All-Clad entered the outdoor cooking world recently when they released their new pizza oven. Pizza ovens couldn’t be hotter (had to drop a dad joke), so I’m sure fans of the cookware brand are rejoicing at its release. They sent us one to see how it performed.
For people that don’t feel like reading a full review, I’ll get to the point. It worked great without any real flaws, so I’m sure you’d be happy with this oven.
Features and Specs
- Retail price of $1,299 (check price – they run sales)
- Propane powered for easy operation
- Built-in thermometer
- Insulated housing locks in the heat
- Weighs around 46 pounds
Assembly
It’s always nice to get an outdoor cooking product that doesn’t require assembly, and this fits that bill. It comes assembled, so all you have to do is unpack it and put the pizza stones inside the oven.
I saw stones, plural, because there’s the main circular stone and also two more stones in the front of the oven. This is nice because it adds some surface area and helps to retain heat.
Beyond that, you have to take a little bolt on and off to remove packaging, and the legs on the bottom of the oven fold down which is nice for storage. The oven also comes with a peel. That’s also much appreciated because other ovens you have to buy that separately.
The peel itself has a compact design that’s helpful for storage. The handle folds out, making it smaller. It’s hard to find storage for giant pizza peels but not having to account for the handle helps. I do wish the plastic on the handle was rounded, it has square corners which aren’t as comfortable in your hand as some other designs.
To power the rotating pizza stone, you’ll need 4-AA batteries. Keep that in mind, because with little kids, the pizza oven is contending with a hissing snake flashlight with red eyes for power. It would have been nice it they made the oven can run on batteries or a power cord.
Appearance
The All-Clad Pizza Oven has a minimalist look to it that’s easy on the eyes. My favorite part is the All-Clad emblem on the front of the oven. It’s a nice accent an it matches my all-clad cookware.
Cooking Pizza
With a busy life, I rarely make my own dough, instead opting for the advice of Ina Garten, “store bought is fine”. It’s a great way to speed up the pizza making process and there are some delicious dough you can buy.
Make sure your dough has a chance to warm up before you stretch it, otherwise you’ll go crazy trying to make it not shrink back with every stretch. I make the pizza on the peel itself, throwing down a light dusting of flour under the dough to avoid sticking.
Warm up the oven prior to getting started. This oven seems to have more power than some others on the market, which is great, but it also means there’s a little learning curve. I found warming it on max heat made the stone a little hotter than I’d like. It’s also helpful to warm the oven with the rotating stone turned on for even heat, just turn the rotating off before you launch your pizza.
The oven has a piezo ignition, where you turn the gas knob and that clicks the ignitor. I wish it had an electric ignitor because I’ve had trouble with other ovens in windy or really cold conditions with a piezo ignitor. That’s more preference though, and it rarely comes into play.
Once the pizza is made with all of your desired accoutrement, it’s time to launch the pizza into the oven. This is where the rubber hits the road on if you dusted the peel sufficiently. Give the peel a quick shake prior to trying to load it to see if it’s willing to move around.
If not, you can still recover, just try lifting up the dough a little in sections and throwing flour underneath. Once it can move, launch it into the oven with a quick forward motion like your oven is wearing a Scream mask and you’re trying to stab it.
If you launched the pizza a little too far or a little to shallow, you can reposition it in the center of the stone. Then you turn the turntable back on to let the oven do all the work.
Rotating stones are nice because you don’t develop the added skill of learning when and how to turn the pizza with the peel. To make sure the toppings don’t burn before the crust is done, I usually turn the heat to low once I load the pizza. If I really misjudged temperature, sometimes I’ll even turn the burner all the way off.
This oven cooks a pizza super fast, so watch it. I usually start the stopwatch on my phone, so I can have an idea of how long it’s been cooking. It’ll cook a pizza in 90 seconds or less though, so it’s quick.
Once the pizza is done, turn the heat back up on the oven to heat the stone back up and to get it ready for the next pizza. I always make extra dough because as I’m learning a new oven I assume I’m going to burn some crusts. Worst case scenario, you just end up with extra pizzas, which isn’t really a problem anyways.
Cooking Other Food
While this is a pizza oven, it’s also just a gas-fired oven. That means you don’t have to be limited to cooking pizza.
It’s a pretty large oven too, so you can cook quite a bit of food in it, just making sure it’s not too tall for the opening. The built-in thermometer is your friend when cooking other food.
Pros
- Lots of power
- Rotating stone makes cooking easier
- Includes a peel
Cons
- A little pricier than some other ovens
- No power cord
Conclusion
All-Clad’s first step into outdoor cooking was successful. They made a good pizza oven that is perfect for easily cooking pizza or anything else. Expect a little bit of a learning curve with the power of the oven, but it doesn’t take long. Plus, the rotating stone design makes the cooking process easy.