Ooni Koda 16 (Pizza things escalated quickly)

[bonz50]

Looks great!

For launching, a wood peel, dusted with semolina is my recommendation. The key is to build and launch the pie as quick as possible once the dough hits the peel. Don't forget to give it a quick shake once it's topped to make sure it slides.

if you cant find semolina easily (i certainly can't) cornmeal works just fine.

 

[Jason TQ]

Thanks for the tips folks. I definitely need to make the pizzas smaller too. I keep trying for close to 16in and that seems to close to the side where if things aren't centered they can easily burn if the touch that metal.

I have an 18in wooden peel for my egg that is too big and then I bought that steel one for the Ooni and gotta work on my launch skills with it. I do use semolina.

I'm honestly gonna play with screens a little more too. Saw a bunch of folks on an Ooni group that swears by them even if it adds a little to the cook time. My first few pies did fine with the screen and then taking the screen out after a minute.

And seems like if you cook multiple pizzas the only way to make that easy is with screens or multiple peels since the Ooni cooks so fast and you have to be there to rotate.

On my egg you could launch it on and took like 6mins with no rotation so was easy enough to walk away and have a perfect amount of time to prep the next pie.

I got 2 going on here in a bit. Will probably do one screen and one launch and keep em to 14in.

Any Ooni owners with opinions on max pizza size on the 16?

 

[bowhnter]

Honestly, I’ve never really measured. But probably closer to 14”. Since my pizza shapes usually aren’t round, well, who knows!

 

[CKYnick]

I've seen the motor and roundnstone mod. Which ones did you go with?

I probably won't change anything right away but always curious on what others are doing.

It was definitely a custom job, I ordered a 5 rpm face mount ac motor from mcmaster carr. Mounted that underneath and attached it to a steel 16" plate I had made to which i placed the stone on top. If you ever want to move forward let me know I can send you links

Nick

 

[Jason TQ]

Ok so here's the 2 pies from last night and one from lunch today.

Last night was a normal launch off the steel and it launched well. I only used the semolina on both sides of the dough then put it on the peel. I felt the bottom, while it looked great had a burntness to it. Probably too much semolina as you could see the burnt flour on the stone after I took it off. Scraped that and then put the peel launch pie on.

Keeping these to 14in helped a ton. No banging into the metal around the sides. The peel launch was great. Less char on the bottom but not burnt taste at all.

Then for lunch I took Mike's advice on the parchment launch and trimmed the paper tighter around the pizza and left a little tail to help get it out from under after like 30-45 seconds. Man this was the best one yet and is crazy easy to launch. So most likely will play around with that technique going forward

Here's last nights pies

Here's lunch from today

Thanks for all the tips so far. Going to make another batch of dough but reduce the volume as I still think they are a little heavy for about 14in.

These last pie's were 545g which I know is heavy. I'm trying to balance the line between neopolitan and ny. So next batch is going to be 475g.

 

[Jason TQ]

Ok so here's the 2 pies from last night and one from lunch today.

Last night was a normal launch off the steel and it launched well. I only used the semolina on both sides of the dough then put it on the peel. I felt the bottom, while it looked great had a burntness to it. Probably too much semolina as you could see the burnt flour on the stone after I took it off. Scraped that and then put the peel launch pie on.

Keeping these to 14in helped a ton. No banging into the metal around the sides. The peel launch was great. Less char on the bottom but not burnt taste at all.

Then for lunch I took Mike's advice on the parchment launch and trimmed the paper tighter around the pizza and left a little tail to help get it out from under after like 30-45 seconds. Man this was the best one yet and is crazy easy to launch. So most likely will play around with that technique going forward

Here's last nights pies

Here's lunch from today

Thanks for all the tips so far. Going to make another batch of dough but reduce the volume as I still think they are a little heavy for about 14in.

These last pie's were 545g which I know is heavy. I'm trying to balance the line between neopolitan and ny. So next batch is going to be 475g.

 

[bowhnter]

Lookin good Jason.
I haven't gotten the hang of using the turner peel yet. I think I have the same one.

 

[bowhnter]

Lookin good Jason.
I haven't gotten the hang of using the turner peel yet. I think I have the same one.

 

[cayenne]

WOW....6lbs????

I totally get the $600 price seems like a lot. I don't really disagree. All based on how much you use something.

The idiots math I did in my head was, every time I fire up my egg for a single pizza it burns about 6lbs of lump. Lump I've been getting recently is ~$1/lb. So $6 in fuel for 1 cook.
<snip>

This just caught my eye.

WOW....6lbs of lump charcoal in your BGE for 1 pizza? I've got a BGE XL and I don't think I"ve every burned that much lump charcoal doing anything...
:O

I've set mine up, using a Baking Steel (the one that's almost 1/2" thick)...I elevated the steel to where it is as high as it can go to be close to the lid/dome.

I ran the thing about 700-850F.....did a pizza.

And then I closed the vents and shut it down. I didn't burn all that much charcoal that I recall.

Anyway, just rambling that evening an XL at high temps...I don't recall ever burning off that much fuel....

 

[cayenne]

Interesting..

that's a 2nd mortgage appliance right there...

I live in New Orleans...restaurant central for the US for the most part.

It might have been few years ago....restaurant going out of business sale, had one of these....for a steal.

I mean like $1-2K or so...maybe it was a slightly smaller unit, or something...

I actually considered grabbing it, but I was in a smaller apartment then and no real good place to set it up...

I did, however, buy at an auction, a real Hobart deli- meat slicer....it came from a Quiznos that went belly up...I got it for about $1200 or so I think.

I love that think....

Oh well....back to your scheduled program.

 

[cayenne]

Cornmeal

For now I'll have to stick with the wife's measly 6qt KitchenAid .

Here's the rest from last night. I'm excited that the pizza peel and rotator came today. I attempted to launch the pizza off some parchment yesterday, but couldn't get it to release from the parchment even with the semolina flour. Since the parchment wasn't cut to just under the pizza the exposed parchment went up in flames immediately, lol :caked:.

But really only charred one little part. So this was the 1st pie that started directly on the stone and took maybe 2 total minutes. I actually forgot to time it.

Might be taking a pizza break tonight :crazy:, but definitely doing 2 tomorrow.

Ok...as you can tell, I'm reading and answering my way down the thread.

One technique I use and has worked for ages.....corn meal.

I sprinkle some on my pizza peel, then, I pull the rolled out dough onto the peel....the cornmeal acts like little ball bearings.

No parchment, nothing else....

I then build my pie with toppings with the dough on the peel as described...then I am able to easily slide off the peel onto the waiting stone/steel I have up to temperature.

Give the cornmeal thing a try!!

HTH,

cayenne

 

[bonz50]

Ok...as you can tell, I'm reading and answering my way down the thread.

One technique I use and has worked for ages.....corn meal.

I sprinkle some on my pizza peel, then, I pull the rolled out dough onto the peel....the cornmeal acts like little ball bearings.

No parchment, nothing else....

I then build my pie with toppings with the dough on the peel as described...then I am able to easily slide off the peel onto the waiting stone/steel I have up to temperature.

Give the cornmeal thing a try!!

HTH,

cayenne

thats what I use also. works great.

 

[Jason TQ]

Lookin good Jason.
I haven't gotten the hang of using the turner peel yet. I think I have the same one.

Ya my knee jerk reaction to it is it's easier to slide the peel or screen under and rotate the pizza with my hand. It's just a small area in there vs a large pizza oven. Luckily that turner didn't cost much.

 

[DBBQ]

I shape my pie on a big wooden peel my friend made (too big to xfer in the ooni). I use a little reg flour when shaping, then add some semolina, and xfer to Ooni with this:
https://ooni.com/products/ooni-perforated-pizza-peel It never sticks and has the bonus of not charring the bottom of the wooden peel and leaving excess semolina when using the perforated peel.

 

[kurtsara]

Ok so here's the 2 pies from last night and one from lunch today.

Last night was a normal launch off the steel and it launched well. I only used the semolina on both sides of the dough then put it on the peel. I felt the bottom, while it looked great had a burntness to it. Probably too much semolina as you could see the burnt flour on the stone after I took it off. Scraped that and then put the peel launch pie on.

Keeping these to 14in helped a ton. No banging into the metal around the sides. The peel launch was great. Less char on the bottom but not burnt taste at all.

Then for lunch I took Mike's advice on the parchment launch and trimmed the paper tighter around the pizza and left a little tail to help get it out from under after like 30-45 seconds. Man this was the best one yet and is crazy easy to launch. So most likely will play around with that technique going forward

Here's last nights pies

Here's lunch from today

Thanks for all the tips so far. Going to make another batch of dough but reduce the volume as I still think they are a little heavy for about 14in.

These last pie's were 545g which I know is heavy. I'm trying to balance the line between neopolitan and ny. So next batch is going to be 475g.

I have a blackstone and always launch on parchment cut right at the crust, after a minute maybe 1:15 I slide the peel under and wiggle the pizza, if it slides on the parchment I pull the pizza out, pull the parchment and slide the pizza back into the oven. And luckily we only paid $280.00 for the blackstone about 7 years ago.

 

[Robert]

I have a blackstone and always launch on parchment cut right at the crust, after a minute maybe 1:15 I slide the peel under and wiggle the pizza, if it slides on the parchment I pull the pizza out, pull the parchment and slide the pizza back into the oven. And luckily we only paid $280.00 for the blackstone about 7 years ago.

Concerning your Blackstone---have you ever had to replace the motor or perform other type of maintenance on the oven?


Thanks,


Robert

 

[kurtsara]

Concerning your Blackstone---have you ever had to replace the motor or perform other type of maintenance on the oven?


Thanks,


Robert

When we bought it I had read that the motors will go out now and then so I bought a extra one, about five years into using it we had a few of the neighbors over and I was making a bunch of pizza’s and one of the guys was standing with me asking about the oven, I was telling him about the chance of the motor going out and he thought I was nuts having a extra motor on a rare chance of something breaking, the next time we used it the motor broke just as I was about to put the pizza in, order a new one again to just sit there just in case.

Sorry for the long story though but every time we use the oven we are amazed it cooks so quick and makes perfect pizza’s.

 

[charcoalwilly]

Congrats on the new purchase. I see a Saputo stone in your future! I have never tried one, but lots of people swear by it for neo pizzas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UhMJyVbbm0

 

[Czarbecue]

Man, reminds me of when I bought the Karu 16 at the William Sonoma near Duluth. Put it together and haven’t touched it since. This was summer 2022. The Roccbox still gets plenty of action though.

 

[Jason TQ]

Man, reminds me of when I bought the Karu 16 at the William Sonoma near Duluth. Put it together and haven’t touched it since. This was summer 2022. The Roccbox still gets plenty of action though.

So you're saying you're willing to part with that Karu for a steep discount :icon_smile_tongue:.

Any reason you haven't used it? I know those roccbox are awesome, so maybe the karu is just redundant.