Now Testing: Portable outdoor pizza ovens

An exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at our testing The Gozney Roccbox, Ooni Koda 16, and Ooni Karu portable pizza ovens. Photo: Lesley Stockton Portable outdoor pizza ovens promise to deliver the scorching heat needed to cook a pro-style Neapolitan pie. These tiny ovens are touted to reach over 900 °F—putting your regular oven’s pizza-baking abilities to shame. Why so hot? Because a perfect pizza has a crispy browned crust, a chewy interior, and perfectly cooked toppings. And you need lots of heat to hit that trifecta. — Lesley Stockton When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. [Learn more]( → What we tested - [Ooni Koda 16]( 16-inch surface, gas burner // $500 - [Ooni Fyra]( 12-inch surface, wood pellets // $300 - [Ooni Karu]( 12-inch surface, wood and charcoal // $350 - [Gozney Roccbox]( 12-inch surface, gas burner // $500 How we tested Photo: Lesley Stockton Pizza-oven testing is a slow process. I’m not only learning the ins and outs of each oven, I also have to prepare all the dough using the exact same recipe and proof time (24 hours). And if that weren’t all, we’ve had an especially snowy winter here in the Northeast. So some days I can’t test until I shovel the snow in my backyard. Sob story over, let’s talk pizza. This isn’t my first pizza party at Wirecutter. I also wrote our [guide to the best baking stone]( and the [review of the Breville Smart Oven Pizzaiolo]( making a total of 70 pizzas for those two guides. For consistency, I’m using the same dough, sauce, and toppings to test portable outdoor pizza ovens. I’m also monitoring the temperatures inside each oven with a high-heat kiln thermometer (air) and an infrared thermometer (cooking surface). I wanted to test pizza ovens on this day. Mother Nature had other plans for me. Photo: Lesley Stockton At the time of this writing, I’ve cooked in the Ooni Koda 16 the most—making 16 pizzas and a dozen oysters Rockefeller (as a personal experiment). The Koda uses propane, and it is very easy to set up and use right away. It gets screaming hot and cooks a Neapolitan-style pie in about 90 seconds, with a couple of rotations to keep the outer crust from scorching. I’m still waiting for a high-temperature probe thermometer to arrive, so I don’t have accurate readouts to report yet. But the first time I used the Koda, the top of the oven partially melted my jacket sleeve. The Fyra is Ooni’s least expensive oven, and it uses wood pellets for fuel. I’ve done a couple of dry runs to figure out the best technique for getting the fire started and maintaining a consistent temperature. I haven’t cooked pizza in the Fyra yet, but I can tell this thing gets super-hot. Worth noting: When you remove the Fyra’s front door to launch a pizza, the airflow reverses in the oven and causes flames to shoot out. Though this is alarming at first, the manual assures us it’s normal. We’ll talk about this more in our guide. I’ve also done a couple of dry runs on the Ooni Karu. The Karu is fueled by lump charcoal and/or hardwood. The tricky thing: If you want to use wood, you need it cut to a specific size—6-inch-long pieces of kindling. I bought 25 pounds of white oak cut to 8 inches long, and roughly 40% of the batch is a bit too big for the fire box. Time to pull out the circular saw! The fire box on the Ooni Karu. Photo: Lesley Stockton As for the Gozney Roccbox, I’ve only unboxed it. It comes with a propane burner as standard, but it can be converted into a wood-burning oven with [this accessory](. This is the only oven we’re testing that has a built-in thermometer, and I can’t wait to test the accuracy on that. By the numbers 2 propane tanks 3 pounds of wood pellets 10 pounds of wood pellets Early impressions I don’t have concrete takeaways about pizza outcomes yet, but I do sense that propane-fueled ovens seem much more convenient than pellet- and wood-fueled models. It’s like comparing gas and charcoal grills. You’re not going to get a smoky-flavored pizza from a propane burner, but you can’t beat the ease of starting a fire with the press of a button. There are also folks who don’t mind putting in a little extra work to make wood-fired pizzas. How much extra work, and is the difference in flavor worth it? That’s what I’ll be figuring out next. What else we’re testing - Massage guns - Turntables - Underwear Look for a behind-the-scenes preview of our testing in your inbox each month. You’ll also find the latest on our site. Copyright © 2021 Wirecutter, Inc., all rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you signed up for Wirecutter's newsletter. [Forward this email to a friend](. [View this email in your browser](. Getting too many emails from us? [Get only our Sunday newsletter](. To stop receiving all our emails, [unsubscribe here](. Our mailing address is: Wirecutter, Inc. 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018‌ [Privacy Policy]( | [California Notices]( | [Terms of Service]( | [Contact Us](