Why Wood Fired Pizza Tastes So Much Better Than The Oven

Ask any pizza aficionado, and chances are, they'll tell you wood-fired pizza tastes better than oven-baked ones. And we agree, especially after we invested in an at-home pizza oven ourselves. A wood-fired oven is a type of pizza oven — but why do wood-fired pizzas taste better and have a more desirable texture overall than their oven-baked counterparts? 

One reason is that pizzas cook much faster in wood-fired ovens than in conventional ovens at home. What takes just a few minutes in a wood-fired oven would take a regular oven at least 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the thickness of the pizza and all the toppings involved. Wood-fired ovens get so much hotter than regular ovens, upwards of 800 to 850 degrees Fahrenheit, whereas your regular ranges will get as hot as 500 to 550 degrees Fahrenheit. It'll also take quite a long time to preheat the oven to these higher temperature levels. 

With the hotter temperatures, what happens is the crust crisps up quickly, and those lovely pizza dough bubbles and blisters form. At the same time, the cheese melts, and all the other toppings cook rapidly. In minutes, you have pizzeria-worthy pie. In the oven, however, you can end up with burnt and dried-out cheese, and the crust will be more cracker-like than crispy, chewy, and beautifully puffy at the same time. 

The smoky, woody flavor that the burning wood in the wood-fired oven imparts to the pizza is quite distinctive and can not be replicated in a conventional oven. The charred parts of the pizza taste like liquid smoke and give the pizza a rustic appeal. As mentioned earlier, the high temperatures that a wood-fired oven can reach help quickly cook the pizza while locking in and preserving all the oils, sugars, and flavors of the ingredients.Thanks to a heated hearth, open flame, and constant rotation, the pizza is also evenly cooked. 

Understandably, not everyone can own and maintain a wood-fired oven at home. Fret not. Just be sure to order a wood-fired pizza the next time you're having a craving. Or, try to make pizza on the grill, which will taste almost as good as a wood-fired one. Another recipe you can try is our crispy no-knead skillet pizza recipe, where the hot skillet in the oven will mimic a hot hearth.