BakerStone Pizza Oven Box Review And Rating

If you’re a fan of crisp and smoky brick oven pizza then you’ll love the Bakerstone Pizza Oven Box grill insert!

I think I have tried every pizza attachment for every grill known to man. Most have failed miserably, or cost way too much. I’ve even built my own (don’t ask). I have only found one that really improves upon the process: Bakerstone’s enamel coated Original O-AHXXX-O-000 Grill Pizza Oven and the Professional Series Stainless Steel Pizza Oven Box.

You can get to simultaneous pizzagasm with lots of practice, and I have made superb pies on a simple Weber charcoal grill and even inexpensive gas grills by fiddling with the dials and going through a lot of test pies. But Bakerstone really reduces the practice time and waste and makes both Neapolitan and Roman style pies in less than 5 minutes!

Bakerstone is a steel box that sits on a gas grill with the lid up. It is lined with cordierite and it has a simple airflow system that actually helps cook the top properly. In many ways it mimics the design of a real pizza oven. I have used mine to cook breads, too.

It works by allowing hot air from the burners flow into an opening in the bottom of the box, across the top of the pie, and out the front. To make sure the hot air is enough to cook the top you preheat the unit until the top and bottom stones are almost the same temp. I strongly recommend you invest in an infrared thermometer like the one below to determine what temps work best with your dough on your grill. You may need to fiddle a little with the dials to get it right. For example, I found that on one of my grills, a 4 burner, I need to turn the two outside burners on high, and the two center burners on medium.

You slip the pie onto the bottom stone (you need to get plenty of flour or cornmeal under the dough and practice the flick of the wrist that pulls the wooden peel out from under the pie) and watch. Depending on the type of dough, you will see the crust rise and bubble. Because it is hotter at the rear the back cooks faster, so you switch to the metal peel, slip it under the crust and turn it 45°. Be careful, there isn’t a lot of overhead space and you don’t want to stick your pie to the ceiling.

On grills with flavorizer bars covering the burners, you may need to remove them. Also, the bottom stone will darken and even get black in spots. You can scrape any cheese or gunk off and ignore the black spots.

My only complaint? The protective plastic envelope that comes with it is a poor fit and rips easily. You don’t want the stones to get wet in the rain so you might want to find a good place to store it between uses.

Dimensions: 23.2″ long x 16.3″ wide x 6.4″ high, 29.5 pounds.