6 tips for mastering your new PC^® Propane-Powered Pizza Oven

Please promise us you won’t ever forget to preheat your . Like your kitchen oven, your pizza oven needs time to heat up, otherwise the cordierite stone will be cold and your pizza will be raw on the bottom. Just set the dial to the highest setting for 15 minutes, which will allow enough time for your oven to pre-heat. Then turn the setting down to medium once you’re ready to cook.

Since your backyard is now a pizzeria, you need all the pro tools, including a . It’s essential for mastering the “shimmy and shoot” aka effortlessly tossing your pizza into the oven to cook. The peel will also help you turn the pizza so it cooks evenly and pull it out to serve (all without burning your fingers).

While your oven is pre-heating, generously flour your peel. When you stretch your pizza dough onto the peel, give it a little shimmy and if it sticks to the peel, you didn’t use enough flour. Remove the dough and add more flour. Trust us, here! Not using enough flour, will result in your pizza sticking to the peel and then falling apart (topping by topping) when you toss it into the oven. You will scream in horror and maybe cry at the loss of your once perfect pie. Lesson learned: flour that peel.

One of the joys of having a personal pizza oven is throwing parties where everyone can make their own cheesy creations. But we do have some toppings advice. Since your pizza will cook in literal minutes, you need to thinly slice your veggies and pick pre-cooked or cured meats. And don’t overload your pizza with toppings—picking pizza toppings is fun, picking pizza toppings out of the back of your pizza oven is not. Be selective here. A one-inch border around the edge of your pizza also helps prevent any toppings from falling off when being transferred in and out of the oven.

The may be small and compact, but it’s mighty and will cook pizzas in mere minutes. To ensure you cook your pizza evenly, rotate it every 15 to 30 seconds using the . Now is not the time to walk away and grab a drink. Eyes on the pizza at all times! How many times you turn your pizza is up to you and how well done you like your pizza (look for the cheese to start bubbling and leoparding or browning on the crust). Remember, you are the pizza master now.

Making pizzas is a little like making pancakes. Your first one will be a little misshapen, slightly overcooked and absolutely delicious. But by your third and fourth pancakes, you’ve gotten into the groove of things and are making magic. The same logic applies to pizzas: The more pizzas you make, the better you get at it.