You bought the oven. You watched the videos. You invited people over. And then the pizza came out wrong — pale crust, uneven cook, oven that never quite got where it needed to be.
Nine times out of ten, the oven isn’t the problem. The wood is. Most people grab whatever’s available — hardware store bundles, a neighbor’s leftover pile — without realizing that pizza ovens have specific requirements that regular fireplace wood doesn’t meet. Once you understand what you’re actually looking for, it’s a straightforward fix.
Here’s what you need to know.
What Makes Firewood Right for a Pizza Oven
A pizza oven isn’t a fireplace. It needs to reach 850°F to 950°F and hold that temperature long enough to cook multiple pies — each one in roughly 60 to 90 seconds if you’re doing it right. That kind of sustained, intense heat puts real demands on your fuel.
Three things determine whether your firewood is up to the job: species, moisture content, and split size. Get all three right and your oven performs the way it’s supposed to. Miss any one of them and you’re fighting the fire the whole session instead of cooking pizza.
Which Wood Species Actually Work in a Pizza Oven
Oak is the gold standard, and for good reason. Red oak produces around 24 million BTU per cord, white oak slightly more at 24.6 million. Both burn hot, produce a long-lasting coal bed — 60 to 75 minutes on average — and are widely available across the Northeast. If you only ever use one species in your pizza oven, make it oak.
Ash is a close second and arguably underrated. It ignites faster than oak, stays lit reliably, and burns clean. The combination of ash and oak is what most serious wood-fired pizza operations use — including more than 30 wood-fired restaurants across New York City. That’s not a coincidence. The blend gives you the fast ignition of ash with the sustained heat output of oak, which is exactly what you want when you’re managing a fire through multiple rounds of pizza.
Cherry is worth mentioning as a secondary wood. It produces less heat — around 19.5 million BTU per cord — but it lights quickly and adds a subtle, slightly fruity smoke that can complement the crust without overpowering it. Some people add a piece or two during a session for that reason. It’s not a primary fuel, but it has its place.
What you want to avoid entirely is softwood. Pine, cedar, fir — these are too resinous for a cooking environment. They produce excessive smoke, coat the interior of your oven with soot and creosote, and can affect the food. Even if it’s technically hardwood, mystery mixed wood from an unknown source isn’t worth the risk when you’re cooking something you’re going to eat.
Moisture Content: The Number That Determines Whether Your Oven Performs
If there’s one variable that separates a pizza oven session that works from one that doesn’t, it’s moisture content. Wet wood doesn’t just burn poorly — it actively works against you. The fire spends energy evaporating the water trapped in the wood instead of generating heat, which means your oven takes longer to come up to temperature and struggles to stay there.
We recommend wood under 20% moisture as a baseline, but serious pizza oven users aim tighter — under 15%. At that level, the wood ignites faster, the dome heats up more efficiently, and you get a cleaner burn with less smoke. The difference between 22% and 12% moisture isn’t subtle when you’re trying to hit 900°F.
This is where the distinction between seasoned and kiln-dried wood actually matters. Seasoned wood is air-dried over months or years and typically lands somewhere between 15% and 25% moisture — which means it can be fine or it can be borderline, depending on how long it sat and how it was stored. Kiln-dried wood is processed in a controlled environment and consistently comes in below 15%. There’s no guesswork.
The problem in the Nassau County, NY firewood market — and honestly, in most regional markets — is that “seasoned” gets used loosely. Suppliers advertise seasoned wood that arrives wet because there’s no standard enforced. If you’ve ever bought firewood that was hard to light, produced a lot of smoke, or just wouldn’t get your oven hot, moisture is almost certainly why. Kiln-dried wood solves that problem because the moisture level is verifiable, not just claimed.
Kindling for Pizza Ovens: The Step Most People Skip
Even the driest hardwood doesn’t just catch on its own. The startup phase — getting from a cold oven to a proper coal bed — depends heavily on having the right kindling and using it correctly. This is the step most home pizza oven owners either rush or skip entirely, and it’s often why fires fail to get going despite good main fuel.
Thin hardwood splits are the right choice for kindling in a pizza oven. Not softwood, not newspaper alone, not store-bought fatwood sticks as your primary starter. Small, dry hardwood pieces that catch quickly and burn hot enough to bring your larger splits up to temperature. The goal is to build heat progressively, not throw everything in at once.
Best Wood for Ooni Pizza Ovens
Compact ovens like the Ooni Karu 12 and Karu 16 have become a fixture in Nassau County, NY backyards over the last few years — and for good reason. They heat up fast, they’re genuinely portable, and they can produce restaurant-quality pizza at home. But they also have a specific problem that catches a lot of owners off guard: the firebox is small.
Standard fireplace splits — 16 to 18 inches long — don’t fit. Even if you could force them in, they wouldn’t burn efficiently in that space. For Ooni-style ovens, you’re looking for splits that are 5 to 6 inches long and roughly 2 to 3 inches thick. That’s significantly smaller than what most firewood suppliers deliver by default, and it’s why a lot of people end up frustrated after buying a cord of otherwise decent firewood that just doesn’t work for their setup.
For the Karu 12 specifically, you’ll also want to think about how you’re feeding the fire during a session. These ovens aren’t set-it-and-forget-it — you add wood every few minutes to maintain temperature. Having a consistent supply of correctly sized, dry hardwood splits on hand before you start is the difference between a smooth session and a frantic one. A typical backyard session of four to eight pizzas uses somewhere between five and ten pieces of wood, depending on your oven and how you manage the fire.
Kiln-dried oak is the practical choice for Ooni owners who want reliable performance. It lights fast, burns hot, and the small split size means you can get through a full session without constantly fighting to maintain temperature. If you want to experiment with flavor, adding a piece of cherry wood during the cooking phase — not the startup phase — can give the crust a subtle complexity without throwing off your heat management.
Why We Source Pizza Oven Wood Locally in Nassau County
New York State restricts the movement of untreated firewood across regional lines specifically to prevent the spread of invasive pests — emerald ash borer, spotted lanternfly, Asian longhorned beetle. When you buy kiln-dried wood from us locally in Nassau County, NY, you’re keeping your yard protected and staying on the right side of those regulations.
Beyond compliance, timing matters for pizza season. In Nassau County, you’re cooking outdoors from roughly April through October — the warmer months when you’re actually using your backyard. That’s the off-season for most firewood suppliers, who focus on heating season inventory from August through March. We stock kiln-dried cooking wood year-round and can often deliver the same day you need it.
Nassau County has a strong outdoor entertaining culture, and communities across the county — Massapequa, Wantagh, Merrick, Rockville Centre, Lynbrook — have deep Italian-American roots and a genuine appreciation for wood-fired cooking. This isn’t a niche hobby here; it’s part of the food culture. People in these towns know what good Neapolitan pizza is supposed to taste like, and they want to make it at home without settling for a lesser result.
That’s exactly why the wood matters as much as it does. Ordering from a national retailer means waiting days for delivery, paying for shipping, and getting wood that may or may not be sized for your specific oven. When you work with us, we verify moisture content, deliver same-day when possible, and screen the wood before it’s loaded — so there’s no dirt or debris going anywhere near your cooking surface. For pizza oven use especially, where you’re burning wood in an open cooking environment, cleanliness isn’t just a nice-to-have.
Getting the Right Firewood for Your Pizza Oven
Use dry hardwood, sized correctly for your oven, from a source you can actually trust. Oak and ash are your best options for sustained heat. Kiln-dried beats seasoned when you need consistent results. And split size — especially if you’re running an Ooni or Gozney — matters more than most people realize until they’ve had one frustrating session with oversized logs.
If you’re in Nassau County, NY and want kiln-dried hardwood delivered without the guesswork, we carry it year-round and can often get it to you the same day. You can place an order by text, through our online chat, or directly on the site — whichever is easiest. No waiting on hold, no complicated process. Just the right wood, when you need it.