I am being bombarded by pizza oven adverts on Reddit. I don’t really want one and actually can see it becoming another piece of tat so quickly that I wouldn’t dare to buy one for anyone else.
However, I do love a pizza and I have been known to knock up a mean homemade pepperoni.
So………pizza ovens are they just another thing that will end up in the garage rusting away after a couple of forced uses?
32 comments
We had a wood fired outdoor one. The kind you often see in b and q.
Made gorgeous pizza, but we decided it was just too much faff to clean. Basically had to clean an enclosed log burned every time you used it.
I was discussing this with a pal and his neighbour last night, they each have one and think they are absolute gash. Apparently another neighbour cooks a mean roast lamb in one though.
I haven’t bought one myself but I know someone who has an Ooni, seems to be the go to pizza oven brand and he loves it, uses it all the time and the pizzas do look insane to be fair.
Yes, on our second one.
Went cheap wood fired one first time and was too much effort to keep hot – although we did use it pretty regularly. Sold it on to get an upgrade.
Invested in a gozney roccbox, expensive, but a fantastic piece of kit. Gas powered so no effort to heat up and keep hot (but can buy a wood fired burner too if you like the misery). We use it most weeks even through the winter.
I have an Ooni, it’s brilliant. Takes seconds to set up and I can have it going in just a few minutes. Cooks pizza in about 90 seconds so, all in, is quicker than the oven and makes better pizza.
The best thing is that it’s portable. We’ve taken it to friends houses, to the beach, etc. I’d love to get a van, strap it to the back and go sell pizza, you could make a mint.
Get some old slabs or bricks and make a crude one yourself. If you’re still using it 6 months later buy or make a proper one?
I bought an ooni in the first lockdown and honestly I’m still using it weekly. I love it.
Have a friend with one. Seems pretty small. Had 9 of us over and by the time they’d cooked all the pizzas the party was over and the host hadn’t eaten yet.
We bought one at the start of lockdown. We probably use it once a month in the winter and more often in the summer months. Absolutely love it.
Another Ooni user here. They’re really, really worth the money if you appreciate good pizza and are prepared to put the effort into making dough regularly.
The 500°c heat makes a VERY noticeable texture difference compared to cooking in a normal oven at its highest heat setting (my, run of the mill, oven at least). So, so much lighter and all round nicer.
There’s not much messing around to be done with them to be honest, light it, let it heat up, throw a pizza in, turn it after 30 seconds, pull it out after 30 seconds more and you have pizza. Top up the pellets and wait 10 mins until it’s back up to temperature and ready to go again. I think the most I’ve done is about 8 pizzas in succession for a family event.
I imagine quite a few of them end up in the shed after a few uses – it’s a hell of a lot of effort if someone is used to pre-made pizzas. But if you make pizza at home regularly anyway, I’d definitely recommend them.
They don’t really require much ‘maintenance’ really either, the high heat burns anything off, I usually just empty the ash and put it away for next time. I store mine in a plastic case that I can chuck in the car and take it camping/family events etc. My mate has left his out in the elements for 3 years and it’s still working/looking ok, so they’re pretty well made.
I’ve not tried any other brands but a few of the competitors to Ooni look pretty great too – definitely a few good options out there judging by the reviews.
Edit: someone asked what model Ooni and I don’t know whether it was a chat, a message or a reply that’s disappeared. I have the entry level one, the Fyra 12
Apparently Ooni is very good but the rest don’t get hot enough for proper neopolitan
The Ooni one is great and well worth the purchase if you use it regularly. It doesn’t even need that much cleaning.
“adverts on Reddit” – Reddit has adverts??
BIL has one, he uses it all the time, he’s made us pizza a number of times now and I’d take his pizza over a take-out any day, it’s that damn good.
It’s easy to set up, takes literally a minute to cook. The longest part of the process is making your own base, which he does from scratch, but you can buy it ready made and save yourself the hassle.
In short, we’d like one now, so I’d go for it.
If you’re not already making pizzas frequently using the standard oven, then levelling up to a dedicated pizza oven is probably going to be a bad idea.
The first step to a hobby shouldn’t include spending lots of money before you know if you’ll like it.
We were on holiday somewhere that had one. I make pizza from scratch so as I was getting everything ready I genuinely thought I would buy one when I got home. Then came cooking the pizzas for 6 people which meant a lot of time standing around faffing with pizzas and by the time I made the final pizza for me to eat most people had finished. If I’d cooked them in the oven it would have taken several sessions because of the space they took up but at least I’d have been able to sit down and socialise while they were cooking.
I’ve the aldi one you stick on the bbq. It’s very good use it about once or twice a month.
But in the winter I make them in the oven.
I’ve found the sainsburys dough recipe is freaking brilliant.
Try that in the oven with some chorizonamd mozzarella and if you like doing that then maybe buy the oven
Had one from Argos, did make nice pizza but you really need a good dough, and it took a long time to heat up and smoked a lot while doing so, so I got rid of it.
The oonis do sound good though, mine was massive so a smaller one would probably be more versatile and heat up quicker
if I read the word ooni one more time I’m going to go fucking ballistic
We have an outdoor brick-built one.
It doesn’t work, can’t cook pizza or anything really, was built badly so impossible to get hot enough.
If you get one I don’t recommend one like that.
They are pretty great but I’ll go a little against the grain here rather than pay for an ooni out the gate get a pizza stone or steel for oven, along with a pizza paddle. And see if you like the process for significantly cheeper price than that of an ooni.
If you like making the dough and the pizza and sliding it in the oven version and you find yourself doing it every week for a month get the upgrade.
Steels and stones are great in the oven anyway so have other uses (mainly pies for me) and if you don’t like it you’ll have spent maybe 50 quid.
Get a pizza stone. Cheap and good results
went to a friend’s recently who had an ooni….every pizza was burnt. basically it is hot and uncontrollable, just get a pizza stone and use the oven.
I’ve got a pizza stone with a top that can be used with the bbq, it makes great pizzas and was pretty inexpensive. We just use wood in the bbq.
The stone can also be used in the oven when it rains which is handy.
If you’re consider an electric one, keep an eye on hotukdeals for the G3 Ferrari. Also available at reasonable prices second hand and keep their value. You can modify them to get extra-hot if you get into it.
My dad has one and he spent alot on it, around £600 for a table top one, cooks pizzas very well in about 90 seconds
Not that I personally care but all this wood pellet burning stuff is a factor in urban air quality.
I only mention it as I imagine a lot of the XR types to be very hypocritical when it comes to their own footprint, especially here in Bristol.
I was totally ignoring these ads but the comments on here make me feel like I’m missing out on something great lol.
Definitely looking into these now.
How often do u think you would make pizza ? Thats the question. The oven os good but no point if you don’t wanna make pizza, its not anymore convenient but but it cooks pizza nicely
I’m came here with the pizza oven mentally lumped in to a predefined category of another piece of tat, but now I’ve read some of the comments I kinda want one. Is this the next level of advertising on Reddit?
The only people I know who bought these are people who retired from work but had salaries of around $400,000 a year. They can afford to fuck around with expensive garden ovens and have space to store them inside. I can make a reasonable pizza at home better than any takeaway. Sadly, I haven’t found a takeaway in my major city that can actually make a fucking traditional pizza. You say thin base you get super thick base, order thick base, it’s fucking huge. Thin should be a sliver of a base.
How often do you eat pizza? If it’s not more than 3 times a week, you probably don’t require an additional appliance to cook one.