One of the main reasons my wife and I got married is because we鈥檙e on the same page about pizza consumption:听on average听we eat a pie听once a week. We frequently order from the joints around Santa Fe, where we live,听or make our own at home in the oven or on the grill. But it wasn鈥檛 until we tried a pizza oven from Ooni that our DIY pizza game rivaled what we get from restaurants.
My wife and I are both serious home cooks: I worked in pizza places听for six months while traveling the world during a gap year, and she bakes every chance she gets. I especially like to cook over flames outdoors. In the听past few months, we鈥檝e been diligently testing听different product variations from Ooni, focusing on this company because it offers the most diverse cooking options across its听line.
We听tested the ($349), which you can fuel using charcoal, wood, or gas, and the ($299), which is heated using the brand鈥檚 proprietary wood pellets.听The concept for each is basically the same: fire up your heat of choice, and once it鈥檚 going, the flame spreads across the top of the oven, resulting in extremely high temperatures鈥擮oni claims its products can get up to 950 degrees Fahrenheit.
We made three pizzas听with each fuel source: wood, pellets, and gas. To eliminate discrepancies, my wife used the same dough recipe for all of them听(from听), although sauces and toppings varied.
From the first pie, it was clear that these ovens made pizza superior to听anything we鈥檇 created before. The extreme heat bakes听pizza quickly听and听to听perfection. That said,听it does take a careful eye on the oven, because they cook so fast鈥攄uring testing, most of our听pizzas were done between 90 and 120 seconds. Here are our takeaways.
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I found it nearly impossible to wrangle pizzas in these ovens without the company鈥檚 ($60). We attempted听our first听without one, preheating our smallest cast-iron skillet听in the oven. It resulted in great pies, but it was so hot in there that it stripped the seasoning off of the pan and seared the leather gloves and pot holders that I tried to grab it with. The peel makes it easy to rotate the pizza while it cooks, too鈥攁 necessity with the targeted heat. I generally rotated pies four times each, once every 15 to 30 seconds. This resulted in a nice, even bake for each.
Ooni also sells a gas-powered oven, the ($349), but I really like having the option to cook with wood, so going with the ($90) for the Karu instead seemed like a no-brainer. It took five minutes and one Allen wrench听to toggle between the fire basket and the gas implement. I plan to switch between the two often in the future.
The company also recommends using its听 ($40) for testing the oven鈥檚 temperature. I鈥檓 sure it works well, but I found the included guides on preheating and flame levels easy enough to follow. If you鈥檙e a perfectionist, you鈥檒l want the thermometer, but if you鈥檙e a go-by-feel type, I think you鈥檒l be fine without it.
Best for Frequent Use: Gas
Cooking with gas is the most convenient way to barbecue, and the same applies here. All you have to do is hook up the tank to the Karu, light it, and let the oven preheat. In 15 minutes you鈥檙e ready to cook pizza. The main downside is that you don鈥檛 get that wood-fired taste.
The oven鈥檚 temperature took me a while to figure out, too, even though there鈥檚 a dial to adjust the flame, in part because you have to cook with the door open to keep the flame going (this is a safety precaution to prevent gas build up). The propane allowed it to get so hot that it was easy to char the top of the pizza while the bottom remained slightly raw. I found it best to let the oven preheat on full blast, then听turn it down to medium-high heat while the pie was in. While I loaded up the next pizza on the peel, I put the empty oven on high again, then turned it down right before I slid the pizza in.
Best for Flavor: Pellets
When I first looked at the Fyra, I thought it would use an auger to push pellets into the oven to create even heat, much . But it鈥檚 much simpler than that: there鈥檚 a small fire pan, which you load with pellets and then light on fire. You wait for them to heat up, much like charcoal, and then load the chimney above the flames with pellets and let them burn down. In all, this process takes about 20 minutes.
Ooni鈥檚 responsibly sourced oak pellets ($25) result in a听well-flavored pizza, with just the right amount of smoke infusing the pies. But I found the flame to be a little finicky. This setup was also the most sensitive to the wind, and I often found myself trying to adjust the orientation of the grill鈥攚hile it was hot鈥攖o get the most efficient flame. Once I figured it out, the results were fantastic, but this kind of听oven was the least consistent of all the cooking methods.
Best for Pizza Quality: Wood
Somewhat counterintuitively, I found it most natural to cook on the Karu using an old-fashioned wood fire. A solid fire heated the oven quickly and evenly. It was also easy to manage the flame level by tossing on another small chunk of oak or two, or letting the fire burn for a little longer to mellow it out. And the Karu was way less susceptible to interference from the wind than the Fyra.
The results spoke for themselves: the pizza had a crispy exterior all around, chewy dough, and cheese evenly melted on top. This method will be the one our family uses most, with gas as a backup for easy weeknight dinners听or parties where we have to produce a lot of food quickly. I don鈥檛 think we鈥檒l ever make pizza in the conventional oven again.