Thermal conductivity of stainless steel is almost 1/3 of carbon steel. This makes carbon steel to be of better choice than stainless steel for baking Pizza.
That crust looked dry as opposed to crispy. I was going to buy one immediately, but seems they're lacking. I think the recommendations of Ooni are wrong; you should instead cook on broil only. Preheat in broil - get the rack highest so allow just enough room for growth, and broil the top. Thats the way I use my stones. You could also move the pizza half way through when it's properly broiled on top, then slide it onto the lowest rack just above the element on the bottom for a minute. That should crust it better. Figuring a way to get the cook time to Sub 3 minutes is key, otherwise it'll just dry out. Or you could make a wetter dough, but that's technically challenging in it's own right. Whatever the case, Neapolitan dough is NOT useable on a steel - the hyrdro just isn't up to the task.
Thanks for the comment, please can you define what you mean by broil? It’s not a term we use in the UK? Is that the electric heating element at the top of the oven?
@@TomVoyageuk Sure. In America, the ovens have a drawer on the bottom underneath the main baking chamber called a broiler: essentially a very tight chamber with a heating element inside for intense broiling for short periods of time. When we put food into the main chamber on the highest possible rack position - so to accumulate the upper element's energy in the most direct and intense way "to toast, caramelize, or broil" - we call that broiling. So in effect, I broil the stone or steel at a distance equal to the internal chamber dimensions of a pizza oven, so that I may heat up the steel to its maximum possible ability at the highest setting. It is paramount that you get you're baking surface very hot, as close to 800 degrees Fahrenheit as possible, and much further than a conventional oven is capable. Broiling achieves that goal. Essentially creating a small pizza oven at the top of your oven chamber. It's not perfect, and it works barely, but it's better than nothing I suppose. I've been able to garner better results through this method, and sometimes I put a stone on the bottom as well and transfer the pizza halfway through so that the pizza may bake completely away from the broiling stone above, but it's all by feel. The essential problem with oven baking is that it's cooked too long to finish, and the consequence is too much hydration is lost. Since all of cooking is a matter of hydration manipulation, the trick of pizza is to maintain a proper hydration ratio in the final product. So much of technology these days does it absolutely, leaving a sub-par final product.
Only way I've got close to a 3 minute cook is using a big carbon steel pan. Pre-heated the pan on the hob to the max, threw the pizza onto it until the bottom crust was about done (maybe a minute or less) then whipped it under the equally pre-heated broiler (grill as we call it in the UK - which is just more confusion). Made some great pizzas that way but one slip transferring pizza to frying pan and it can all go horribly wrong, Actually less pre-heating that with a stone because you don't need to load the "heat battery" that a stone/steel basically is. The grill gets up to heat and the frying pan is always on the heat.
@@TomVoyageuk He means grill....UK and AU audiences .... I preheat oven (hottest it will go) 260 C and them once to temperature switch to grill (not fan assisted) at the hottest setting - 300 c for 10 min then put the Pizza on the stone / steel. The shelf can be up to 10 cm from the element and it still produces excellent results.
@@MrMizat03 I started yesterday making pizza in home oven, and came to the same conclusion as you, put on highest rack position, on broil and that cooking is indeed manipulation of hydration. However, I made a dough of 70% hydration for my first trial, and I kind of messed up my stone with the toping going off the dough. Cleaning stone is not easy as I do not have pyrolysis in my oven. So I was looking for a pizza steel which will be probably easier to clean. But why do you say that Neapolitan dough is NOT usable on a steel?
AT 2:54 its sliding the raw pizza onto the steel or stone thats the problem especially when making thicker pizza with alot of sauce, cheese and toppings. Why? The raw pizza will shake a bit as the cheese will slight sink into the sauce and some toppings will fall off. Then when I add alot of flour onto the pizza peel to make it easier to slide, after its baked the bottom of the pizza dough is packed with white flour. I would rather prefer using an aluminum pan to bake my pizzas with just a little vegetable oil on the pan, no need to slip and slide the raw pizza and no packed white flour will ever bake onto the bottom either.
Ooni pizza ovens work extremely well in all weathers and I often use mine right through winter. The reason I mentioned that is many people may not want to be outside cooking over the winter months or may want to be entertaining indoors Over Xmas, so this gives people an option to do so!
That base is not that great. Nerd Chef and Baking Steel make better products. Heavier and more heat retention. The base you get with heavier steels resemble a coal or wood fired oven...This one is not impressive and disappointing for Ooni.
Thank you for the comment and for checking out my video! Undoubtably, a thicker steel would retain more heat, but for an indoor option, i quite enjoyed ending this one. There are a number of factors that id like to alter next time, my oven goes to 250c max, and ideally 300c would be better, plus im keen to see results with different dough recipes. I'd be interested to get hold of a Nerd Chef Steel too if they're available in the UK.
Also, I would be interested to know if the Nerd Chef Steel is stainless or Carbon Steel? As carbon steel requires a bit more care than stainless, as its more prone to rust and needs to be treated? have you used one before?
Are you sure? Baking steel is literally the same thickness Baking steel is made of seasoned steel and this is made of stainless. I would imagine this is a better product? that's why it also costs what it does
@@overnightclassic2 The basic models of baking steel, nerd chef and ooni are the same thickness. However the 2 former are heavier. They both have upgraded models that are thicker and heavier. I can speak to the upgraded nerd chef model at 3/8 inch thick that it browns far better than this Ooni. Also take a look at the many Baking Steel videos on the web for a one to one comparison and It looks like they brown better than this one. The browning on this one is reminicent of a pan.
@@rbiv5 baking steel browns better because it is made of mild steel which transmits more heat, not because it is thicker The ooni steel is made of stainless steel so it is a much more expensive product for the same money.
"Can you hear that, it's really really crispy" - as shards of crust fly off in all directions. If you're going to do that to a pizza, I'd have some butter or olive oil handy to brush on it as soon as it's out of the oven. There's a difference between a crisp crust cooked at high temperatures and slow-cooking a pizza until it's a biscuit. Also "This is going to take between 6 to 8 minutes" - time on oven shows exactly 10 minutes between putting it in and taking it out. A lot of ovens these days have a setting that you cook the pizza on the very bottom of the oven at 300c. Do that and put a steel above the pizza as well (ideally have two steels, one top, one bottom and lots of pre-heating)(oh, and buy the steels for about half the prize, not off Ooni) and you can manage a 5-6 minute bake on an American style (ie loaded) pizza that will give you a crisp crust that you can actually cut without producing shrapnel.
Thanks for the video but... 100 quid for those results (sorry, it didn't look good to me) is mad (IMHO). Save your money by getting a large cast iron skillet, cook the base on the hub then finish the top under the grill, you will get much better results and have a multi-use skillet instead of a near-useless steel.
Hello Tom ! If you want to change your pizza game, you need to try this and please report back ! .......... I promise I'll sub ! Put your baking steel on the lower rack and put your old stone on the top rack. Let the oven heat up for an hour at 550 degrees F or 288 C . Next step is to launch your pizza on the top rack at High Broil for 2 minutes ! You'll be amazed at how awesome and puffy it quickly looks just like in a 900 degree oven. Then put the pizza on the lower rack at Bake 550 F - 288 C for 2 more minutes 3 max depending on your oven !...............Done !! It will look like a Professional Pizza you bought at a real deal pizza place ! I'm an Italian from Quebec , I'm very passionate about my pizza but I can't take the credit for this , this trick came from a guy named Andris here on YT and he changed my pizza game forever ! ........You guys let me know !
@@TomVoyageuk Just the fact that you replied just made my day ! You're a friend now ! And I'm gonna press the sub button like promised ! Let me know when you try this. Have a great weekend !
Thermal conductivity of stainless steel is almost 1/3 of carbon steel. This makes carbon steel to be of better choice than stainless steel for baking Pizza.
That crust looked dry as opposed to crispy. I was going to buy one immediately, but seems they're lacking. I think the recommendations of Ooni are wrong; you should instead cook on broil only. Preheat in broil - get the rack highest so allow just enough room for growth, and broil the top. Thats the way I use my stones. You could also move the pizza half way through when it's properly broiled on top, then slide it onto the lowest rack just above the element on the bottom for a minute. That should crust it better. Figuring a way to get the cook time to Sub 3 minutes is key, otherwise it'll just dry out.
Or you could make a wetter dough, but that's technically challenging in it's own right. Whatever the case, Neapolitan dough is NOT useable on a steel - the hyrdro just isn't up to the task.
Thanks for the comment, please can you define what you mean by broil? It’s not a term we use in the UK? Is that the electric heating element at the top of the oven?
@@TomVoyageuk Sure. In America, the ovens have a drawer on the bottom underneath the main baking chamber called a broiler: essentially a very tight chamber with a heating element inside for intense broiling for short periods of time. When we put food into the main chamber on the highest possible rack position - so to accumulate the upper element's energy in the most direct and intense way "to toast, caramelize, or broil" - we call that broiling.
So in effect, I broil the stone or steel at a distance equal to the internal chamber dimensions of a pizza oven, so that I may heat up the steel to its maximum possible ability at the highest setting. It is paramount that you get you're baking surface very hot, as close to 800 degrees Fahrenheit as possible, and much further than a conventional oven is capable. Broiling achieves that goal. Essentially creating a small pizza oven at the top of your oven chamber. It's not perfect, and it works barely, but it's better than nothing I suppose. I've been able to garner better results through this method, and sometimes I put a stone on the bottom as well and transfer the pizza halfway through so that the pizza may bake completely away from the broiling stone above, but it's all by feel. The essential problem with oven baking is that it's cooked too long to finish, and the consequence is too much hydration is lost. Since all of cooking is a matter of hydration manipulation, the trick of pizza is to maintain a proper hydration ratio in the final product. So much of technology these days does it absolutely, leaving a sub-par final product.
Only way I've got close to a 3 minute cook is using a big carbon steel pan. Pre-heated the pan on the hob to the max, threw the pizza onto it until the bottom crust was about done (maybe a minute or less) then whipped it under the equally pre-heated broiler (grill as we call it in the UK - which is just more confusion). Made some great pizzas that way but one slip transferring pizza to frying pan and it can all go horribly wrong, Actually less pre-heating that with a stone because you don't need to load the "heat battery" that a stone/steel basically is. The grill gets up to heat and the frying pan is always on the heat.
@@TomVoyageuk He means grill....UK and AU audiences .... I preheat oven (hottest it will go) 260 C and them once to temperature switch to grill (not fan assisted) at the hottest setting - 300 c for 10 min then put the Pizza on the stone / steel. The shelf can be up to 10 cm from the element and it still produces excellent results.
@@MrMizat03 I started yesterday making pizza in home oven, and came to the same conclusion as you, put on highest rack position, on broil and that cooking is indeed manipulation of hydration. However, I made a dough of 70% hydration for my first trial, and I kind of messed up my stone with the toping going off the dough. Cleaning stone is not easy as I do not have pyrolysis in my oven. So I was looking for a pizza steel which will be probably easier to clean. But why do you say that Neapolitan dough is NOT usable on a steel?
AT 2:54 its sliding the raw pizza onto the steel or stone thats the problem especially when making thicker pizza with alot of sauce, cheese and toppings. Why? The raw pizza will shake a bit as the cheese will slight sink into the sauce and some toppings will fall off. Then when I add alot of flour onto the pizza peel to make it easier to slide, after its baked the bottom of the pizza dough is packed with white flour. I would rather prefer using an aluminum pan to bake my pizzas with just a little vegetable oil on the pan, no need to slip and slide the raw pizza and no packed white flour will ever bake onto the bottom either.
I'd like to try using an aluminium pizza pan at some point 👍🍕
You specifically mentioned cooking in the winter. Do the ooni ovens not work well in the winter?
Ooni pizza ovens work extremely well in all weathers and I often use mine right through winter. The reason I mentioned that is many people may not want to be outside cooking over the winter months or may want to be entertaining indoors Over Xmas, so this gives people an option to do so!
Outdoor pizza cooking in Winter is known to attract wolves in the UK.
Can you please test the new wood basket for the karu 12? And compare it to the original one?
Hi 👋 I didn't realised there was a new one, i'll take a look 👍
@@TomVoyageuk they just released it. Can’t wait for your review 🙏🏼
Nice to see your pizza making video🥰😯😍🥰💝
Thank you 😋
That base is not that great. Nerd Chef and Baking Steel make better products. Heavier and more heat retention. The base you get with heavier steels resemble a coal or wood fired oven...This one is not impressive and disappointing for Ooni.
Thank you for the comment and for checking out my video! Undoubtably, a thicker steel would retain more heat, but for an indoor option, i quite enjoyed ending this one. There are a number of factors that id like to alter next time, my oven goes to 250c max, and ideally 300c would be better, plus im keen to see results with different dough recipes. I'd be interested to get hold of a Nerd Chef Steel too if they're available in the UK.
Also, I would be interested to know if the Nerd Chef Steel is stainless or Carbon Steel? As carbon steel requires a bit more care than stainless, as its more prone to rust and needs to be treated? have you used one before?
Are you sure? Baking steel is literally the same thickness
Baking steel is made of seasoned steel and this is made of stainless. I would imagine this is a better product? that's why it also costs what it does
@@overnightclassic2 The basic models of baking steel, nerd chef and ooni are the same thickness. However the 2 former are heavier. They both have upgraded models that are thicker and heavier. I can speak to the upgraded nerd chef model at 3/8 inch thick that it browns far better than this Ooni. Also take a look at the many Baking Steel videos on the web for a one to one comparison and It looks like they brown better than this one. The browning on this one is reminicent of a pan.
@@rbiv5 baking steel browns better because it is made of mild steel which transmits more heat, not because it is thicker
The ooni steel is made of stainless steel so it is a much more expensive product for the same money.
"Can you hear that, it's really really crispy" - as shards of crust fly off in all directions. If you're going to do that to a pizza, I'd have some butter or olive oil handy to brush on it as soon as it's out of the oven. There's a difference between a crisp crust cooked at high temperatures and slow-cooking a pizza until it's a biscuit. Also "This is going to take between 6 to 8 minutes" - time on oven shows exactly 10 minutes between putting it in and taking it out.
A lot of ovens these days have a setting that you cook the pizza on the very bottom of the oven at 300c. Do that and put a steel above the pizza as well (ideally have two steels, one top, one bottom and lots of pre-heating)(oh, and buy the steels for about half the prize, not off Ooni) and you can manage a 5-6 minute bake on an American style (ie loaded) pizza that will give you a crisp crust that you can actually cut without producing shrapnel.
Thanks for watching and for the comment!
What! £99 with no accessories like peeler?
Sadly not, just the steel I’m afraid!
Thanks for the video but...
100 quid for those results (sorry, it didn't look good to me) is mad (IMHO). Save your money by getting a large cast iron skillet, cook the base on the hub then finish the top under the grill, you will get much better results and have a multi-use skillet instead of a near-useless steel.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, and for checking out my video! Have a great Christmas!
Hello Tom ! If you want to change your pizza game, you need to try this and please report back ! .......... I promise I'll sub !
Put your baking steel on the lower rack and put your old stone on the top rack. Let the oven heat up for an hour at 550 degrees F or 288 C .
Next step is to launch your pizza on the top rack at High Broil for 2 minutes ! You'll be amazed at how awesome and puffy it quickly looks just like in a 900 degree oven. Then put the pizza on the lower rack at Bake 550 F - 288 C for 2 more minutes 3 max depending on your oven !...............Done !! It will look like a Professional Pizza you bought at a real deal pizza place !
I'm an Italian from Quebec , I'm very passionate about my pizza but I can't take the credit for this , this trick came from a guy named Andris here on YT and he changed my pizza game forever ! ........You guys let me know !
Thanks for the tips, I'll try it out 🍕👍
@@TomVoyageuk Just the fact that you replied just made my day ! You're a friend now ! And I'm gonna press the sub button like promised ! Let me know when you try this. Have a great weekend !
@lousekoya1803 enjoy your weekend too! ☺️