Best Firewood for Pizza Ovens & Fire Pits

Pizza ovens need sustained, high heat

A wood-fired pizza oven needs to reach and hold a high temperature, typically 350 to 450°C at the floor, for a proper Neapolitan-style base. That calls for a dense hardwood that burns hot and produces a good bed of embers to maintain temperature between pizzas, rather than a fast, light burn that flares and dies down quickly. Hornbeam is our own pick for this: it is one of the densest, hottest-burning woods commonly available in the UK, similar to oak but often running even hotter.

Why the wrong wood spoils a pizza night

A softwood or a light, quick-burning hardwood will get an oven hot briefly, but the temperature drops fast between firings, which means a longer wait between pizzas and a less consistent bake. Wet or unseasoned wood is worse still: heavy smoke inside a domed oven affects the flavour of the food as well as the heat, which is another reason to only ever use properly dried, kiln-dried or Ready to Burn certified wood in a pizza oven.

Fire pits need to catch quickly and be easy to feed

A fire pit or chiminea is a different job entirely: you want a fire that lights easily, gets going fast, and is simple to top up through the evening as you sit around it. Alder is well suited here. It is a lighter hardwood that catches quickly and burns brightly, ideal for the more casual, hands-on nature of an evening around a fire pit, camping, or a chiminea on the patio.

Roughly how much you'll need

For a pizza oven used regularly at weekends, budget around 4 to 5 Barrow Bags of Hornbeam across a season (Hornbeam is a Barrow Bag species). For a fire pit used through the warmer months, around 8 to 12 Easy Bags of Alder is a sensible starting point; see our guide on how much firewood you need for the fuller picture across all burner types.

Quick questions

A few more questions.

Can I use the same wood for both a pizza oven and a fire pit? +

You can, but you'll get a better result matching the wood to the fire. Hornbeam's dense, sustained heat suits an oven; Alder's quick light suits a more casual fire pit.

Does kiln-dried wood matter more for a pizza oven than an open fire? +

If anything, more so. A domed oven concentrates smoke around the food, so wet or poorly dried wood affects flavour as well as heat. Kiln-dried, Ready to Burn certified wood avoids both problems.

Is softwood ever suitable for a pizza oven? +

It is fine as kindling to get the fire started, but for sustained cooking heat a dense hardwood like Hornbeam or Oak performs far better than softwood alone.