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What else can you cook in a pizza oven besides pizza?
What else can you cook in a pizza oven besides pizza? Just about anything a normal oven can, and a fair bit it can't. Good pizza ovens roast, bake and sear as the fire falls, so one firing feeds the whole table.
Transforming your outdoor setup into a versatile kitchen
A wood-fired oven isn't a single-job appliance. It's a heat source that changes character over a few hours. Screaming hot at the start, gentle by the end.
Learn to read that cycle and you get a full menu out of one load of wood. The first stage suits pizza, flatbreads and naan. As the flames settle you can sear steak, prawns and whole fish.
Later, moderate heat roasts a chicken or bakes a loaf. By the next morning the stone is often still warm enough to hold a pot of slow-cooked ragu or beans.
Cast iron pans and heavy steel trays are the workhorses here. Glass dishes can crack on a hot oven floor, so leave those in the kitchen. Add a peel, long tongs and heat-proof gloves and you're set.
| Stage of the fire | Rough heat | What it suits |
|---|---|---|
| Blazing, flames running | 400 to 500°C | Pizza, flatbreads, naan |
| Settling, flames dropping | 250 to 350°C | Steak, prawns, whole fish, charred veg |
| Moderate, embers only | 180 to 250°C | Roast chicken, lamb shoulder, bread |
| Residual, fire out | Below 150°C | Cobblers, slow braises, meringues, drying herbs |
Searing and slow-roasting meats
Meat is where the oven really earns its keep. High heat gives you a crust in a minute or two, which no home oven can match. Falling heat then handles the big cuts that need time.
The trick is matching the cut to the stage of the fire. Thin and quick goes in early. Thick and slow waits until the flames have burnt down to embers.
Grilling steaks and thin cuts over high heat
Preheat a cast iron skillet on the oven floor until it's properly hot. Slide in a ribeye, a porterhouse or a couple of lamb cutlets and sear both sides hard.
Then move the pan to a cooler corner of the oven to finish. That way the inside catches up without the crust burning. A meat thermometer takes the guesswork out of it, and everything wants a rest before you carve.
Seafood works the same way, only faster. Prawns and scallops in a hot pan are done in a couple of minutes. A whole snapper or a side of salmon on a tray takes a little longer, and both pick up a lovely smoky edge.
Roasting whole poultry and large joints
Once the flames have died back, you're in roasting territory. A spatchcocked chicken sits flat and cooks evenly, and it fits a low oven mouth better than a whole bird.
Lamb shoulder is the standout. Put it in a covered tray with a splash of liquid and let the falling heat do the work over a few hours. It's the Sunday roast, just with a smoke note through it.
Rotate the tray now and then, since the side facing the fire always runs hotter. If the top colours too fast, cover it loosely with foil.
When the fire is out and the oven is barely warm, that's your overnight window. A pot of ragu, a tray of beans or a stockpot will sit in there happily until morning.
Baking fresh breads and sweet treats
Bread and a wood-fired oven were made for each other. Once the oven drops to a steady moderate heat, a sourdough loaf or a tray of focaccia bakes beautifully. The crust is better than anything you'll get indoors.
Leftover pizza dough is the easy way in. Let it come back to room temperature, stretch it into an oiled cast iron pan, dimple it with your fingers and bake. Damper is worth a go too, and it suits the setting.
Flatbreads go the other way and want the hot end of the cycle. Naan and pita puff and blister on the stone in about a minute, so keep the peel handy.
Sweet things belong at the tail of the fire. Fruit cobblers, baked apples and caramelised bananas all do well in a cooling oven. Right at the bottom of the range you can even dry herbs or leave meringues in overnight.
Charring vegetables and side dishes
Vegetables get a smoky, blistered quality in a wood-fired oven that a grill only half manages. Eggplant, capsicum and tomatoes can go straight onto the oven floor and char in their skins.
Everything else goes in cast iron. Pumpkin, potatoes, broccoli and mushrooms roast well in a heavy pan while the oven is on the way down from pizza heat.
Softer veg like zucchini prefers gentler heat, so hold it back until the flames have gone. Toss with oil, salt and a bit of garlic, then rotate the pan every few minutes so nothing catches.
Cooking on falling and residual heat
The fire going out is not the end of the session. A masonry oven holds usable heat for hours after the flames die, and that long tail is where some of the best cooking happens.
Slow cooking as the oven comes down
Once the oven drops out of roasting range, it behaves like a very steady slow cooker. A ragu, a pot of beans, a lamb shoulder or a tray of stock bones will sit there for hours and come out better for it.
Use a heavy cast iron pot with the lid on and push it to the back. There's no thermostat cycling on and off, so the heat is gentler and more even than a kitchen oven.
This is also the window for bread. A loaf goes in after the roast comes out, while the floor is still holding solid heat.
Overnight dishes and drying herbs
Bank the door shut overnight and the oven keeps working while you sleep. Beans, brisket and stock all suit the long, low finish, and you pull them out in the morning.
The last of the heat is worth using too. Herbs, chillies and tomatoes dry beautifully on a tray in a barely warm oven, which saves a glut going to waste.
An infrared thermometer pointed at the floor tells you which stage you're actually in. Guessing by eye is how good ingredients get wasted.
Taking the next step with your backyard kitchen
Once you start cooking through the whole heat cycle, the oven stops being a weekend novelty and becomes the main event out the back. Browse the My Acre range of pizza ovens to find one sized for the way you actually cook. If you already have an oven, a few decent pans and peels will open up most of what's above.
Finding the right equipment for home chefs
You don't need much. A heavy cast iron skillet does most of the work, and a cast iron grill pan handles vegetables and thinner cuts.
Add a solid steel tray for roasts and trays of bread. A launching peel and a turning peel keep your hands out of the heat. Long tongs help with anything sitting on the oven floor.
The two safety items worth buying properly are heat-proof gloves and an infrared thermometer. Cast iron holds heat long after it leaves the oven, and knowing the real floor temperature saves a lot of ruined food. Have a look through the pizza oven accessories range if you're filling gaps.
Is a wood or gas design better for a varied menu?
Wood gives you the higher top-end heat and the flavour, and the long slow fall as the fire dies is what makes residual cooking possible. The trade-off is time and attention, since you're managing a fire as well as the food.
Gas is quicker and steadier. You get a set temperature in about twenty minutes and you can hold it, which suits weeknight cooking and anything fussy like baking. You lose the smoke character, though.
Plenty of models run both. If you're weighing it up, our guide to the best wood fired pizza ovens in Australia goes through the differences in more detail.
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