Gas Oven versus Electric Oven
My family and I spent a few days in a rental cabin last week. Since no trip is complete without pizza, I packed my gear and ingredients. As I began preparing to bake, I noticed that the oven was a gas powered one. I hadn’t baked pizza in a gas oven before, but I didn’t think it would be much different. I was wrong! Being lazy while packing, I did not take a pizza stone, so the baking took place on pizza screens. I placed them on the bottom rack at 475 degrees for 8 minutes each. The bottom of the crust cooked much faster than normal and one almost burned (gulp)! The top crust edge remained very light and the cheese hadn’t completely cooked by minute 8. I learned a hard lesson about gas ovens that I won’t soon forget. If you use a gas oven, let me know if your experience is similar. I’ll be taking my stones next time for sure.
We still enjoyed the pies, one cheese, one pepperoni and one buffalo chicken. Yum.
August 14th, 2007 at 4:09 pm
I have switched to a gas oven at home as well as using various gas ovens for pizza on vacations. I have not noticed any significant change in baking performance. I do, however, always use my stone. Also, I cook at 550 F and don’t really use a timer except for a general reminder when I’ve got a lot of pizzas on order. So the cook time might be slightly different. Just last week I cooked 10 in a row at a family reunion/vacation. More comments – I had some leftover toppings near the end of the run and found that ham, pinapple, and jalapeno peppers is an awesome combo. I also made quite a few of your Margarhita pizza’s with huge success – thanks for your report on that one!
February 7th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
I use primarily gas, but have experience in home electric as well. I cook my pizzas at 500 F. I have 2 stones, one on the bottom and one in the middle. This is so we can do 2 pizzas at a time. I cook 12″ pizzas and they take exactly 10 minutes, but cook slightly differently depending on whether they were top or bottom.
When we do pizza, it is usually a pizza party whereby I offer to teach folks how to throw their own dough and let them decorate with a mixture of toppings. So we usually have anywhere from 6-12 pizzas going in and out in the space of an hour.
I think the differences in ranges are as follows:
Gas heat is moister. Electric is dryer. This affects the crust – although it’s worse for plain old bread.
Home electric ranges seem to go higher than home gas ranges, although that just may be the brands I have used.
Gas heat is deflected more by the bottom of the oven. Electric ranges have an exposed coil, which appears to give greater heat directly under the stone.
Electric is more consistent since the coil doesn’t cool down completely between cycles, unlike gas which goes OFF when it reaches temp, then comes back on when it has dropped.
I’ve heard that most pros prefer gas ranges and electric ovens. For the above reasons.