Pizza ovens

RonnieL

budgemook wrote: »

Hi All, I am going to give my new Ooni it's first run out tomorrow. I have 2 questions for you guys:

First, I don't have any table yet. Would I be okay putting the oven on a glass patio table, or should I just put it on the ground for now?

Second, I have picked up some San Marzano tomatoes as people on here seem to recommend them. I usually cool my pizza sauce for an hour or two (can tomatoes, salt, sugar, oregano, small bit of stock) but I know some people don't cook the pizza sauce at all. Is there any consensus on using San Marzano tomatoes?

Two contentious topics. I got some flack before for saying I use a wheelie bin to put my oven on when cooking, but as the other poster said, I'd only do that when using Gas, as the bottom of the oven doesn't get very hot. I've been doing that for years now, and never a problem. So, I'm sure your table will be fine too (the beauty of the bin is it's the right height).

Regarding the sauce, the purists will tell you that all you need to do with San Marzano's is squish them with your hands, and season with some salt (setting the sauce from the tin aside). However, I didn't like the consistency of the sauce whenever I've done it that way. So, the last few times I've cooked my san marzanos (tin sauce included) with a good amount of garlic, some salt, and then some fresh basis at the end. Then whizzed with the hand blender and it came out lovely. Nice consistency, and very tasty.

budgemook

RonnieL wrote: »

Two contentious topics. I got some flack before for saying I use a wheelie bin to put my oven on when cooking, but as the other poster said, I'd only do that when using Gas, as the bottom of the oven doesn't get very hot. I've been doing that for years now, and never a problem. So, I'm sure your table will be fine too (the beauty of the bin is it's the right height).

Regarding the sauce, the purists will tell you that all you need to do with San Marzano's is squish them with your hands, and season with some salt (setting the sauce from the tin aside). However, I didn't like the consistency of the sauce whenever I've done it that way. So, the last few times I've cooked my san marzanos (tin sauce included) with a good amount of garlic, some salt, and then some fresh basis at the end. Then whizzed with the hand blender and it came out lovely. Nice consistency, and very tasty.

Ha, I have been thinking about the wheelie bins alright!

Pete123456

budgemook wrote: »

Oh yeah, forgot to say it's a Karu and I'll be loading it with lumpwood and kindling

Using it any lower than knee height is a pain in the arse, especially if you don’t have experience launching etc.

I would probably change using the glass table it likely won’t get hot enough that far away to do any damage but just keep and eye and worst case scenario you can move it with oven gloves and a towel

nomoedoe

budgemook wrote: »

Hi All, I am going to give my new Ooni it's first run out tomorrow. I have 2 questions for you guys:

First, I don't have any table yet. Would I be okay putting the oven on a glass patio table, or should I just put it on the ground for now?

Second, I have picked up some San Marzano tomatoes as people on here seem to recommend them. I usually cool my pizza sauce for an hour or two (can tomatoes, salt, sugar, oregano, small bit of stock) but I know some people don't cook the pizza sauce at all. Is there any consensus on using San Marzano tomatoes?

There’s a sweet taste off san marzano tomatoes already so maybe leave out the sugar and stock ,for me I usually just blend a tin with a little bit of garlic basil and salt then I simmer it on the lowest setting for about an hour and leave cool for about an hour before putting it on the pizza ,it’s a all trial and error with pizza just try a few different things until you are happy

budgemook

nomoedoe wrote: »

There’s a sweet taste off san marzano tomatoes already so maybe leave out the sugar and stock ,for me I usually just blend a tin with a little bit of garlic basil and salt then I simmer it on the lowest setting for about an hour and leave cool for about an hour before putting it on the pizza ,it’s a all trial and error with pizza just try a few different things until you are happy

This sounds about right to me. I'll go with this for the first run. Cheers.

The chan chan man

budgemook wrote: »

Hi All, I am going to give my new Ooni it's first run out tomorrow. I have 2 questions for you guys:

First, I don't have any table yet. Would I be okay putting the oven on a glass patio table, or should I just put it on the ground for now?

Second, I have picked up some San Marzano tomatoes as people on here seem to recommend them. I usually cool my pizza sauce for an hour or two (can tomatoes, salt, sugar, oregano, small bit of stock) but I know some people don't cook the pizza sauce at all. Is there any consensus on using San Marzano tomatoes?

I never cook the sauce. Following Vito Iacopelli’s recipe - can of san marzano, some salt - blend with a stick blender and off you go. Simplicity is key for pizzas (neapolitan) in my view. The american nonsense of cooking the sauce for 2 hours with sugar, garlic, herbs and honey etc - bah!

budgemook

The chan chan man wrote: »

I never cook the sauce. Following Vito Iacopelli’s recipe - can of san marzano, some salt - blend with a stick blender and off you go. Simplicity is key for pizzas (neapolitan) in my view. The american nonsense of cooking the sauce for 2 hours with sugar, garlic, herbs and honey etc - bah!

Cooking the tomatoes takes the sharpness out of them and I do the same for pasta sauce. I am not familiar with San Marzano tomatoes though.

TBH at this stage I'm thinking of just going back to the pizza sauce recipe that has served me for years, especially now as it looks like we'll have a guest :O

dmc17

budgemook wrote: »

Hi All, I am going to give my new Ooni it's first run out tomorrow. I have 2 questions for you guys:

First, I don't have any table yet. Would I be okay putting the oven on a glass patio table, or should I just put it on the ground for now?

Second, I have picked up some San Marzano tomatoes as people on here seem to recommend them. I usually cool my pizza sauce for an hour or two (can tomatoes, salt, sugar, oregano, small bit of stock) but I know some people don't cook the pizza sauce at all. Is there any consensus on using San Marzano tomatoes?

I use the fyra on this glass top garden table I got in Lidl with no issues.

Gloomtastic!

budgemook wrote: »

Hi All, I am going to give my new Ooni it's first run out tomorrow. I have 2 questions for you guys:

First, I don't have any table yet. Would I be okay putting the oven on a glass patio table, or should I just put it on the ground for now?

Second, I have picked up some San Marzano tomatoes as people on here seem to recommend them. I usually cool my pizza sauce for an hour or two (can tomatoes, salt, sugar, oregano, small bit of stock) but I know some people don't cook the pizza sauce at all. Is there any consensus on using San Marzano tomatoes?

Lots of advice already given but I'll just add my bit.

Water and weight are your enemies. I cook my pizza sauce for an hour or so to remove as much liquid as I can. Remove liquid from your mozzarella by putting slices of it in between layers of kitchen roll.

Keep toppings to a minimum, weight-wise. Makes it much easier to control.

Also, cook any raw meats beforehand because the minute or so in the Ooni is sometimes not enough to cook through.

Good luck!

The chan chan man

The best advice for anyone with a new oven - DO NOT invite people over the very first time you use it expecting to be the superstar of some cool pizza party...

Wait til you’ve perfected it (or at least gotten good at it!). Not making a balls of it and getting my dough right took months. Its a fun and worthwhile process though.

JohnnyJohnJohns

A great pizzas sauce is the mutti aromatics, comes in a tin, pop it open and go straight onto the pizza. Its a really nice sauce and has a bit more going on than San marzano and salt. It means you can focus on the dough which is probably the hardest bit to get right when you're starting out. As someone else mentioned go light on toppings at first, too many can make it hard to launch the pizza.

Also, enjoy, even when pizza goes balls up in the ooni it still tastes pretty good!

Muahahaha

Just on using a glass table, I tested the heat underneath the Ooni with the IR thermometer when it was running at full pelt of 450c for 10 minutes. Mine is on a wooden table and the surface of the wood read 45c. Glass needs to be 150c+ before it breaks. So I reckon you would be fine using a glass table but long term wood is probably better

budgemook

Cheers for all the advice. I remembered I have a folding picnic table in the attic so I'm all set. I'm happy with my dough and all that, have been cooking pizza in the BBQ for a couple of years now

budgemook

budgemook wrote: »

Cheers for all the advice. I remembered I have a folding picnic table in the attic so I'm all set. I'm happy with my dough and all that, have been cooking pizza in the BBQ for a couple of years now

Pretty happy with the pizza today. The oven is incredibly easy to use - lighting it and keeping it going is very straightforward.

One pizza stuck to the peel and was a bit of a disaster, I think I might forgotten to dust it with semola but the others were good. Main improvement for next time is just to realise how quickly they cook - I was pretty close to burning them and would have liked the base a little less done in parts.

Overall though I am happy with the oven and looking forward to using it again.

oleras

Used this 48hour recipe last week and came out very puffy, so light and airy.

Sidford

oleras wrote: »

Used this 48hour recipe last week and came out very puffy, so light and airy.

What cheese did you use for such good results?

dmc17

Think I may have had too much crust on this one but it was good crust so no complaints

oleras

Sidford wrote: »

What cheese did you use for such good results?

Scamorza Bianco. Grated over it.

nomoedoe

oleras wrote: »

Scamorza Bianco. Grated over it.

That cheese looks great I just got myself some this morning and will try it on a pizza tonight I used smoked scamorza before but I wasn’t mad about the taste

The Nal

oleras wrote: »

Used this 48hour recipe last week and came out very puffy, so light and airy.

Looks great. Any difference in taste?

el_gaucho

My Karu finally arrived today. I probably won’t have time to test till the weekend. Do people prefer hardwood or charcoal? I have a bag of charcoal here but I would have thought hardwood would be easier.

oleras

The Nal wrote: »

Looks great. Any difference in taste?

Deffo a more fermented/beer brewing taste, sour ? maybe thats what sourdough achieves also ?

el_gaucho

el_gaucho wrote: »

My Karu finally arrived today.

When did you order ?!
Mines been sitting in france since the 18th if the tracking is to be believed and its like waiting for santa

el_gaucho

Mr.Thompson wrote: »

When did you order ?!
Mines been sitting in france since the 18th if the tracking is to be believed and its like waiting for santa

On the 11th. I’m just reading the manual and I see that they recommend hardwood for pizzas and charcoal for slow cooking.

dmc17

Mr.Thompson wrote: »

When did you order ?!
Mines been sitting in france since the 18th if the tracking is to be believed and its like waiting for santa

I can confirm that the tracking is not to be believed! The last order I put in left a depot in France and arrived back at the same depot in France a few days later according to the tracking. That was the final update on the tracking system and it was delivered to me a few days after that again.

el_gaucho

I think mine left the depot in France and arrived back on the same day! Apparently. Once it got to Ireland it arrived pretty quickly.

nomoedoe

oleras wrote: »

Scamorza Bianco. Grated over it.

Tried this cheese last night on a ham & bacon pizza it was really good melted perfectly and tasted great!

PARlance

It's been two and a half weeks since my last pizza... Starting to day dream about them at this stage. Think I'll be preparing some dough tonight.

joficeduns1

Testing those frozen sourdough doughballs tonight. Have some leftover mozz. from the weekend but tempted to try out some goats cheese and Rudd's chorizo. Just FYI for anyone that cares, the chorizo is nothing special but needs to be used up here.

Springwell

joficeduns1 wrote: »

Testing those frozen sourdough doughballs tonight. Have some leftover mozz. from the weekend but tempted to try out some goats cheese and Rudd's chorizo. Just FYI for anyone that cares, the chorizo is nothing special but needs to be used up here.

We used them last week, very good - took them out on Friday afternoon, into fridge overnight and then out on kitchen counter at noon on Saturday. Cooked at 6pm.