Topic: Backyard pizza ovens

[Peripatetic Phil]

Not really into DIY pizzas ('though I love those from the mobile pizza vans with integrated wood-burning ovens) but the one thing that strikes me from watching both the video above and those from Gozney is that a fortune awaits the man who successfully integrates a motorised turntable into those things.  I know that I have to rotate my kebab seekhs by hand, but then so do the professionals, whilst a professional pizza chef just sticks in the pizza and it cooks evenly whilst the DIY home chef has to keep rotating the d@mned thing by hand ...

P.S. sub-thread :  what are your favourite toppings ?  Mine are those from the classic pizza Napolitana (which has sadly disappeared from the chain menus)

[Gav Iscon]

Not really into DIY pizzas ('though I love those from the mobile pizza vans with integrated wood-burning ovens) but the one thing that strikes me from watching both the video above and those from Gozney is that a fortune awaits the man who successfully integrates a motorised turntable into those things.  I know that I have to rotate my kebab seekhs by hand, but then so do the professionals, whilst a professional pizza chef just sticks in the pizza and it cooks evenly whilst the DIY home chef has to keep rotating the d@mned thing by hand ...

You mean like this Phil ?

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4UI-XMR2T0

And as for rotating. If its in a Wood Fired Oven, even a professional pizza chef turns it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C11VOwmeAUI

[Peripatetic Phil]

So sorry, Gav, I inadvertently modified your post rather than quoting and replying to it.  I have tried to put it back as it was, but please correct any errors I have made in so doing.

What I intended to add in my reply is (1), yes, that is exactly the sort of thing I had in mind (how much, though ?!), and (2) I don't think I ever saw the mobile pizzeria van man in Horsmonden rotate the pizzas (he definitely used a wood-burning oven) but perhaps I just wasn't paying attention.

** Phil.

[Gav Iscon]

So sorry, Gav, I inadvertently modified your post rather than quoting and replying to it.  I have tried to put it back as it was, but please correct any errors I have made in so doing.

What I intended to add in my reply is (1), yes, that is exactly the sort of thing I had in mind (how much, though ?!), and (2) I don't think I ever saw the mobile pizzeria van man in Horsmonden rotate the pizzas (he definitely used a wood-burning oven) but perhaps I just wasn't paying attention.

** Phil.

No problem. If its a oven with a fuel at one side, they have to be rotated otherwise they just burn. Added a better video that explains it better.


The Blackstone Pizza oven was discontinued for some reason. Getting the pizza to be roughly central from the peel launch would be a bit of a skill imo. I've seen someone adapt one of the original ooni's with a microwave turntable motor underneath onto a circular pizza stone. TBH the rotating  of them is easy and adds to the fun of cooking them..

[romain]

So sorry, Gav, I inadvertently modified your post rather than quoting and replying to it.  I have tried to put it back as it was, but please correct any errors I have made in so doing.

What I intended to add in my reply is (1), yes, that is exactly the sort of thing I had in mind (how much, though ?!), and (2) I don't think I ever saw the mobile pizzeria van man in Horsmonden rotate the pizzas (he definitely used a wood-burning oven) but perhaps I just wasn't paying attention.

** Phil.

No problem. If its a oven with a fuel at one side, they have to be rotated otherwise they just burn. Added a better video that explains it better.


The Blackstone Pizza oven was discontinued for some reason. Getting the pizza to be roughly central from the peel launch would be a bit of a skill imo. I've seen someone adapt one of the original ooni's with a microwave turntable motor underneath onto a circular pizza stone. TBH the rotating  of them is easy and adds to the fun of cooking them..

Everybody rotates pizzas in a wood burning oven with an asymmetric heat source.

I started on the Blackstone. Back then, there really wan't much out there to choose from. It is not an easy launch for sure but the trick is to let the pizza just firm up enough that you can get a small peel under it to move it to the centre. And even then, if your pizza isn't perfectly round you need to move it around a bit. There was a guy from Australia who started this approach - it became known as the Dylan shuffle.

Out of the box it wasn't a great oven but there were a few mods worked out quickly that made it much more manageable.

[romain]

Kenzi-Lopez (SeriousEats) compares the two.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDK762aVaMI

pap rika posted it earlier in the thread. I do like Kenzi's channel. 

Sorry about that. It just popped up in my feed and I thought of you guys. SeriousEats is a treasure of a website. My go to, in fact, for food science...

[JonG]

Well I got my ooni - so pizzas have been the dish of the day for a while now. Marvellous bit of kit the ooni 3 and so far I have been able to get good results with pellets, so no need to have gone with gas.

I believe they

[George]

Aldi are selling an upmarket style pizza oven for

[Peripatetic Phil]

Crikey

[George]

The hardwood ones I used to use used to chuck out loads of soot as well. At the end of the day, they both churn out products of combustion..

Interesting point. Does anyone know if it's risky to eat pizzas which have been sprinkled with quite a lot of ash and soot?