Authentic Pizza Ovens Starter Pack: 5 Piece Pizza Oven Tool Set

Description

The pizza oven starter kit from Authentic Pizza Ovens is the five tools the maker says every new owner should have on the day the oven is cured: a long aluminum peel to launch and retrieve, a wooden peel to build and serve on, a 32 inch turner to rotate pies, a 27 inch floor brush, and an ash shovel. It is the pizza oven tool set the company uses in its own ovens, and it fits every Authentic Pizza Ovens dome from the portable Maximus to the Rustic Lisboa. Order it with the oven and it ships free on the same delivery.

A brick oven at 750°F does not give you a second chance at a launch, and the tool set is most of what separates a clean slide from a folded pizza on the floor. The technique is simple once the tools are right: build on wood dusted with semolina, jiggle to prove it floats, and slide it off in one motion. King Arthur Baking's guide to loading pizza from a peel walks the jiggle and the launch better than any product page can. What follows is what each piece in this kit does, and why the maker picked these five.

What Is in the Pizza Oven Starter Kit

Five pieces in the pizza oven starter kit, each chosen for a job in the cook, none of them decorative. Two peels because launching and serving are different tasks and one peel cannot stay cool enough to do both. A turner because a pizza in a wood fired oven cooks on one side first and has to be spun every twenty or thirty seconds. A brush and a shovel because a brick oven is managed with fire and ash, and both need moving between pizzas. The sizes below matter; a short peel in a 39 inch deep dome is a burned forearm.

How the Pizza Oven Starter Kit Works on Pizza Night

Stretch the dough on the counter and move it to the wooden peel dusted with semolina, not flour. That is the first thing this pizza oven starter kit teaches: flour scorches on an 800°F floor, and by the third pie the whole oven smells of it, while semolina rolls under the dough like ball bearings and burns off clean. Top the pizza on the wood, give the peel a shake to prove the pie moves, and if it sticks, lift the edge and feed more semolina under it before you go anywhere near the fire.

The launch is the aluminum peel's job. Slide it under the topped pizza from the wood, or build straight on the aluminum if you work fast, then reach the floor with the long handle and pull the peel out from under the pie in one motion. Keep that peel cold between launches; a metal peel left leaning in the mouth of the oven comes back hot enough to weld the next dough to it, which is the most common reason a second pizza sticks and the first did not. Rest it on the counter, not on the oven.

Once the pie is down, the turner takes over. The side facing the fire cooks first, so every twenty to thirty seconds slide the turner under the pizza, lift, and rotate a quarter turn; the 32 inch handle keeps your hand outside the door while you do it. When a bubble rises on the crust, the hooked end pops it before it chars. About ninety seconds in, the aluminum peel goes back in to retrieve, and the pizza lands on the wooden peel to cut and serve. That is the whole pizza peel set at work, and why the maker sends two peels and a turner.

The Brush and the Shovel: Managing the Fire

A wood fired brick oven is cooked with a bed of coals pushed to one side and a clear floor on the other, and the brush and shovel are how the floor gets clear. Before the first launch, sweep the floor with the 27 inch brush to push ash and loose embers back toward the fire; anything left on the floor ends up on the bottom of the pizza. Between pies, a quick pass keeps semolina from building up. The wire head shrugs off the heat.

The shovel does two things. During the cook it moves live coals: rake them to the side to open the floor, or back to center for a few minutes when a later pizza cooks slow and the floor needs recharging. The morning after, when the ash is cold, it shovels the bed out into a metal container so the next fire starts on a clean floor. Ash holds heat overnight in a dome this massive, so clear it cold and into metal, never into a plastic bin the same evening. Nothing else in the pizza oven starter kit gets used as often as these two.

Which Ovens the Pizza Oven Starter Kit Fits

The pizza oven starter kit fits every Authentic Pizza Ovens model: the Lisboa, Pizzaioli, Ventura, Buena Ventura, Lume Alto, and Lume Largo on a base, the Custom Builders cores in a masonry housing, and the portable Maximus, Maximus Arena, and Prime. The 19 inch handle on the aluminum peel and the 32 inch turner were sized for the 31 inch deep floor of the traditional domes, so they reach the back of the biggest oven the maker builds and are simply generous on the portables. The 12 by 14 inch peels are sized for the 12 inch pizzas those ovens cook two at a time.

The same wood fired pizza oven tools work in any brick or refractory oven with a floor you can reach, so the pizza oven starter kit is also a sensible first purchase with an HPC Fire or a Pinnacolo dome from the wood fired pizza ovens collection. What it is not is a pizza oven accessory pack for countertop gas ovens; a 32 inch turner in a 16 inch oven is comedy. For those, the pizza oven accessories collection has shorter peels and turners matched to the smaller ovens.

Pizza Oven Starter Kit Care: Wood, Aluminum, and Wire

The wooden peel never sees the sink. Scrape it, wipe it with a damp cloth, let it dry standing on edge, and rub a little food safe mineral oil into the wood every few months so it does not check and split; a soaked wooden peel warps and a warped peel does not slide. The aluminum peel and the turner wash normally in hot soapy water and dry with a towel; aluminum does not rust, but dried flour paste on the blade is the enemy of the next launch, so wash it the same night.

The brush lives near the oven. Tap the ash out of the wire after each use and let it cool before it goes anywhere near the storage bag or a wooden shelf. The steel shovel dries after use and gets a wipe of oil for the off season, because ash is mildly caustic and a shovel put away with damp ash in the pan pits by spring. Keep the whole pizza oven starter kit indoors or in the dry side of the base, not under the oven cover where it will sweat with the dome.

Who Should Buy the Pizza Oven Starter Kit, and Who Should Not

Buy the Authentic Pizza Ovens starter pack if this is your first wood fired oven, because you will need all five of these on the first cured fire and buying them one at a time costs more and arrives later. Buy it with the oven so it rides free on the same delivery. Buy it if you are replacing tools sized for a small countertop oven; the extra length is the point in a 39 inch dome. And buy it if you cook for a crowd, because two peels plus a turner is what lets one person keep two pizzas moving at once.

Skip the pizza oven starter kit if you already own a long aluminum peel and a turner; add the brush and shovel individually instead. Skip it if your oven is a 12 or 16 inch countertop model, where a 32 inch turner is more than you need. And note what the kit does not include: no laser thermometer for reading the floor directly, no gloves, and no pizza cutter. The infrared thermometer is the one addition worth making, because the door dial reads dome air and the floor is what cooks the crust; it is in the accessories collection.

Buying the Pizza Oven Starter Kit From Crustify

The pizza oven starter kit ships direct from the brand's Texas warehouse. Add it to an oven order and it packs with the oven, arriving on the same liftgate delivery with no added shipping; orders over $750 ship free. On its own it ships as a long parcel because of the 32 inch turner. Inspect it on arrival and report damage within five days; returns are accepted within fourteen days unused. Questions about which tools your oven takes go to the owner through the contact page or chat, usually answered the same day.

Round out a Lisboa pizza oven order with the oven cover the warranty requires and the rotisserie spit for the taller door. Every oven the kit was built for is on the Authentic Pizza Ovens brand page, and if you are still choosing the oven, the pizza oven buying guide covers fuel, construction, and budget in five decisions.

Order the pizza oven starter kit with the oven and it rides free on the same delivery, which is the only way it will ever ship for nothing.

KEY FEATURES

• The five tool pizza oven starter kit Authentic Pizza Ovens recommends for every new owner; the set the maker uses in its own ovens
• Aluminum pizza peel, 12 x 14 in blade, 14 gauge, 19 in wood handle (American Metalcraft): launch and retrieve, reaches the back of a 31 in deep floor
• Wooden pizza peel, 12 x 14 in, 8 in handle: build and top on it, dough releases from wood, doubles as a serving board
• 32 in aluminum pizza turner and bubble popper: quarter turns every twenty to thirty seconds with your hand outside the door
• 27 in wire oven brush with wooden handle: sweeps ash and semolina off the floor before every launch
• Steel ash shovel, about 19.5 in overall with a 9 in handle: moves coals during the cook, clears cold ash after
• The pizza oven starter kit fits every Authentic Pizza Ovens model, base mounted and portable, and any wood fired brick oven with a reachable floor
• Sized for the 12 in pizzas the traditional domes cook two at a time
• Not included: infrared floor thermometer, gloves, pizza cutter; available separately
• Care: wood peel wiped and oiled, never soaked; aluminum washed and dried the same night; brush tapped out; shovel dried and oiled for storage
• Free shipping over $750 with liftgate; packs with an oven order and rides on the same delivery, direct from the brand's Texas warehouse

SPECIFICATIONS

Kit contents. Sizes as supplied by Authentic Pizza Ovens; wooden pieces are handmade and vary slightly.

Shared.

INSTALLATION GUIDE & USER MANUAL

First pizza night with the pizza oven starter kit. Fire the cured oven about an hour ahead. When the floor is at temperature, rake the coals to one side with the shovel and sweep the open floor with the brush.

Build. Dust the wooden peel with semolina. Stretch the dough on the counter, move it to the wood, top it lightly, and shake the peel to confirm the pizza slides. Sticking anywhere means more semolina under that edge.

Launch. Transfer to the cold aluminum peel, or launch straight off the wood if the pie is near the mouth. Set the tip of the peel on the floor where the pizza will sit, and pull the peel back in one steady motion.

Turn. After about twenty seconds, slide the turner under the far edge, lift, and rotate a quarter turn. Repeat each time the fire side colors. Pop rising bubbles with the hooked tip.

Retrieve and serve. At about ninety seconds, slide the aluminum peel under the pizza and lift out. Land it on the wooden peel to cut and serve. Rest the aluminum peel on the counter between pies so it stays cold.

Between pies. Brush the floor. If pizzas start cooking slow, rake coals back to center for a few minutes, then to the side again.

After. Wash and dry the aluminum peel and turner. Wipe the wood. Tap out the brush. The next morning, shovel the cold ash into a metal container and sweep the floor.

WARRANTY INFORMATION

The tools in the pizza oven starter kit are supplied by Authentic Pizza Ovens as manufactured accessories. Inspect the kit on arrival and report any shipping damage within five days; Crustify Pizza Ovens is an authorized dealer and handles the claim with the maker. Unused kits can be returned within fourteen days of delivery. Heat discoloration on the aluminum, wear on the brush wire, and checking in the wooden peel from being soaked are normal use, not defects.

Using the pizza oven starter kit has no effect on the three year warranty on the oven. The oven's own conditions apply on every cook: cured on schedule, never above 500°C on the dial, no accelerants, and the cover back on once the dome has cooled.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS - FAQ'S

Your Questions Answered Before You Buy

The questions buyers ask most about the pizza oven starter kit before they order. If yours is not here, the chat goes straight to the owner and a real answer typically comes the same day.