Cold-Weather Pizza Oven Preheating: What Actually Changes

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Fall in New England is some of the best pizza weather there is. But cold air changes how any outdoor oven behaves, and the preheat you’re used to in July may not be enough in November.

Here’s what to expect, starting with the oven we cook on.

On the Ninja Woodfire: trust the thermometer, not the clock

The Ninja is electric, so there’s no propane pressure or fire to manage in the cold. What changes is how long the stone takes to get there. In warm weather, our stone reads about 540°F after roughly 20 minutes at our usual 550°F setting. In the cold, don’t assume the same 20 minutes gets you there — check the stone with an infrared thermometer and wait until it reads where you want it.

Check again between pizzas. Every time the door opens in cold air, the stone gives up some heat, and it takes a little longer to recover than it does in summer.

Wind matters more than temperature

A still, cold evening is easier to cook in than a breezy mild one. Wind pulls heat away from any oven. Put the back of the oven to the wind if you can, and keep door-open time short.

Keep pellets dry

Cold, damp fall weather is hard on pellets. On the Ninja they’re only there for smoke, so damp pellets won’t stop the pizza from cooking — but they’ll smolder instead of burning cleanly. Close the bag between cooks. More on that in storing pellets through a humid New England summer.

If you cook on a gas or pellet-burning oven

Two things are worth knowing. Propane doesn’t vaporize as well in the cold, so a gas flame can look weaker below about 40°F; keeping the tank somewhere warmer until you cook helps. And ovens that burn pellets for heat are harder to hold at a steady temperature in cold, windy conditions.

The takeaway: in cold weather, preheat until the stone reads right, not until the timer says so, and keep the wind and the damp in mind.

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The tool for this job: an infrared thermometer→ Amazon — the only way to know your stone temp instead of guessing at it.