The world of wood-fired pizza is absolutely topping. What was a relatively humble dish – a dough base carrying often just a tomato sauce and cheese for many – has been transformed by both gourmet taste desires and the world of social media. It’s the toppings that often determine whether your wood-fired oven delight becomes an Instagram star, or not.
Many wood-fired oven chefs across the country are continually scratching their heads, seeking to come up with toppings that will make cameras click and encourage shares. Food trends are becoming more adventurous in their nature, with Latin American, Indian and Middle Eastern flavours making their way on to pizzas that tickle our taste buds in new ways. But is it all about going that extra global mile?
More regular wood-fired oven toppings
Luckily, there is still plenty of room for the more traditional, ever-popular pizza toppings that will lure in those who catch a waft of Mediterranean aromas as they walk past, or the tipplers who cannot resist ordering their favourite as they see a food order going out to a table. Despite the rise in veganism, a meat-fix is what many of us crave when we order pizza, but what are the top meat-based pizza toppings for UK diners?
According to research conducted by the Tulip Food Company, the UK goes mad for its pepperoni, with nearly half of us saying this is our favourite meat-based topping. This is followed by ham (35%), and then the increasingly popular choice of chicken (32%). This ranks above bacon/pancetta (27%), salami (a surprisingly low 16%) and pulled chicken (16%). Both minced beef and meatballs tick the box for 15% of us, followed by sausages (14%) and pulled pork (13%).
Whether or not this means that pulled pork – seemingly ever-present on menus over the past few years – is on the wane as our must-have food treat, is not known. However, if you consider that chicken, in some form or other, is the favourite of 48% of people, wood-fired pizza-oven-owning chefs should be putting their little grey cells to work, to devise chicken-based pizza topping treats.
Get more out of your wood-fired oven
Of course, a clever wood-fired oven owner will know that slow-cooking a roast (with a chosen rub over the skin) in an oven that can slowly cook a meat joint through the night – and maintain temperature, as Valoriani wood-fired ovens do – will produce the perfect ‘pulled’ meat topping. A wood-fired oven is for all types of food and not just pizza, so use it to not only cook your dough decorated creation, but actually make some of those extra-special toppings that will turn your pizza into something truly magnificent to devour and completely irresistible when it comes to snapping and sharing.