple takes the sweetness of your pizza to another level entirely. When used with ketchup, it can produce an amazing maple syrup flavour pizza. Maple is particularly well suited to outdoor cooking and is a popular choice for other types of outdoor cooking.
Applewood pellets
Apple is mostly used in restaurants where pizzas are required to be baked quickly to order. Applewood pellets can create very high temperatures that can quickly burn the pizza if you’re not sure what you’re doing. Applewood isn’t particularly suitable for domestic use because it can enlarge and change shape in the oven, which can be dangerous for people using small pizza ovens.
Hickory Pellets
Hickory pellets pair well with pork and beef pizza. Hickory adds an extra punchy layer of real barbecue flavour to the pork meat, making it a favourite with barbecue traditionalists.
Mesquite Pellets
Mesquite wood pellets pair well with all types of cooking, providing a robust and smoky flavour. Similar to hickory, mesquite is ideal for pizza more traditional barbecue pizza toppings such as pork and beef.
Cherry
Cherry pellets give a subtly sweet and fruity taste to your pizzas. That being said, it’s not for everyone and can divide opinions.
Pecan
Pecan pellets give a mild, light nutty flavour to your cooking. It also goes well with just about anything you choose to top your pizza with.
Conclusion
We hope this article has given you a good idea of the many choices of wood pellets available for outdoor pizza cooking. the range on offer means there’s something for everyone’s taste. and once you’ve tried a few different varieties, you will no doubt soon have a favourite. it can be a good idea to have a few varieties on hand should you have fussy visitors over at your barbecue though!
Happy barbecuing!