Frozen pizza

Directly on the oven rack, from frozen Recommended

Many frozen-pizza packs ask for the bare oven rack (the cited pack is one example), so this is usually the method the instructions were written for. The oven air thaws and cooks the pizza from all sides at a moderate rate, so the ice in the base and toppings has time to melt and evaporate before the surface over-browns. With nothing between the base and the hot air, steam escapes downwards instead of being trapped, which usually gives a drier, crisper underside than a cold tray.

On a baking tray — preheated or cold Good

A tray catches drips and supports soft or heavily topped pizzas, but it changes how heat reaches the base. A cold tray starts at room temperature and has to warm up under a frozen base, so the underside thaws slowly and can steam against the metal. A tray preheated in the oven gives the frozen base an immediate burst of conducted heat, which helps drive ice off and usually narrows the gap with the bare rack.

Even preheated, a tray usually gives a slightly softer base than the bare rack because steam cannot escape underneath; a cold tray gives the softest result of all.

On a preheated stone, at the pack's setting Workable

A hot stone gives the frozen base strong heat from below, which can melt and drive off ice quickly and produce a crisper base than the rack. But the frozen pizza pulls heat out of one patch of stone very suddenly, and stones can crack from that kind of uneven temperature change. The pizza's recipe was also balanced for the oven air, so the base may now finish ahead of the top.

A crisper base in exchange for a risk of cracking the stone and a base that can scorch before the frozen top has melted; the pack's timings no longer quite apply.

On a preheated steel, part of the bake Workable

Steel conducts heat into a base much faster than stone, so it can crisp a frozen base well and will not crack. The same strength is the problem: a thin frozen base can brown or scorch on steel while the ice in the toppings above has barely melted, because the frozen pizza was designed for gentle, all-round oven air.

A very crisp base, but the base and top easily fall out of step; it usually needs a split bake (rack then steel, or steel then a higher shelf) and close watching.

In the basket, if the pizza fits flat Workable

An air fryer's strong, close top heat and fast air melt cheese and crisp a rim quickly, and a small chamber heats in minutes. A frozen pizza, though, has ice in its base and toppings that has to melt before the centre can heat, and the air fryer's heat is strongest on top. The base sits on thin basket metal that stores little heat, so a short preheat helps: it warms that metal before the frozen base lands on it.

Only small pizzas fit, the top can finish well before a frozen centre, and results vary between models; follow air-fryer instructions on the pack where they exist, and use the oven where they do not.

Grill finish only, after a full oven bake A compromise

The grill is purely top-down radiant heat. It can blister cheese and colour a pale top in a minute or two, but it does almost nothing to a frozen base or core. Used to cook a frozen pizza from the start, it would burn the top over an icy centre, so it is only a finishing step.

It adds browning to the top, nothing else; the pizza must already be fully cooked by the pack's oven method first, and the grill phase needs constant attention.

Indirect heat with the lid down A compromise

A gas barbecue cooked indirectly — burners on one side, pizza on the other, lid closed — behaves roughly like a hot, uneven oven, which can cook a frozen pizza through. Directly over lit burners, the base would burn long before the frozen top melted. The temperature under the lid swings and varies across the grate, so the pack's oven timings only loosely apply.

Uneven, harder-to-control heat and no reliable timings; it is worth doing when the barbecue is already lit, not as a better way to cook a frozen pizza.

Not recommended at full heat Not recommended

A gas pizza oven's floor and flame are built for a raw, room-temperature pizza that cooks in a couple of minutes. A frozen pizza needs time for ice to melt before its centre can heat; at those temperatures the base and exposed edge char long before that happens, and at least one oven maker advises against frozen pizza in its live-fire ovens for exactly this reason. A cold, frozen base can also stress a very hot stone.

Turned right down, some cooks get a passable result by turning the pizza constantly, but it gives up the oven's whole point and still risks a charred outside over a cold centre; the domestic oven is the better tool.