Salter EK4923 Wood Pellet Portable Outdoor Pizza Oven review

Pizza ovens have been growing in popularity as the must-have garden accessory for passionate home cooks. It’s the perfect appliance to cook delicious vegan pizzas at home with friends and family.

Stepping into the pizza oven market is Salter with its Professional EK4923 Wood Pellet 12” Outdoor Portable Pizza Oven.

The impressive-looking oven features a sleek black and stainless steel design and promises to make stone-baked pizzas in as little as 60 seconds.

In our hunt to find the best pizza oven this summer, we put Salter’s pizza oven to the test to see if it delivers its promise of perfectly cooked pizzas in just 60 seconds.

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Technical details:

• Dimensions: 68.5 x 36 x 70.5 centimetres
• Heating method: Wood pellets
• Weight: ‎12.6 kg
• Where to buy: Amazon

Pros:

• Sleek design
• Easy to assemble
• Recipe book included
• Handy carry case included
• Large interior to cook a range of foods

Cons:

• No temperature gauge
• Requires a lot of pellets to maintain its heat
• Expensive to run

Assembling the Salter pizza oven

I’m always wary when it comes to assembling appliances, particularly if there are lots of small parts, but generally I found the Salter pizza oven easy to put together. Admittedly, there were some fiddly moments where I did need help, but we got it together swiftly. The instructions were clear and straightforward and within 30 minutes the pizza oven was ready to go.

It certainly is an impressive-looking machine.

The all-black main cooking unit is propped up with 3 small fold-out stainless steel legs which keep the oven stable. As well as the main unit and square pizza stone, the oven comes with a circular pizza peel and a handy small shovel to pour the wood pellets into the pellet tray to avoid them from spilling over the floor.

There is also a travel case for the pizza oven, making it easy to take away with you on camping trips or to store it safely without the unit rusting. Additionally, the internal cooking space is a good size and can fit a range of foods and even baking trays.

A useful recipe booklet is included with the pizza oven, which gives you a variety of pizza dough recipes, pizza topping ideas, and suggestions for other foods to cook. The majority of the non-pizza ideas featured meat, however, there were some tasty roasted veg ideas.

Lighting the wood pellets

The instructions say to use wood pellets and to avoid petrol-based fire lighters. Truthfully, in our first attempt at lighting the pizza oven, we used the wrong type of pellets and were unsuccessful in trying to ignite a sustainable fire for over an hour.

After further research and a second attempt, we had fire! We used natural biomass wood pellets and wood wool firelighters which really worked a treat.

Cooking with the Salter pizza oven

Once the fire was lit, we let it reach the appropriate temperature for around 15 minutes. Salter says its pizza oven reaches 500 degrees in just 10 minutes, however, without a temperature gauge, it was tricky to tell just how hot the oven was.

Despite not having a gauge, I maintained a roaring fire and tested the oven with a small piece of dough, which helped me tell how hot the oven was.

Because the pellet tray is small, I was adding pellets and firelighters more frequently than I had imagined to maintain the fire. This of course meant that we used a lot of pellets in a short space of time, which I’d say was one of the only downsides to this oven.

We prepped the pizza on the peel, making sure to use plenty of semolina to ensure the pizza wouldn’t stick, and slid it into the oven.

Although Salter states its oven can cook pizzas in as little as 60 seconds, it took almost 6-8 minutes to cook our pizza. I think the cooking times vary depending on the size/thickness of the pizza, and as our pizzas were rather thick, we understood that they might take longer to cook.

After a couple of rotations, the pizza was perfectly cooked. With a golden crust and light airy centre, it exceeded my expectations and was really tasty.

I gave the pizza oven roughly 5 minutes to get back up to temperature after cooking the first pizza before adding the second.

I was pleased that the cooking times were consistent for both pizzas. This meant that if I was planning to cook for a large group of friends I would be confident that people would get their pizzas quickly and not have to wait endlessly in hunger.

Overall verdict

As a once pizza-making novice, I now feel like a confident pizza maker thanks to the Salter pizza oven.

Despite it not having a temperature gauge and the pellet holder being on the small side so requiring quite a lot of fuel, this pizza oven has won me over. Being able to cook delicious vegan pizza in the comfort of my own home is something I’m yet to get tired over.

Not only does it mean that I get to enjoy tasty pizza whenever I want, but it also saves my precious cash and prevents me from buying expensive ready-made or takeaway vegan pizza.

The oven itself is sturdy and really looks the part, and with the right wood pellets, it gets up to temperature rather quickly.

As with most pizza ovens, the £279.99 price tag does mean you need to consider whether you’re going to use it enough for the initial outlay, but if you do then the Salter EK4923 is the perfect outdoor cooking appliance. Whether you’re entertaining friends or cooking for the family, everyone can get involved and cook up some delicious pizzas.

Want to read more about pizza ovens? Check out our Ooni Karu 12 pizza oven review next