Ooni Karu 16 Review: Firewood pizza is as easy as a pie

Around this time Every year, the madness of the pizza oven comes to me and my husband. It started with a simple, “Oh, someone is going to town? We should make pizza!” We turned on the oven and bought some mozzarella in the store. Great, very fast and easy, next week, I will cook chicken thighs in the pizza oven instead of on the stove.

Then there is a quick pot of wood-fired Brussels sprouts. Then came the salty, bloody, fully cooked flank steak. In a blink of an eye, at noon on a working day, I was holding a thawed salmon fillet from Costco in my hand. I looked at the backyard outside and thought, should I? A piece of wood-burning salmon? No, calm down. Finish some work.

Cooking in a wood-fired pizza oven is as strong and contemplative as roasting marshmallows during camping. Using Ooni’s latest oven is as easy as using gas. I can take something out of the refrigerator at 5:30pm and prepare dinner by 6pm. Every friend and family member of mine who was fortunate enough to be invited to dinner also wanted one of them.

Winner takes all

If you have such a design Really Effective, why change it? Ooni Karu 16 echoes the company’s turtle appearance Old oven. However, unlike shiny stainless steel Ooni Pro, Karu 16 has high temperature resistant powder coating on carbon steel and stainless steel housing.

The insulation is amazing. When the oven temperature reached 700 degrees, I held my hand a few inches from the surface before touching it in fear with my fingertips. It’s good, but it’s a little warm-it’s important if you put it in the backyard and worry that a stray kid or beer-drinking friend might encounter it.

Karu 16 is a multi-fuel furnace.You can buy one’s Separate gas burner accessory, But by default, it can be used with charcoal or wood. Unlike some other ovens, Karu 16 also has a front door closed with a hook and a digital thermometer that displays the ambient temperature. It is very convenient, almost as accurate as my handheld digital laser thermometer.

Cooking with wood sounds scary, and I’m not a professional Pizza chef, But I can start Ooni in less than 10 minutes——Method Faster than I do with charcoal.O’Neill gave a box Its igniter ($20) And a pack Oak Rod (40 USD)All I have to do is to light an igniter, put it in the fuel pan at the back, throw a few oak sticks on it, and close the door.

In the past few years, I also found Stump block ($9) Become an equally fast and effective igniter.My local hardware store also sells different kinds of wood, but if you have space, I suggest keeping it A small axe Easily divide the fragments into smaller fragments. In any case, please make sure that the wood you use is well seasoned. In order to save money, I went astray. I used some wood on the deck that I spent outside in winter, and the smoke was unpleasant.

Approval certificate

Karu 16 is not only very easy to use, but it is also the first and only pizza oven recommended for domestic use. Real Neapolitan Pizza Association, The world authority on Neapolitan-style pizza. In addition to the approved ingredients—tomatoes, crushed by hand, preferably from Campania—the Neapolitan-style pizza differs from the more familiar New York-style pizza in its soft pillow crust and softer interior .