Ooni Karu Wood/Charcoal Pizza Oven -- Lessons Learned with Fire Management
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- Опубліковано 29 чер 2024
- There are plenty of videos about the popular gas-fired and wood pellet Ooni ovens, but not a lot of videos about the Ooni Karu wood/charcoal-fired pizza oven. It takes a little more fiddling and knowing your wood, so I made this video going over the different fuels you can use and what it takes to get the oven up to that ideal 700°F (370°C) temperature for thin crust pizza or even higher for Neapolitan style.
- Ігри
Wow. 57k views! Yes, the fire grate is backwards. Thanks for the notes on that! And yes my pizza dough was not well-shaped. I now produce round pizzas with a good shoulder around the edges. As for cutting down wood to the desired size, I've been shopping for a small log splitter. I tried an axe and gained new respect for woodcutters who can hit the dead center of a log nearly every time, rather than 5 inches to the left or right!!
Ooni owner. I've learned that it's all about the stone temp. Thanks for the vid!!
To Morgan Feldon: Easiest way to stock up with a nice variety of different types of wood? 1) I go to the Home Depot, BBQ section, and buy the large bags of wood chunks, eg. pecan, apple, hickory, mesquite. You showed us your Oakwood bottom of the bag small chunks/leftover chips. 2) I then went over to the Home Depot, tool section, and bought a one hand short handle axe for $25. Place proper support underneath, and easily chop/axe the apple wood chunks to desired size. Experts advise me Applewood burns the hottest! Thanks, and Enjoy your Pizza!
I don't even own an Ooni, but this helped me understand the logistics of a proper oven. Thanks! I'll be using these tips down the line!
Thanks for making this video. There’s such a learning curve with this oven but if you do it right the results come out amazing.
FANTASTIC and informative video! I wish I would have seen this before my first 4 bakes! The stone temperature, I have found, is possibly the most important aspect of making pizzas in this oven. I disagree- the thermometer is a MUST to verify stone temp. Thank you for breaking down the different fuel types and pointing out the crucial information that the lump charcoal burns much cooler than the wood (for all of us that are not used to smoking). You absolutely have to add the hard wood to get the rolling flames on the top that are the real heating element of the oven. Without the rolling flames your stone WILL NOT get to the desired temp. Definitely a learning curve with this oven but worth the process! Thanks again!
Great vid! My Karu 16 is in transit to me. I have a gas BBQ and don't know much about wood. You're video provided much needed details that others didn't. Comments are great too.
How is that karu 16 working out?
@@wcpportfolio Hi Ryan. It's working out awesome! I've used propane, wood, and as of today, natural gas. I finally got it sorted out and drew from the BBQ gas line so that I can use lots of natural gas. I have to say that at 90 seconds to 2 min's in there w/wood, you really don't taste the wood flavor in the pizza and the oven gets filled with soot. I will probably not use the wood fire that much and stick with the (much easier) gas. The wood is very easy to start and maintain, though. I make mine Neapolitan style.
Your advice worked incredibly well. Mine, Expert Grill Pizza Oven, took an hour to get to 550° in the front of the stone and 700° in the back. Perfect. Wouldn't have figured it out without this video.
Nice video. Your fire box is set up incorrectly. The open hole does go the back, but the inner tray needs to be angle down towards the front. When angled to the front, nothing falls out of the back (rectangular hole), so no need for aluminum tray underneath. And, you get get better airflow when angled to the down to the front. Better draft, better fire, better heat.
Yeah I once had it the way in this video and was much harder to get oven up to temp… the way you said is correct and better way
Thank you for taking the time to make this video, super helpful! Thanks again.
Excellent launch! I’m glad you noticed the grate on backwards lol. Same thing happen to me on my first pizza! 😂
Nice video! Just what I was looking for. Thank you for your help Morgan.
If the chunks of wood are too big just chop them up, it's a very simple solution. Pretty good information on watching where the flame needs to be in order to cook the top of the pizza. For being an over proofed dough the pizza looks great.
Nice work Morgan - I wish there were more posted videos of wood/temperature management especially for an Ooni Karu 16 which has a "vent" above the door but no explanation on how to use it.
The fire grate might face the other way so that the ashes don't fall out the back, the Ooni logo facing the front of the oven.
I don't know how I missed this! Like I said I'm still learning. Thanks!
This is THE perfect video for me. Thank you!!
Good video. I have the same Ooni and basically do the same thing. I bought an axe and chop up the larger pieces of hardwood. At one point I considered using a pizza steel instead of the stone but I think that the pie would burn easier. There is definitely a learning curve when using wood/charcoal.
Thanks for the video.
This explanation is plain perfect. Thank you so much!
Great video on fire /heat management Had many frustrating attempts to get oven to temp. Thx!
As a BBQ/cook/smoker who has ruined a couple Al vent/ash scrapers running my Weber kettle at 900F making pizzas, this makes me smile.
Very helpful vid, thank you so much. I got a Ooni only recently, and so far have yet to cook anything successfully! Hopefully the information learned here will change that!
Sounds like for the cost of one bag of wood, some lump charcoal, and an axe (I’ve already got the hammer to break down the lump charcoal) I can be up and running pretty well. Thanks for the video, I’m heavily considering buying a karu
Edit: I bought the karu 12 and it’s awesome. I’ve been running chips (too lazy to buy a splitting hatchet for chunks at the moment) and they work really well, I’m just looking for a cheaper way to get chips and chunks. I get about 2 pizzas per handful (the second pizza cooks a little slower but it’s no sweat, I’m firing the first at 850 and the second by 700ish. If you add more chips when you notice temps dropping you won’t lose any heat). I may pop my head over to my local lumber yard and see if they have anything worth while. Also for larger lump, I’ve just been smacking it against the ground in a plastic bag because I’ve misplaced my hammer, it works quite well.
Ouahaaa... merci pour cette vidéo c'est du beau travail qui m'a permis de bien voir en détails les bons gestes et la mise en feu de l'Ooni KARU j'ai le même mais je me suis toujours servi de l'option gaz qui est très pratique aussi : mais avec les beaux jours j'ai retiré le bruleur Gaz et je vais pouvoir enfin cuire mes pizza au feu de bois , c'est fantastique encore merci pour cette vidéo très utile pour les débutants .Un bonjour de France . :-)
Great video, Morgan!
Thanks!
Well that was some to the point usefull info about the amount of oak to add use per pizza, thx.
Wooden peels are better for building the pizza and metal are best for turning and removing it from the oven… Cornmeal is also great but can burn so you have to keep sweeping it out of the oven. Great video and very helpful. Thanks…
Great advice
Thank you so much that was a great video now I have some clues on how to use my new machine
I previously only cooked on wood, as soon as I mixed in charcoal it was it was tons easier and more consistent
Very good fire information, thanks!
Great video!!
So I've just got mine and used the charcoal alone, after watching this I don't think I was anywhere near hot enough!! Luckily I have a load of oak! Thanks for the info 👍
Thank you! I used briquettes and wood chips on a cold spring evening and i had the exact same problem - the dough wasn't cooked through(even after 30-40 minutes). Went out and bought a Infrared thermometer in order to avoid that mistake again.
Great video, thank you!
Great information for a newbie!
great tips thanks!
You really need a wooden peel to launch pizzas, the best way. Nice oven, I plan to buy one to replace my Uuni 3 from 5 years ago. Huge difference in build quality from 2017.
Well done mate
Very good info. Thanks
Thank you so much. Looks delicious. Was looking for a video like this before I ordered thy Ooni. Great job great tips
Great video…just ordered the new Ooni 12g….overall some good info I had no idea of…thanks
I want to order the 12G firebox to upgrade my Karu. The new firebox is like 2x the size you see here.
pizza looks great my man I need an ooni
I love your review. Very practical advice. I have wondered one thing but have not seen anyone mention but it might be lost in the comments.
While heating or in between pizzas, can you place charcoal in a pan/tray on the stone? I would think direct contact would help get it to temp and more consistent.
Thank you!
Great video! I was wondering if you tried starting your charcoal in a chimney and pouring the lit charcoal through the top feed hole?
EXCELLENT VIDEO... WOW!!!
The Filming and Editing and Narration is Suburb!!!
With NO Background noise/music either ... YEA
Seriously... Thank you so much for this GREAT Video.
Would you suggest this Pizza Oven for a *professional Mobile Pizza Truck?
For a mobile pizza truck, I think you COULD handle running two of these if you have 4 people, one making pizzas, one launching/turning, one managing the fires, and one taking orders. It would be difficult with just 3 people. Have you looked at what King of Fire is doing?
@@feldon27
Thank you for this information...
I totally agree with as many people needed... I am learning leaps and bounds.
King Fire? ... No... I do not know what they're doing?
@@judichristopher4604 King of Fire is a pizza food truck in Charlotte. They built a giant pizza oven on the back of the truck. Otherwise it's what you're talking about.
@@feldon27
AWWWWW....
Thank you so much for this information.
You have the grate inside the firebox installed backwards. That’s why you have ash falling out the back by the leg.
Thanks a couple other viewers pointed this out. I've got it fixed now!
You have the grate the right way round - the hole at the back for airflow.
i have also a karu i fire mine in combination of charcoal and wood not pellets,for the fluor i used caputo pizzeria,and now i started with caputo nuvola and had the first accident i had a nice looking yellow,red cherry tomato margerita with basil by turning it it brake and now the stone is full tomato sause next time with caputo nuvola i may try adding some semolina lets see but after all the oven is a great buy and have fun .
Thank you for your informative video. I find that my WPPO cannot get the correct temperature burning wood pellets only so your suggestions of using hardwood charcoal might do the trick.
If you run the temp up as high as it’ll get, it usually will clean the stone.
Love this video and you are right , there aren’t enough to videos on this….one quick question tho, I noticed the way the grate sits on you friebox is kind of quirky , and backwards forom the way most ppl use it… is there any special reason for this? Would love to know
Yes I had it backwards. :)
thank you
Good information, thank you.
Great video. I have the Ooni Pro 16 multifuel. I can't figure out how to get the fire to burn with clear smoke. I get a lot of soot. I use both Royal Oak lump charcoal and the Ooni hardwood. I've only used it a few times, but I have to figure this out.
Sorry to hear that. I assume you have the chimney completely open and the back of the Ooni unobstructed so that air can flow freely? Bad smoke usually indicates a starved or stale fire.
Try another brand of lump charcoal. I’ve used Royal Oak for years, but recently switched to B&B. The underlying wood used to make the charcoal is a different species and has different heat, Smome, flavor characteristics.
Thanks
Not bad. I’d give it more time with high flame to get the stone to 800+. You’ll get proper browning on the bottom and good leoparding on the crust. Still chewy with a bit of crisp.
Wood and Royal Oak. We think alike.
great video considering how important fire management is for this product. curious the box says 932F (assuming center stone temp) for neopolitan pizzas, would this method get you there if only letting it preheat longer and continuing to topoff wood chunks? or are there other things involved to reach these extreme temps?
I've accidentally gotten it to 850°F through continued addition of fuel. I can see getting it to 900°F through continued addition of lump charcoal and wood pieces. Personally I'm not into pure Neopolitan pizza as it really doesn't allow for toppings beyond mozarella and basil.
@@feldon27 gotcha. thank you very much. in hind site i think my struggling might have been packing too many charcoals early and blocking airflow that kept the added wood from burning as hot as it should. the fun of learning fire management. hehe
I will be making pizza tomorrow using the Ooni karu. There’s so much sooth every time I make pizzas. So I can use a damp paper towel to clean the sooth in between putting the pizzas and it won’t crack the pizza stone?
Definitely a DRY paper towel.
How about BBQ lava rocks? I was thinking of having a bed of them that I build my wood on top of. Will they work instead of coal?
Very good layout.. what's the set up there -- I saw the flour box with the huge bag in it. what kind of box is it ? most boxes are short and long. thank you.
It's a dog food upright plastic container. 😁
How much temperature increase will occur from the wooden block on the charcoal? I want to make a neapolitan style pizza and I want to get a nice flame going without making the oven too hot.
Charcoal will maintain the oven around 600°F. Wood brings it to 700-900°F plus adding the wood smoke flavor. If you really want Neapolitan pizza, you need a high temp of 900°F for 60 seconds. The dough must be extremely thin, with wet tomato sauce and sliced wet mozzarella and without the typical American toppings. The 900°F heat is necessary to dry out the wet mozzarella.
Personally, the pizza I make is New York thin crust style pizza at 700°F for 90 seconds. I use whole milk low moisture mozzarella and a less wet tomato sauce. And I can put any toppings I want!
Do you only use lump charcoal or do you use charcoal briquettes as well
Damn, that looks good! Thinking of getting the Karu 16 - newest version - but it's expensive. Any thoughts?
I own the 12. I also have a huge stone in my gas fired oven but I’m limited to 500 degrees with that + broiler. The karu 16 looks really nice but wow 700 dollars is a lot to part with.
@@wcpportfolio
Ultimately, I went with the Roccbox; it was, more or less, a coin toss. So far, so good.
Thanks for responding.
Thanks for the review! A couple of questions: the back seems a bit rusty, how old is it? Also, have you ever tried wood briquettes? I use them for my indoor stove and love them.
My oven was about 6 months old at the time of this video. Charcoal briquettes may be fine if they are pure charcoal and without fillers. You'll still need chunks of wood to get an open flame to cook the ingredients on top of the pizza.
@@feldon27 Thanks for replying! Appreciate it. I meant wood briquettes. Have you seen these before? Basically pellets in a brick form ;-) They burn cleaner, stronger and more efficient. I guess if OONI takes charcoal it can take these, as charcoal is hotter
@@godisadjify I've never heard of wood briquettes! Looking at Google, they almost look like firestarter blocks. I bet they would burn hot!
I use an Big Green Egg to make Pizza. The main problem is that you can burn the bottom. 650 is the right temp. Higher than that, you burn it. So I'm looking into a smaller oven like an ooni, but what I see is that the bottom doesn't brown up. Everyone burns the top and edges and the bottom is under cooked. I've seen some hacks that use a rotator to keep it moving. Sounds like a good option. Also, I don't like all these small 12" models. I would prefer a 16" to handle a 14" pizza.
There's a pizza place here in town that is proud of cooking their pizzas at 900°F. They also have a very thin crust, light toppings, and the pizza spends about 60 seconds in the oven. I think you will be surprised at the pizza you get with a properly preheated pizza stone at 700-750°F and disappointed if you stay under 650°F. The Ooni and BGE are different.
Also I'm not looking for the bottom to "brown". Of course you want it cooked so there's no raw dough. But on my best pizzas, the bottom is crispy and done, but it isn't "brown". The reason the top and crust browns is that they are in close contact with the intermittent flames. With experience, you can get leoparding which is controlled browning of the crust edge. If you want the bottom brown, you'd probably have to add baking soda or something.
The only helpful tip is having that much flour under the peel, it will get scorched and impart bitter flavor and require lots of intermittent stone wiping. My opinion it’s best to build on counter and have a little semolina on your peel.
I do have to sweep the pizza stone after every pizza. I've actually switched to corn meal and like the ease at which pizzas launch. I've been able to cut back on the amount. Thanks for the comment!
@@feldon27 Absolutely, my pleasure. You did a nice job.
@@feldon27 My choice is rice flour, it doesn't bring that distinctive Domino's flavor as semolina does and it also doesn't stick.
Great video by all means! I was struggling to make my oven hot enough with a lump charcoal only.
Go to a pizzeria (a real one) and they use a wooden peel with cornmeal or flour and build on the peel… they turn and remove with metal peel. Either way, always best to build on the peel and do it quickly.
I think the fire box screen is inverted
That does seem likely. Thanks all!
As someone who has experience smoking meats, would you recommend trying to use ooni karu as a smoker to make something like smoked ribs or brisket?
I think it would be rather labor-intensive to maintain a fire for 3 to 6 hours to smoke those meats in an ooni. Also you would have to constantly turn the meat as one end would be much hotter than the other. I've smoked ribs and pulled pork on a $99 Weber kettle. If you've got room I would get one of those.
@@feldon27 understood, thanks!
I just but an oven, thanks for the info.
Is there any insulation of this grills on all sides?
Yes it's double wall insulated on all sides.
Lump charcoal just doesn't get this oven hot enough in my xp max ~500 F. Definitely need to throw in a bunch of hardwood to get it to 700 F range.
Do you have to close the front when cooking the pizza?
I do. It's worth experimenting on. You don't want to lose too much heat.
Piza stone 800 F min for a proper bottom. jmnsho
Sold my Ooni - making pizza should not be this difficult.
8:03 😂😂😂😂😂 sorry.
You need to let the stone warmup longer - the bottom of your pizza was white
I've gotten better since I made this video. I get good leoparding all around. And the pizza IS round now. :)
Your firebox is in the oven backwards. It should be slanted to the front of the oven that way the ash doesn't fall.out of the oven
Thanks. Several people helped me with this one. I also make better pizzas now with a good rolled lip.
Well, that was incredibly helpful… 🤦🏻♂️
70k felt it was.
@@feldon27 Very well done on the views but I’m sorry, I just didn’t find the video helpful. And you put the inner tray in the wrong way round dude.
Can't get mine over 500 degrees f. Let alone 700.
Add wood.
@@feldon27 got loads of hard wood. It won't work
@@connectlogic shoot me an email morganfeldon (at) gmail.com with a picture of your setup.
@@connectlogic Hi, don't know if that helps but are you using kiln-dried wood - according to Ooni that makes a big difference.
@@alexmol using the official ooni pellets and wood. Won't go over 500 f.
Never put 00 flour on a peel. That’s why your stone is black. Semolina and use a perforated peel for best results.
If you're cooking with large flame you need a stone somewhere around 820F. Don't go much above 850 or your pizza will scorch.
If you are cooking without flame or smaller flame, something like 700-800 is good depending on flame size. A ny style pizza you can launch at around 700 flame.
Good advice. Thank you
you're like me - we need a lot more practice before making the best Pizzas
This video is a year old.
Royal oak is shit, I SWEAR in the last batch I found nails, screw, metal bands, pieces of fiberglass.. It was like the made char coal out of a torn down house..........
Ugh! Was it the red bag? There is some Royal Oak out there that's junk in different colored bags. And yeah I've heard stories with other brands and found plywood in a bag once, not sure the brand. You just have to dig through and be picky. People seem to like B&B. Good luck!
Coal burns hotter than wood, throw some in there.
The wood produces the open flame required to cook the top of the pizza, specifically the ingredients.
OOni is overrated as hell. Buy a stone, put it on your gas grill or wood smoker and be done with it. Never can get it hot enough to do anything but waste a good pizza that could have been cooked better in the oven.
ooni is made in china
Not surprising. The company is headquartered out of Ireland.