Pizza delivery is fine, but is there anything quite as satisfying and tasty as a homemade pizza?
Every home cook wants to deliver a perfect meal to their family every time. And this extends to homemade pizzas.
Few of us have a traditional stone pizza oven in the kitchen, and without one, it’s difficult to achieve that crust that’s crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. But what if we told you there’s a better way to cook your pizza at home?
Enter the pizza oven. This specialty device is designed specifically for pizza, but does it offer benefits over traditional oven baking? And what about a pizza oven vs a convection oven?
Let’s find out as we compare a pizza oven vs a regular oven. With this info, you can decide which choice can make the best pizza for your family.
The Basics: Size and Heat
Let’s get this out of the way at the top: your oven is much larger than a pizza oven. Traditional ovens are enormous boxes designed to fit everything from a pizza to a Thanksgiving turkey. Because of this size, it can take a lot of time to heat up to the proper pizza baking temperature.
A downside of this larger heating space is that they are inefficiently heated. If you need to alter the heat inside your traditional oven, you could lower it with your oven controls. But this will take a while. Alternatively, you could simply open the door. But this risks a deflated pizza.
Pizza ovens, on the other hand, are designed specifically to fit a pizza. The Versa 16, for example, is a 16-inch pizza oven with a compact and efficient design to evenly heat and cook the pizza through. It uses a dual burner heating system and reaches an ambient temperature of 950 degrees and a stone temperature of 750 degrees Fahrenheit in 12 minutes.
As you can guess, one of the major upsides of this small size is they can reach ideal cooking temperatures much faster. Once you load your pizza in, it cooks in less than 5 minutes. And if you ever need to modulate the high temperature as you cook, a pizza oven can handle that task without worry. Think of a pizza oven as the nimble little brother to your big oven!
Cooking Time
Another major difference between a pizza oven vs a normal oven is time. Specifically, the amount of time it takes to cook your pizza.
With a traditional oven, you can expect your pizza to take about 5 to 10 minutes, depending on your dough thickness.
In contrast, a pizza oven can cook your pizza in just a few minutes! Imagine how many different types of pie you can serve at a dinner party with family, or on gameday with friends.
This is one of the pizza oven vs oven differences that speaks for itself. If you need to feed a large or impatient crowd with a lot of pizzas fast, a pizza oven is the way to go.
Perfect Edges
Another of the core pizza oven vs oven differences is the heating element itself. This is where a pizza oven vs a convection oven show their true differences.
A convection oven usually uses a heated coil, like a toaster. In contrast, both traditional ovens and pizza ovens use flame heat. Your kitchen oven likely is powered by natural gas, while a pizza oven uses propane to light its flame.
But how your food accesses the high heat is a major difference. Inside your conventional oven, food is stationary, with the heating element below. This is great for roasts and slow bakes, but can make for cold spots and undercooked edges for quick bakes like a pizza needs.
In a pizza oven, however, your pizza is rotated 360 degrees. And the Versa 16 goes a step further – the dual burner system ensures your crust and toppings are perfectly crisp.
And every single edge of your pizza gets regular access to the heat it needs. That means a perfect pizza, edge-to-edge, every time.
Cooking on the Go
As you well know, the traditional oven in your kitchen isn’t going anywhere. But did you know pizza ovens are light and travel-ready? If you are going camping and bristle at the thought of another dinner of hot dogs and beans, consider bringing a pizza oven.
You can simply plug it into your car and have delicious pizza just like at home anywhere you like.
Discover Great Pizza Ovens from Halo Products Group
There are countless reasons to consider in the debate of pizza oven vs oven, but there’s one option that outshines the other. If you’re looking for a pizza oven that was built for the perfect pizza (and then some), check out the Versa 16 Outdoor Pizza Oven.