So you bought a new pizza oven, but it doesn’t come with a pizza peel? You stare at the stove and wonder, “Do I really need a pizza peel?” The short answer is yes, you do!

Pizza peels can either be wooden or metal. A peel allows you to place your pizza on the stove and retrieve it. Wooden peels are great for transferring the pizza from your kitchen to your oven. The raw dough will not stick to the wooden board. Just be sure to coat it with flour or cornmeal. These options are also great for serving your pizza on. You can also cut your pie on the wooden surface.

Metal pizza peels are great for retrieving the pizza from the hot oven. They are thinner than wood and can easily slide under the pizza. A metal peel makes it easy to rotate your pie in the oven. If you want to use just a metal peel, be sure to coat it generously with flour. This can ensure that the pizza dough doesn’t get stuck to the peel. I recommend that you don’t allow the dough to touch the end of the peel, where the handle begins. If your dough is stuck to the metal surface, gently lift it off a little at a time and dust more flour under it.

What size pizza peel do you need?

Regarding the size of your peel, you can go with small or large ones. Smaller peels can be around 10 inches and larger ones can be 16 inches or more. If you’re making Neapolitan-style pizzas or personal pies, you don’t need to go bigger than 12 inches.

You have other alternatives if you’re headstrong about not buying a pizza peel. You can choose to make your pizza on a silicone mat that is floured generously. Be sure not to burn the mat when you slide the pizza in the oven. You can also use foil dusted with flour as your peel surface. These options are good for placing the pizza in your wood-burning oven. To remove the pizza from the piping hot oven, you will need something thin and wide. A spatula will not be able to hold the entire pie, and you might regret not purchasing that cheap pizza peel you were eyeing.

In my opinion, it’s a good option to have both a wooden peel and a metal one. The wooden pizza peel can be used for placing the pizza in the oven and for serving your pie. Metal peels are great for rotating the pizza and retrieving it from the hot stove.