Pizza Oven?

Hub

Well, I never got any answer to my very reasonable question, so I decided to ask the same question again ....

I've been looking at pizza ovens for a long time and lean towards the Uuni Pro.  I love the convenience of the gas or wood pellets, but I dislike the the oven is just sitting on a table.  Have any of you guys kind of built the oven into your outdoor kitchen to make it more permanent/stable? Is there any reason this can't be done?

CPARKTX

Have you upgraded your egg to a Nomex gasket? It is inexpensive and easy to do, and can survive an inferno, I cook pizzas at 800+ and haven’t killed a gasket yet...

RockyTopDW

I've been gasket-less for over 10 years.  there are a bunch of non-gasket guys on the site.  I cook my pizzas at 500 according to the pizza stone.  I've tried the high temp cooks, but 500 produces the most consistent results for me.  like most, I raise the stone about 4 inches.  good luck with your fancy pizza maker machine!

Legume

Hub said:

Well, I never got any answer to my very reasonable question, so I decided to ask the same question again ....

I've been looking at pizza ovens for a long time and lean towards the Uuni Pro.  I love the convenience of the gas or wood pellets, but I dislike the the oven is just sitting on a table.  Have any of you guys kind of built the oven into your outdoor kitchen to make it more permanent/stable? Is there any reason this can't be done?

I have not done this, but then, I don’t have a pizza oven.

It doesn’t look like these portable ones are meant to retain heat like a big cement or stone oven, so I guess if I built one in, I would want to ensure enough airflow.  But I’m just guessing.  Maybe googles will yield a few pics.

JohnInCarolina

Hub said:

Well, I never got any answer to my very reasonable question, so I decided to ask the same question again ....

I've been looking at pizza ovens for a long time and lean towards the Uuni Pro.  I love the convenience of the gas or wood pellets, but I dislike the the oven is just sitting on a table.  Have any of you guys kind of built the oven into your outdoor kitchen to make it more permanent/stable? Is there any reason this can't be done?

I guess my question is why this is a real concern you have.   I don't know about the Ooni Pro but the Roccbox is plenty stable on its three legs.  I've never had any concerns about it tipping over or anything.  It's fairly heavy, and I don't think it moves at all when I put a pizza in or take it out.  

These things are designed to be *portable*, so building them into some larger structure might end up limiting that functionality a little as well.  So in summary while there's not reason it can't be done, I don't see the need for it or the value in it.  

SaltySam

I gave up on thin crusts and started making deep dish in a cast iron skillet.  Look up Zippylips pizza dough recipe.  Bomb.com.

it also doesn’t hurt that we have a killer NY style pizza joint in town.  $4 slices.  

Canugghead

Pulled the trigger, super excited!

caliking

Canugghead said:

Pulled the trigger, super excited!

Gary, You need an intervention, my friend

I’m planning my next vacation in TO. SWMBO and caliprince can go do what they want to, and I’ll come over and play with all of your toys

victor1

I've done several pies on my lg BGE at temps of 750 or so, never a problem.  That being said, my wifw bought me a Uuni/Ooni Pro last year for Christmas and we love it.  Like anything it took a little trial and error but now have it pretty figured out.   Great pizza, bake time under two minutes.

Canugghead

Ashish, you got that right! Need to get rid of few other toys after the winter to justify this, financially and space wise. You can visit us under one condition - no photos allowed; my place is so crammed with my toys it's embarrassing 

Hub

JohnInCarolina said:

Hub said:

Well, I never got any answer to my very reasonable question, so I decided to ask the same question again ....

I've been looking at pizza ovens for a long time and lean towards the Uuni Pro.  I love the convenience of the gas or wood pellets, but I dislike the the oven is just sitting on a table.  Have any of you guys kind of built the oven into your outdoor kitchen to make it more permanent/stable? Is there any reason this can't be done?

I guess my question is why this is a real concern you have.   I don't know about the Ooni Pro but the Roccbox is plenty stable on its three legs.  I've never had any concerns about it tipping over or anything.  It's fairly heavy, and I don't think it moves at all when I put a pizza in or take it out.  

These things are designed to be *portable*, so building them into some larger structure might end up limiting that functionality a little as well.  So in summary while there's not reason it can't be done, I don't see the need for it or the value in it.  

That makes sense.  Thank you.  I've researched a ton and don't need the portability, but am surprised to see that most of the built in models have less functions than the portable models (such as the ability to use wood pellets for fuel).

run53

cookingdude555 said:

I’ve cooked 100-200 pizzas on my eggs. Not one of them cooked as well as any cooked on my blackstone pizza oven. Unfortunately it’s not made anymore. It’s design solves the problem the egg cannot overcome of too much heat below and not enough redirected above. The blackstone is a good stop gap until I build a WFO. I did do a pizza on Halloween on my XL where I used the weed burner to lightly “kiss” the top of the pie after the bottom was done. This helped overcome some of the heat imbalance. However I melted the dome to the base in the process and now that egg is out of service until it gets pryed open and new gasket material is applied. 

I'll second this. The blackstone is the best value out there for making pizza. Never had a bad outcome. I managed to buy one a couple of weeks before they stopped selling them. I got lucky!!!  I hope they make a comeback soon. At their prices I'd like to buy another one.

SonVolt

Hub said:

 am surprised to see that most of the built in models have less functions than the portable models (such as the ability to use wood pellets for fuel).

Well, "built in models" are typically quite large and would require a lot more combustive material than wood pellets to heat properly. 

ttony604

Pizza Party oven direct from Italy has been great, gas or wood option. Upgrade to Saputo bricks for Neapolitan style, 90 sec at 900F !!

Rad5

No offense to anyone that has one, but the Blackstone pizza oven looks ugly as hell. I like the look of the Ooni or Pizza Party. The Ooni Black Friday deals are over and I did not get one. I’d like to make a decent thin crust pizza in my egg. I know a lot of people post pictures of “great” pizza that just don’t look that good to me. I’ll still practice some more. 

NorthPilot06

SonVolt said:

Hub said:

 am surprised to see that most of the built in models have less functions than the portable models (such as the ability to use wood pellets for fuel).

Well, "built in models" are typically quite large and would require a lot more combustive material than wood pellets to heat properly. 

This.  I have a Forno Bravo Casa 2G90 and there's practically no way I could get it to temp without hardwood logs - there's just too much thermal mass. 

There's a lot of appeal to the pizza party / Roccbox / Uuni pizza ovens - they make amazing pizzas at a very respectable price point.  The biggest benefits that I get from my built-in WFO are real estate (floor space) and retained heat cooking capabilities (after making neopolitan pies the day before, the oven will still be ~450 degrees the day after).

run53

Rad5 said:

No offense to anyone that has one, but the Blackstone pizza oven looks ugly as hell. I like the look of the Ooni or Pizza Party. The Ooni Black Friday deals are over and I did not get one. I’d like to make a decent thin crust pizza in my egg. I know a lot of people post pictures of “great” pizza that just don’t look that good to me. I’ll still practice some more. 

No offence taken......I also think the BS is ugly looking. But the pizzas that come off it are gorgeous   

Canugghead

Received my Ardore today. Amazing service, left Italy Friday afternoon, received in GWN Monday morning! Just finished pre-heating the Saputo stones in gas oven. Still learning and experimenting with dough making though 

HeavyG

Canugghead said:

Received my Ardore today. Amazing service, left Italy Friday afternoon, received in GWN Monday morning! Just finished pre-heating the Saputo stones in gas oven. Still learning and experimenting with dough making though 

Got mine Sunday afternoon. DHL tracking originally said it was to be delivered Monday so I was a bit surprised to see a DHL van at the end of my driveway mid-afternoon yesterday.

Put it together but haven't fired it up yet.

In case you haven't already done so - before you put the legs on take a minute to peel away the protective film away from the lip where the legs fit against the sides of the roof. I didn't do that and when I started peeling off that film it turns out that the film wraps around the bottom seam so I couldn't remove that tiny bit of film caught between the leg and the roof. I'll probably take the legs off and get those bits out rather than smelling them melt once the oven gets hot.

Canugghead

@HeavyG Thanks for the heads up, yes I peeled the film about an inch from just the bottom edges and left the bulk of it in place to protect the entire roof while installing the legs. Don't recall if you got the stock refractory floor or upgraded to Saputo. The Saputo was not as easy to drop in place as shown in the video and I didn't want to force it ... I managed by pushing one half flat all the way into the corners, then raised it at the centre and repeated the procedure with the other half, finally forming the inverted V as shown in video and pressed down easily.  
Also double wrenched the hose and secured hose to avoid excessive dangling when moving.

SonVolt

Rad5 said:

No offense to anyone that has one, but the Blackstone pizza oven looks ugly as hell. I like the look of the Ooni or Pizza Party. The Ooni Black Friday deals are over and I did not get one. I’d like to make a decent thin crust pizza in my egg. I know a lot of people post pictures of “great” pizza that just don’t look that good to me. I’ll still practice some more. 

I think Kenji said it best when he said if your home decor aesthetic is based around the cheap grill section out front of a Home Depot, then by all means get a Blackstone. 

HeavyG

Canugghead said:

@HeavyG Thanks for the heads up, yes I peeled the film about an inch from just the bottom edges and left the bulk of it in place to protect the entire roof while installing the legs. Don't recall if you got the stock refractory floor or upgraded to Saputo. The Saputo was not as easy to drop in place as shown in the video and I didn't want to force it ... I managed by pushing one half flat all the way into the corners, then raised it at the centre and repeated the procedure with the other half, finally forming the inverted V as shown in video and pressed down easily.  
Also double wrenched the hose and secured hose to avoid excessive dangling when moving.

I did get the Saputo's. Didn't have much trouble getting the first one inside. I used a rolled up catalog to place under it to prop it up while I worked the second one in. It did take more downward force than I would have guessed to push down on the inverted V to flatten them. Then it took a couple fist pounds to get one of the stones completely flat so the floor was flush at the seam.

This afternoon I fired it up to run it at low heat for a few hours to cure the stones. Found that it will run pretty steadily at the lowest flame setting. Like many gas cookers it does seem sensitive to a breeze at a low output and it did blow out a couple of times. Probably take a bit more breeze than I had today to blow out the flame at its highest output.

One minor change I'm making is replacing the stock regulator for one that is a few feet longer and steel braided (cuz squirrels).

@Photo Egg - I did run it today at the lowest setting and it kept a fairly steady 300°F-ish temp. Bumped it up a little later to get it to 450°F-ish which it held fairly steady. Doesn't take much of a nudge on the thermostat on the low end to make a pretty big jump in temp. Anyway, it definitely is able to set a low enough temp (<500°F) to cook something other than a Neapolitan style pizza.

A little slow to warm up with the valve set at its lowest output (ambient air temp was 45°F). Ordinarily I think you'd want to warm it up for a few minutes at the highest output and then throttle back. With the Saputo stones tho the recommendation is to run for a few hours at a lower temp . Also, the Fireboard probe I used is only good to about 700°F-ish and I didn't want to fry it.

Ignore the big drop in temp around 3:00PM - tank ran out. I knew it felt a little light.

alaskanassasin

Cool I was curious if you could go 350 thanks!

Canugghead

Prep'd the stones in gas oven yesterday, tested couple of pies tonight.  No breeze problem as I was cooking in the garage by the entrance with doors opened.

Definitely not NP, heavy 265g 61% 24hr CF dough, homemade pesto sauce, heavy load of potato slices, onion and bacon. After preheating about 25 minutes only, Saputo was 725'ish when I got impatient and started cooking. Had trouble turning with my old 12" and 3" peels, need a right sized turning peel 

Didn't time the cook but guessing it was about two minutes...


As others have mentioned in the pizza making forum, Saputo has lower conductivity than refractory/codierite stones, needs preheating to 900 for true NP.  It looks pale but not soggy nor crispy.  Folks recommend placing regular  stone on top of Saputo for non NP, plan to try that next time to compare.




Despite the user stumbles and fumbles the pies turned out decent. Still got lots to learn for sure 

Photo Egg

HeavyG said:

Canugghead said:

@HeavyG Thanks for the heads up, yes I peeled the film about an inch from just the bottom edges and left the bulk of it in place to protect the entire roof while installing the legs. Don't recall if you got the stock refractory floor or upgraded to Saputo. The Saputo was not as easy to drop in place as shown in the video and I didn't want to force it ... I managed by pushing one half flat all the way into the corners, then raised it at the centre and repeated the procedure with the other half, finally forming the inverted V as shown in video and pressed down easily.  
Also double wrenched the hose and secured hose to avoid excessive dangling when moving.

I did get the Saputo's. Didn't have much trouble getting the first one inside. I used a rolled up catalog to place under it to prop it up while I worked the second one in. It did take more downward force than I would have guessed to push down on the inverted V to flatten them. Then it took a couple fist pounds to get one of the stones completely flat so the floor was flush at the seam.

This afternoon I fired it up to run it at low heat for a few hours to cure the stones. Found that it will run pretty steadily at the lowest flame setting. Like many gas cookers it does seem sensitive to a breeze at a low output and it did blow out a couple of times. Probably take a bit more breeze than I had today to blow out the flame at its highest output.

One minor change I'm making is replacing the stock regulator for one that is a few feet longer and steel braided (cuz squirrels).

@Photo Egg - I did run it today at the lowest setting and it kept a fairly steady 300°F-ish temp. Bumped it up a little later to get it to 450°F-ish which it held fairly steady. Doesn't take much of a nudge on the thermostat on the low end to make a pretty big jump in temp. Anyway, it definitely is able to set a low enough temp (<500°F) to cook something other than a Neapolitan style pizza.

A little slow to warm up with the valve set at its lowest output (ambient air temp was 45°F). Ordinarily I think you'd want to warm it up for a few minutes at the highest output and then throttle back. With the Saputo stones tho the recommendation is to run for a few hours at a lower temp . Also, the Fireboard probe I used is only good to about 700°F-ish and I didn't want to fry it.

Ignore the big drop in temp around 3:00PM - tank ran out. I knew it felt a little light.

Great post!
Solid information and new information previously not available.
Thanks for outing in the time for us.