Pizza Oven Thread

[BobSaunders]

Bought an ooni, knowing that i probably wont use a built in one regulary. Get's used most Saturdays with the kids - even in rain/snow.

[Road2Ruin]

Got an Ooni too. Amazing bit of kit,beware of cheaper alternatives. Would say probably use it about 6 or 7 times a year. Pizzas though are like proper Italian thin and crispy.

[HTP99]

dudleybloke said:

My mate bought one last year and after an initial flurry of pizzas it never gets used.
They are great for party's though.

We stayed at an Airbnb a couple of years ago which had a built in wood fired pizza oven, when I found out before going, I was so excited, what an utter ballache, it put me right off them, so much faff to cook 2 pizzas.

[simon_harris]

if you just want to cook pizza then an Ooni or similar is probably the best answer, unless you are planning on cooking for lots of people regularly.

If you want the capability of doing much much more then a brick built wood fired oven is a great answer - however think carefully about where you put it in the garden to maximise its usefulness and I would seriously think about building it under cover at the same time to mitigate the weather.

[SHutchinson]

Another Ooni here. Got the multifuel 12g. Can do a pizza supper for the kids in no time running it on gas.

We've never had a bad pizza out of it. Buy the frozen dough that most supermarkets sell and Bobs your mothers brother!

[simon_harris]

One thing to point out that may really factor in your decision - Ooni or similar can be ready to use and cooking Pizza in 20-30 minutes, a full on WFO you are looking at least a couple of hours of warm up time and £15-20 worth of wood to do it.

[ajap1979]

I use my Gozney Roccbox at least a few times a weeks. It’s great for cooking all sorts of stuff, not just pizza. A Dome might be worth looking at if you want something with more capacity.

https://www.gozney.com/products/dome

[Electronicpants]

Go one better and get the electric one (Ooni), then you can stick it indoors when it pisses it and never be disappointed by the great British summer again.

[kambites]

Car bon said:

Can you build some kind of structure over it ?

I like cooking outside - just not standing in the rain to do it.

That's our plan when I get around to it - an open-sided gazebo type structure containing a BBQ, pizza oven and a table and chairs. And maybe a beer/wine fridge.

[Patio]

Thanks all

That's convinced me, it's a no at this time

[Terry Winks]

simon_harris said:

One thing to point out that may really factor in your decision - Ooni or similar can be ready to use and cooking Pizza in 20-30 minutes, a full on WFO you are looking at least a couple of hours of warm up time and £15-20 worth of wood to do it.

I think you're mostly right, I think £15-20 worth of wood is a bit of a stretch though. I love my full oven, it has a bit of theatre about it when you have people over, but yes, its 2 hours beforehand to get heat into it. I really enjoy the whole process though.

[Terry Winks]

This weather can seriously get in the bin, hopefully there will be some better weather for when this is built.

[simon_harris]

Terry Winks said:

simon_harris said:

One thing to point out that may really factor in your decision - Ooni or similar can be ready to use and cooking Pizza in 20-30 minutes, a full on WFO you are looking at least a couple of hours of warm up time and £15-20 worth of wood to do it.

I think you're mostly right, I think £15-20 worth of wood is a bit of a stretch though. I love my full oven, it has a bit of theatre about it when you have people over, but yes, its 2 hours beforehand to get heat into it. I really enjoy the whole process though.

Depends on how you buy your wood, a couple of bags from the garden centre can be £8-10 a bag, two or three bags required for a long firing. If you buy by the tonne it will be a lot cheaper but probably still not cheap. For clarity i do have a full on WFO (that I built in the wrong place and has no cover )

I say this having no idea how much it costs to run an Ooni!

[ajap1979]

simon_harris said:

I say this having no idea how much it costs to run an Ooni!

Not sure about Ooni, but Gozney say the Roccbox uses 300-400g per hour of use. 13kg bottle of propane is around £45, so you'll get a worst-case of 32.5 hours of use at approx. £1.38/hr.

[simon_harris]

That is quite cheap really, not sure how I'd do a comparable cost per hour calc for a WFO, as an example if I fire it up in the evening to cook or make Pizzas then by the following morning I could bake bread, or even do a cooked breakfast (with the right menu or a small fire to top up) so the cost per hour potentially could be stretched out for longer than my initial firing.

[PT1984]

Since I received the gas attachment for my Karu, iv been cooking everting in the Ooni. Tonight, burgers!

[SHutchinson]

PT1984 said:

Since I received the gas attachment for my Karu, iv been cooking everting in the Ooni. Tonight, burgers!

What happens to all the splattery fat? Does it just vapourise/burn off?

I'm definitely going to cook some meat in mine moving forward. Inspired by el burrito monster on Instagram, want to do some fancy chargrilled meat.

[Scabutz]

SHutchinson said:

What happens to all the splattery fat? Does it just vapourise/burn off?

I'm definitely going to cook some meat in mine moving forward. Inspired by el burrito monster on Instagram, want to do some fancy chargrilled meat.

You can get the ovens to close to 500c so it just turns to ash. Like those self cleaning ovens.

[Laplace]

21TonyK said:

Back in the game! Will post results.

They are what they are, just don't expect great results.

I started out with one a number of years ago and made a few mods which drastically improved the quality of the pizza, but it still lacked in a few areas.

One of the big issues is that it is, quite rightly, thermostatically controlled and lacks top heat. This results in the element more often than not cutting out mid-cook resulting in longer cook times and pretty much impossible to cook anything other than an over crunchy crust. Forget neopolitan.

Modding isn't for everyone but what I ended up doing was firstly electrically bypassing the stat so that I was in control of the oven from the socket switch. Not something I could openly recommend but as a sparky it was something I was comfortable with. This gave some pretty good and immediate improvements.

Secondly I moved the base element into the lid so that I now had two elements in the lid and added a foil pie dish as an improved reflector which also helped with the sides of the crust. After a good preheat there was more than sufficient heat in the stone to cook the base.

Essentially the pizza went from looking something like this in the beginning...



After the stat removal ...


Then after adding top element....Huge difference...


I wouldn't say it's a bad oven, it's a relatively cheap no frills counter top oven; so just adjust expectations accordingly. If you get the bug and end up looking to upgrade to a Roccbox/Ooni then you will have probably went through a lot of the beginner pizza dough learning phase by that point and be in a better position to get the most out of your upgrade.

Nowadays I just have the Roccbox at home which I think is a cracking little oven but my FiL has brick oven which I enjoy pulling these out of when he has yet to produce anything remotely edible yet GL and enjoy!

[hidetheelephants]

Laplace said:

Secondly I moved the base element into the lid so that I now had two elements in the lid and added a foil pie dish as an improved reflector which also helped with the sides of the crust. After a good preheat there was more than sufficient heat in the stone to cook the base.

Any chance of a picture of the modified lid?

Cheers!