Pizza peel – wood or aluminium?
Wood grips better while you build the pizza; aluminium's thin edge slides in more easily. Why many bakers end up using both, one for each stage.
Quick answer: Wood sticks less to the dough while you build and top the pizza, but has a thicker edge that makes it harder to get under a finished pizza. Aluminium has a thin edge that slides more easily into the oven, but the dough sticks more easily to the cold, smooth surface. Many people solve this by using both: wood for building, metal for launching.
Why the material matters
A pizza peel’s job really has two quite different phases: holding a topped, unbaked dough still while you work on it, and then getting it into the oven without it folding or sticking. Wood and aluminium are good at different halves of that job, which is why the debate rarely has one clear answer.
Wood: better grip, worse edge
Wood is porous and draws moisture out of the flour you dust on, which means a well-floured surface keeps the pizza moving for longer before it starts to stick. That makes wood pleasant to work with while topping and shifting the pizza back and forth. The downside is the edge: a wooden peel is rarely thinner than 4–5 mm, and that thickness means you have to nudge your way under the dough rather than simply sliding underneath it — especially awkward once the pizza is already sitting on the worktop with sauce and cheese on it.
Aluminium: thin edge, colder surface
An aluminium peel can be under 2 mm thick at the front edge, which lets it work its way easily under a pizza that’s already sitting still. But the metal surface is smooth and cool, and a moist dough base left on it for a while starts sticking faster than it would on wood. Aluminium is therefore best for the short moment right before the pizza goes into the oven — not for building and topping.
The combination many people land on
Build and top the pizza on a well-floured wooden peel or board. Right before it goes in, slide a thin metal peel underneath (ideally perforated, which also lets excess flour fall through) and launch straight away. You get wood’s grip during preparation and metal’s thin edge at the moment it matters most.
Care
Never put a wooden peel in the dishwasher or leave it soaking — wipe it down and oil it now and then so it doesn’t crack. Metal handles more water but scratches and dents more easily, and burnt dough stuck to the edge should be scraped off before the next bake.
Read on about the perforated pizza peel and the turning peel for rotating in the oven. If the pizza still sticks despite the right peel, see pizza sticks to the peel. Also read about the launching motion itself in launching, and get started with your first pizza.
