Gas or wood: what do you actually taste in the pizza?

What wood actually adds

The flavour of a wood fire is not smoke soaking into the dough — a pizza bakes far too briefly for that. It is in the flame itself. A wood fire is irregular and licks across the dome, which blisters the crust unevenly in the way you know from Neapolitan pizza.

A gas burner gives a steadier flame. The result is neater and more even, and for exactly that reason slightly less characterful. Taste the two side by side and you will see the difference before you taste it.

What it costs in time

You switch a gas oven on and fifteen to twenty minutes later the stone is up to temperature. After baking you close the gas bottle and that is that.

A wood oven needs lighting with kindling, five to ten minutes for the fire to catch, and then building up to temperature. Between pizzas you add wood, because a wood fire drops faster than you expect. Afterwards you let it burn out and clear the ash.

Add it up and you are looking at a good hour extra per session. On a Saturday that is the fun part. On a Tuesday it is the reason the oven stays in the shed.

The way out: multi-fuel

The Karu range burns wood or charcoal, and gas too with the separate burner. That is why those models exist: you do not have to make the choice up front.

What most owners actually do is gas midweek and wood at the weekend. Do budget for the gas burner — it is not included and it adds up.

• Karu 12: cheapest route to a wood fire, with no thermometer or glass door
• Karu 2: glass door and built-in thermometer, far easier to steer
• Karu 2 Pro: sixteen inches and double-walled, holds temperature across several pizzas

The honest advice

If you are certain the baking itself is the pleasure and not just the eating, buy wood and you will enjoy it for years.

If you have even slight doubts, buy gas or a Karu with the burner. An oven you switch on twenty times a year is worth more than one that is perfect four times a year.