Cooking with Ooni Wood Fired Pizza Oven

[josephbloggs]

I recently made a thread with questions about import duties for hand carrying a wood fired pizza oven and 20kg of oak pellets back from the UK.

Got some good info and I carried it back with no issues.  Some people were interested in the oven and asked me to post a review once I'd used it, so here it is.  @richard_smith237

It's a brilliant bit of kit. So nicely engineered, easy to put together (took one minute), easy to use.  It gets to around 450 celcius in 15 minutes or so and cooks the pizza in 60 seconds.  I had to cure it for 30 minutes the first time (just burn wood in there at maximum temp) then it was ready to use. The very first pizza I cooked in there burnt as I put it in and came back 90 seconds later to check - too late; the second was great.  The heat is so intense that 10-15 seconds is the difference between being underdone, perfect, and burnt - literally - so you have to be vigilant.    The taste is amazing, the texture is amazing.  The machine needs no looking after other than cleaning soot out of the chimney.  

I just fired it up for the second time tonight.  Honestly better than most pizzas I've ever ordered, but definitely room for improvement still.  So my review is it is well worth it.  Needs a learning curve as to how to cook at such high heat (how thick should your base be, how sloppy your toppings can be, how devoted you need to be about watching it cook and turning it around and removing it in time), but overall it is 10/10.   If you were thinking of getting one I recommend it.   I should point out I have absolutely no affiliation with the company, they don't even ship to Thailand, but I had wanted one for a while, I had a trip to the UK booked so I ordered one to be delivered there then carried it back.  

https://ooni.com/collections/ovens/products/ooni-fyra

 

Some pictures from today.  

[KhunLA]

For those unfamiliar with the Ooni:

 

[josephbloggs]

24 minutes ago, KhunLA said:

For those unfamiliar with the Ooni:

 

Nice, I hadn't seen that before but it exactly matches with my experience!

[james.d]

Looks like it makes a great pizza. Extra anchovies on mine and deliver to Sai-Mai please.

 

[recom273]

It looks totally awesome, just how I like my pizza to be.

 

I might have to get the old folks to pick one up on their next visit. How big was the package?

 

.I just see one issue in the top picture. That yellow stuff?

[josephbloggs]

1 hour ago, recom273 said:

It looks totally awesome, just how I like my pizza to be.

 

I might have to get the old folks to pick one up on their next visit. How big was the package?

 

.I just see one issue in the top picture. That yellow stuff?

Yeah, it is awesome.  You can buy online and get it delivered to them or they are in department stores here and there too.  Online is easy, then no hassle for your parents.

The yellow stuff was for an 11 year old so I cut him some slack (but told him not to do it again)

The package was not massive, easy to handle.  You need to check it in at the oversized luggage counter though but that took an extra three minutes so no biggie (check in normally, they sticker it up and point to the counter, just walk there and drop it).  Boxed up it is just under 15kg.  But I also bought 40kg of oak chips.  ????  

Here it is.



 

[recom273]

13 minutes ago, josephbloggs said:

Yeah, it is awesome.  You can buy online and get it delivered to them or they are in department stores here and there too.  Online is easy, then no hassle for your parents.

The yellow stuff was for an 11 year old so I cut him some slack (but told him not to do it again)

The package was not massive, easy to handle.  You need to check it in at the oversized luggage counter though but that took an extra three minutes so no biggie (check in normally, they sticker it up and point to the counter, just walk there and drop it).  Boxed up it is just under 15kg.  But I also bought 40kg of oak chips.  ????  

Here it is.



 

They are available here in Thailand? any clues where?

 

Did the 11 year old put ketchup on the pineapple too?

[josephbloggs]

5 hours ago, recom273 said:

They are available here in Thailand? any clues where?

 

Did the 11 year old put ketchup on the pineapple too?

No, not available in Thailand - they won't even deliver here.  Europe or USA only.

No ketchup - that would be a step too far.

[KhunLA]

bump

[josephbloggs]

On 8/31/2023 at 4:18 PM, KhunLA said:

bump

So come on, let's have some pizza posts. Today was a pizza day for six people.

First up was the dough. Warm water mixed with yeast (370ml-ish water, 1 and a bit teaspoons of instant yeast), 600-620g of 0.0 flour, salt, a glug of olive oil, then good old fashioned hand kneading for ten minutes or so. Place in a bowl, light coating of olive oil to prevent sticking, cover and leave for a couple of hours. (Although measuring out the initial flour you inevitably find yourself adding more if it feels too sticky.)

Tomato sauce: over a low heat, add olive oil, a few cloves of smashed garlic and fresh basil, and cook for a few minutes. Then add tinned tomatoes (two tins today) and slowly over a very low heat let it cook down over an hour or so, adding salt and pepper. It should end up as a nice slightly thick mush. It then goes in the blender with some more fresh basil leaves for a few pulses.

Fire up the Ooni, get the wood pellets burning until you have a good 450 C heat (about 15 minutes), then off you go. Get your pizza on the peel and throw it in. You need to turn it every 15 seconds or it will burn, and after about a minute or so you're done. After all pizzas are done, leave the Ooni to burn out, empty a little tray of ash and put it away until next time.

Once you get going it is a bit frantic as you need to get one in the oven, a minute later it is done, get the next one in, so a bit of a production line. As such I only took a picture of the last one - spicy chorizo, green capsicum, onion, buffalo mozarella, yellow cayenne chili pepper. Delicious but poor presentation (but didn't matter as I was eating it). I haven't mastered the art of getting them nice and round as I don't use a rolling pin but try and shape by hand. Needs more work and more practice.

Over to you guys for pizza recipes, tips etc.

 

[chickenslegs]

The oven and the pizzas look great.

 

I just had a quick google to see if anything similar is available here ...

https://pizzaoventhailand.com/garden-pizza-oven.htm

Look like good quality, but eye-watering prices.

 

A few on Lazada ...

https://www.lazada.co.th/tag/pizza-ovens/

Most look pretty shoddy, but priced accordingly.

 

[josephbloggs]

21 minutes ago, chickenslegs said:

The oven and the pizzas look great.

 

I just had a quick google to see if anything similar is available here ...

https://pizzaoventhailand.com/garden-pizza-oven.htm

Look like good quality, but eye-watering prices.

Yeah, and they are big permanent things - the small one is 40kg! The beauty of the Ooni is it is only 10kg so easy to put away and bring out as and when you need it.  Haven't found anything similar here yet.

 

Quote

A few on Lazada ...

https://www.lazada.co.th/tag/pizza-ovens/

Most look pretty shoddy, but priced accordingly.

Yeah, they look shonky.

[KhunLA]

Here's the last one I made.  Dough not much different than my bread recipe, except olive oil, and 1 ferment/proof over night in frig, instead of 2 on table top, right after mixing.  Then next day, lube up hand to work the dough since a bit sticky.  

 

No wood oven, so bottom gets cooked on gas hob, with cast iron griddle, then in the oven 230C w/fans, under top element.  Tom. sauce, cheeses and homemade sausage (since already cooked, under the cheese).

 

2 step cooking, faster & easier for me to control even cooking.

[josephbloggs]

15 minutes ago, KhunLA said:

Here's the last one I made.  Dough not much different than my bread recipe, except olive oil, and 1 ferment/proof over night in frig, instead of 2 on table top, right after mixing.  Then next day, lube up hand to work the dough since a bit sticky.  

 

No wood oven, so bottom gets cooked on gas hob, with cast iron griddle, then in the oven 230C w/fans, under top element.  Tom. sauce, cheeses and homemade sausage (since already cooked, under the cheese).

 

2 step cooking, faster & easier for me to control even cooking.

Nice, looks good, and clever two stage cooking idea! Also nicely round, unlike mine.

[KhunLA]

4 minutes ago, josephbloggs said:

Nice, looks good, and clever two stage cooking idea! Also nicely round, unlike mine.

Years of experience.  As pop used to say, it's all going the same place, who cares what it looks like, as long as it taste good.

[burner2014]

Yeah super disappointed that no one distributes this Ooni ovens in Thailand... you really need to bring it by yourself or risk big import taxes when shipping it here (which I wouldn't risk made already bad experience here with crazy high import taxes)

 

Great stuff once someone distributes it I will also get me one and that propane conversion which seems to get better results.

 

Till then Gallery Pizza and others have to just send me some good pizza via Delivery 😄 and my Weber bbq has to make me some Cheeseburgers.