I've seen some questions on here about the Ooni Koda 16 oven but no user reports or official reviews (which means there's probably one in the works as I type). So here's my attempt to share what I've learned the past day or so.
Somewhere around the middle of July I got the MCS itch to try a different way to cook a pizza. I've got a variety of ways I've been doing them over the years, and in recent months I've had considerable success with a method I "borrowed" from @Dr. Pat using the gas grill with rotisserie burner, with a couple procedural mods to respond to the configuration of my grill. I've posted those to his thread and the results have been very good. It's probably a good time to make the distinction, trying not to sound the snob, that I'm focused on home made dough, not a take and bake style pizza. They're very different animals, the take and bake, as you'd expect, is much more forgiving as to cooking method. Be that as it may. Ooni, as have other producers of outdoor cooking equipment during these Covid times, was completely sold out of inventory, so regardless of where I looked there were none available for immediate shipping. All of the online vendors I queried showed an expected delivery date of the next shipment somewhere between late September and early October. Since I wasn't up against any pressure I placed my order with the expectation I wouldn't see anything until October. As it turns out all of them were doing the "under promise/over deliver" thing. I got my oven on 8/31 late in the day. I burned it in yesterday planning to do the first cook today. During the burn in is a good time to test how the unit performs, how long it takes to get to temp, how well does it hold temp, where are the hot spots, and so on. With the trusty IR gun it appeared that the stone got up to 900ish degrees in about half an hour, but I ran it longer to see what would happen. Those familiar with the 16 know that it has an L shaped burner that extends down the left side and across the back of the chamber. After an hour the stone next to the corner of the burner registered around 990 degrees with the furthest opposite point of the stone showing in the high 700s to low 800s. Okay, no problem reaching the 932 degree advertised. While I was in the holding pattern for delivery I had been reading reports and viewing vids about the operation. As with so many things, each person had their own opinions and methods, but a common theme was............this baby gets HOT! and you'll probably (as most of them did) ruin the first efforts learning how to manage this beast.
The dough I'm using is one I've been fond of for several months; a NY style dough from KLA at Serious Eats. It did very well with the gas grill method where the stone temps were in the mid 700s. My bride and I like a good char on the puffy portions around the outer form and good leopard spotting on the bottom. Some will see the char on the outer crust and think it's burned, but with this recipe the char has a nutty, almost sweet taste that suits us fine. I had one dough ball left in the freezer so thought; "okay, if I'm going to end up with a burnt offering to the gods of pizza let this be the victim." I wanted to try a couple things as variants but with one dough ball I'd be limited. None the less, I divided the ball into two 180 gram lumps which ended up making two nice 10ish inch neapolitan-esque looking discs. The first one to be cooked was a Margherita style, red sauce and fresh mozzarella, with fresh basil on top at serving. The second one I topped with a parsley/almond pesto and slivers of prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, also topped with fresh basil at service. Having learned from the research, I watched the pies like a hawk and have to say that both turned out very nice for first efforts. At those temps the pies each cooked in less than 2 minutes. I didn't time it as I was too focused on making sure I turned them as needed to avoid any ruination. I use semolina flour as my peel "lubricant" (I detest the mouth feel of corn meal) and that gave me a bit of a surprise on the second pie. I used a bit extra on the second one because the first one didn't load on the peel as smoothly as I'd like. Well, that extra semolina ended up at the back just a touch too close to the back side burner and ignited briefly which gave me just a bit more char than I'd planned. Again, this dough takes that pretty well so it didn't ruin the pie, except for the esthetics. Both had nice leopard spotting on the bottoms. The one difference from the gas grill bake was the crunch of the bottom. I suspect it's a matter of the short residence time on the stone, less than two minutes versus the gas grill being somewhere 4-5 minutes. These pizzas on the Ooni were a bit softer, but then that's a trait of true Neapolitan pies so it's not necessarily a bad thing. Going forward there will be more experimentation seeking to improve if possible. Next time I'll temp soak for a longer time, at least an hour instead of the 40 minutes done tonight. I may tone down the flame size during the cook as well which will likely lengthen the cook time a bit, but it will be interesting to see what that does for the finish texture. I might try a slightly lower hydration dough as well, but I'll have to think about that. Anyway, for a first cook I'm very impressed with what this thing can do. To me, it's well worth it's cost, and is a pleasure to use, not only because of the outcome, but also the ease with which you get there. It's little more than hook up the bottle, fire up the burners, heat soak, and go. Bingo, bango, bongo. I think I'm gonna love this thing. Roasting stuff is likely in the future as well. Then there's smoke boxes, and ........................ Oh, btw, there's only a portion of the Margherita in the pic because my bride got to it before I could take the pic......................................I should take that as a compliment I guess.
Somewhere around the middle of July I got the MCS itch to try a different way to cook a pizza. I've got a variety of ways I've been doing them over the years, and in recent months I've had considerable success with a method I "borrowed" from @Dr. Pat using the gas grill with rotisserie burner, with a couple procedural mods to respond to the configuration of my grill. I've posted those to his thread and the results have been very good. It's probably a good time to make the distinction, trying not to sound the snob, that I'm focused on home made dough, not a take and bake style pizza. They're very different animals, the take and bake, as you'd expect, is much more forgiving as to cooking method. Be that as it may. Ooni, as have other producers of outdoor cooking equipment during these Covid times, was completely sold out of inventory, so regardless of where I looked there were none available for immediate shipping. All of the online vendors I queried showed an expected delivery date of the next shipment somewhere between late September and early October. Since I wasn't up against any pressure I placed my order with the expectation I wouldn't see anything until October. As it turns out all of them were doing the "under promise/over deliver" thing. I got my oven on 8/31 late in the day. I burned it in yesterday planning to do the first cook today. During the burn in is a good time to test how the unit performs, how long it takes to get to temp, how well does it hold temp, where are the hot spots, and so on. With the trusty IR gun it appeared that the stone got up to 900ish degrees in about half an hour, but I ran it longer to see what would happen. Those familiar with the 16 know that it has an L shaped burner that extends down the left side and across the back of the chamber. After an hour the stone next to the corner of the burner registered around 990 degrees with the furthest opposite point of the stone showing in the high 700s to low 800s. Okay, no problem reaching the 932 degree advertised. While I was in the holding pattern for delivery I had been reading reports and viewing vids about the operation. As with so many things, each person had their own opinions and methods, but a common theme was............this baby gets HOT! and you'll probably (as most of them did) ruin the first efforts learning how to manage this beast.
The dough I'm using is one I've been fond of for several months; a NY style dough from KLA at Serious Eats. It did very well with the gas grill method where the stone temps were in the mid 700s. My bride and I like a good char on the puffy portions around the outer form and good leopard spotting on the bottom. Some will see the char on the outer crust and think it's burned, but with this recipe the char has a nutty, almost sweet taste that suits us fine. I had one dough ball left in the freezer so thought; "okay, if I'm going to end up with a burnt offering to the gods of pizza let this be the victim." I wanted to try a couple things as variants but with one dough ball I'd be limited. None the less, I divided the ball into two 180 gram lumps which ended up making two nice 10ish inch neapolitan-esque looking discs. The first one to be cooked was a Margherita style, red sauce and fresh mozzarella, with fresh basil on top at serving. The second one I topped with a parsley/almond pesto and slivers of prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, also topped with fresh basil at service. Having learned from the research, I watched the pies like a hawk and have to say that both turned out very nice for first efforts. At those temps the pies each cooked in less than 2 minutes. I didn't time it as I was too focused on making sure I turned them as needed to avoid any ruination. I use semolina flour as my peel "lubricant" (I detest the mouth feel of corn meal) and that gave me a bit of a surprise on the second pie. I used a bit extra on the second one because the first one didn't load on the peel as smoothly as I'd like. Well, that extra semolina ended up at the back just a touch too close to the back side burner and ignited briefly which gave me just a bit more char than I'd planned. Again, this dough takes that pretty well so it didn't ruin the pie, except for the esthetics. Both had nice leopard spotting on the bottoms. The one difference from the gas grill bake was the crunch of the bottom. I suspect it's a matter of the short residence time on the stone, less than two minutes versus the gas grill being somewhere 4-5 minutes. These pizzas on the Ooni were a bit softer, but then that's a trait of true Neapolitan pies so it's not necessarily a bad thing. Going forward there will be more experimentation seeking to improve if possible. Next time I'll temp soak for a longer time, at least an hour instead of the 40 minutes done tonight. I may tone down the flame size during the cook as well which will likely lengthen the cook time a bit, but it will be interesting to see what that does for the finish texture. I might try a slightly lower hydration dough as well, but I'll have to think about that. Anyway, for a first cook I'm very impressed with what this thing can do. To me, it's well worth it's cost, and is a pleasure to use, not only because of the outcome, but also the ease with which you get there. It's little more than hook up the bottle, fire up the burners, heat soak, and go. Bingo, bango, bongo. I think I'm gonna love this thing. Roasting stuff is likely in the future as well. Then there's smoke boxes, and ........................ Oh, btw, there's only a portion of the Margherita in the pic because my bride got to it before I could take the pic......................................I should take that as a compliment I guess.
I've only been doing 10-12" pies so far, and yes, plenty of management room. Best so far, for ease of control, is heat on high for an hour to heat soak stone, then turn flame down to low just before launch. Gives a little more crunch to the bottom relative to upper doneness.
). The second pie was a pepperoni. This one turned out great, nice leopard crust. I surprised myself.
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