You’ve heard all the hype about this pizza oven but is buying an Ooni pizza oven a good investment? Do they actually make good pizzas and how easy are they to use? We give you the low down on Ooni and give you essential tips to perfect your best pizza ever!
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Before we start with our review, it’s important to say that we only review products that we love.
We’ve tested the Ooni Karu 16 multi fuel pizza oven intensively.
And when we say intensively, in 1 week we made over 50 pizzas – I kid you not!
Shop Ooni Karu 16 Multi-Fuel Pizza Oven
We wanted to make sure what we were recommending to our readers was a good solid product.
The good news is that we love it and our friends and family think we are pizza legends.
Trust us, you’ll soon be making your own mouthwatering pizzas if you follow our tips and tricks.
Why you’re going to love your ooni pizza oven
What is an Ooni oven?
An Ooni oven is a pizza oven that heats up to 950°F/500°C.
It can cook a pizza in as little as 60 seconds.
Some models are portable.
There are currently three different models, the ooni Fyra 12, ooni Koda 12 and 16, and the ooni Karu 12 and 16 multi fuel pizza oven.
So, if they’ve recommended the oven, it gives you an idea of the quality.
The ooni Karu is a little bit special, it’s the only pizza oven that is ‘recommended for Domestic Use’ by the Associazione verace pizza Napoletana, who is an authority on true Neopolitan pizza.
Will I get much use out of it?
Before we took delivery of our pizza oven, we wondered this.
Would it be just a fad, another gadget that would gather dust and clutter up the backyard?
It’s definitely not a fad and we have got SO much use out of it!
If you’re the type of person that owns a grill, then you are going to LOVE it!
The pizzas taste amazing but don’t underestimate the social element that outdoor pizza ovens give.
There’s nothing better than having friends and family round to have pizza, it’s like a little bit of culinary theatre in your own home.
What pizzas can I cook in an outdoor pizza oven?
Very quickly, you’ll be making a really high quality pizza.
Any pizza you can imagine can be cooked in it and they are super easy.
Here are some of our favorite pizzas, but we’d love to hear yours!
Cheese pizza, Margherita pizza, mushroom pizza - seriously, any kind of pizza you can think of, you can cook it in these ovens.
Gas or a wood fired pizza oven
We’ve got the Ooni Karu 16 that is both gas powered and uses wood pellets and charcoal.
The pros of gas powered pizza ovens are that there is minimal clean up.
You can use natural gas or a propane tank
It’ll also take charcoal, wood pellets, and fire starter (which you can buy from your local hardware store) which gives your pizza that unmistakable authentic pizza taste.
Whichever fuel you choose, you'll get a perfectly charred mouthwatering pizza in your own backyard.
Essential and not so essential accessories
So you’re going to take the plunge and invest in a pizza oven, but you need some accessories - right?
How do you know which ones you HAVE to have and which ones to add at a later date?
We’ve compiled a list of what we’d start with and we're working on a more detailed list which is coming soon.
Essentials items to have
Ooni pizza turning peel; we wondered if this would be a wasted item but how wrong were we?!
Remember that the Karu gets up to 950°F/500°C, you don’t want to be putting your hands in the oven at that heat, do you?
You need a turning peel to ensure that the pizza cooks evenly, if you don’t turn it, it’ll burn at the back, when you’re cooking pizza you need to be turning it every 20 seconds so that it gets beautifully cooked.
Ooni oven brush; in our opinion, you need this, it’s specifically made for an outdoor pizza oven and it’s got a long handle that allows you to get to the difficult to reach areas in your oven and clean them.
Infrared thermometer; you use this to accurately test the temperature of the baking stone.
For the Karu multifuel, you’ll need to buy an Ooni gas burner.
Oven cover; you 100% need this to protect your oven, don't skip on the cover.
It fits perfectly and you can put it on in less than a minute.
FREE Mainland US shopping on orders over $35 at Ooni – the world's no. 1 pizza oven
Nice to have but not essential
Pizza peel; the reason that we’ve put this on the ‘nice to have’ section, is because if you had a completely flat baking sheet you could use this temporarily.
But this should only be a temporary measure.
You use a pizza peel to launch your pizza into the oven and the ooni pizza peel is light and the pizza launches perfectly.
The learning curve
As with any new gadget, there is a learning curve.
Our first pizza or two weren’t the best pizzas in the world, we had to learn how to use them properly.
The best tip ever
There’s one tip that if you can remember, will help you enormously.
The pizza stone cooks the base and the flame cooks the toppings.
Once you have this in your mind, there will be no stopping you and you’ll make a great pizza.
Why is my pizza burning?
If your pizza toppings are burning it’s because your flame is too hot, turn the flames down and they won’t burn.
If your pizza base is burning then you’re cooking your pizza for too long.
Why is my pizza soggy?
This is probably because you’ve overloaded your pizza.
When you want to cook a great pizza, then less is more.
How to clean your ooni pizza oven
Ooni pizza ovens are REALLY low maintenance.
If you are using a gas powered pizza oven, then all you’ll need to do is to brush the pizza stone, the occasional wipe with a damp cloth, and maybe give the window a quick wipe down.
There’s no need to use any chemicals on your pizza stone, remember the heat gets up to 900F, nothing could survive that!
Where to buy an ooni pizza oven
Ooni has great customer service so we’d recommend buying directly from them.
Shop all of Ooni's Awesome 60-Second Pizza Ovens!
They ship worldwide.
We hope you enjoy cooking with your outdoor pizza oven and we’d love to hear how you’re getting on with it!
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Kate says
Thanks for the review. I’ve been on the fence about one of these, but you’re convincing me to try it!
Mandy from Splash of Taste says
You are more than welcome! I love them, I think the first decision is if you want them to be portable or not, the Karu can be taken places but is not as easy to as the other models.