What if you could turn your gas grill into a gourmet pizza oven for about $150? The BakerStone Pizza Oven Box is supposed to do just that, and fast, turning out pizzas in two to four minutes. The grill pros and pizza master at Consumer Reports put these claims to the test. Here's what happened.
Here’s the deal: The porcelain-enameled steel box is big and weighs 27 pounds. You place it on top of your grill grates—the grill must have three or more burners. The box houses a refractory stone cooking chamber and traps the hot air, using it to cook the pizza. We placed the box on a four-burner gas grill and after preheating it for 30 minutes baked eight 12-inch pizzas in quick succession. We also cooked pizzas using a pizza stone on another four-burner gas grill.
The results: The pizzas took about four minutes to bake in the box and less time to devour. Some staffers didn’t see a big difference between the pizzas cooked in the box and those cooked on the stone, but our pizza master has used his own wood-fired pizza oven at home and in restaurants for the past 20 years. He pointed out that the box turned out pizza with crispier crusts and nicely cooked toppings.
You can buy the BakerStone Pizza Oven Box at Amazon.com, Costco, and Bed, Bath & Beyond, among other places. Need a gas grill to go with that box? See our Ratings of dozens of grills. Look for a large or midsize model with four burners or more.
—Kimberly Janeway (@CRJaneway on Twitter)
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