We all want to make restaurant-style pizza at home but no matter how much we try, it never turns out as good. Why is that?
You might have attempted a few times and put so much effort into making the perfect dough, the sauce, and all those things. But the outcome is never truly satisfactory.
Well, the reason might not be your cooking method or skill but the oven itself! To make authentic-style pizza, you need a proper pizza oven.
Of course, we can’t have a humongous oven in our backyard. For that reason, Ooni Pro is the best portable pizza oven choice!
It’s simple, easy, and practical and provides gorgeous charring that will make your guests wonder in disbelief when you will say, you have made it!
In this Ooni Pro pizza oven review, we’ll tell you what makes this oven such a popular and well-praised choice among pizza lovers.
A Quick Look at — Uuni Pro Pizza Oven
[amazon box=”B079ZZ399V”]Key features:
- Large cooking surface with enough room for a 16” pizza!
- Compatible with many different fuel options like charcoal, wood, wood pellets, or gas.
- Solid insulated stainless steel body.
- Baking door and built-in thermometer with fast preheat time.
Ratings: 9.5
Uuni Pro Pizza Oven Review
Features:
Ooni comes with a really high-quality and efficient burner. The burner is undoubtedly the main attraction. Whether you like easy and simple gas grill functionalities or an authentic charred flavor in your pizza, this oven can do it all.
You can use charcoals, wood, wood pellets, and gas to fuel your Ooni pro. The oven has a really enormous surface for you to prepare any amount of food or any sizes of pizza you want.
You also get a range of unique accessories. Their added skillets let you grill your favorite pieces of meat and make delicious stakes and BBQs.
Design & Materials:
Ooni wood fired pizza oven has a practical design with a sleek and modern exterior. The full body of this oven is made out of stainless steel. We all know stainless steel gives a very effortlessly stylish look to any appliances.
The steel is durable enough to not get any rust or tarnish in the long run. This is very important because Ooni Pro is mainly an outdoor pizza oven. So it needs to be strong enough to handle the roughness of harsh weather conditions.
The design of Ooni Pro is quite similar to Ooni Koda and Ooni 3. The most significant difference would probably be the size. Ooni Pro is the largest pizza oven in that range.
It has the same style as Ooni 3 wood fired oven, meaning that it has a burner at the back and front chimney to provide enough airflow to cook, grill, or bake anything with even heat.
The stainless steel uses double-walled insulation that retains and maintains heat for longer. So you need only a few minutes to prepare an extra-large pizza!
The heat retention system also ensures that you will need less fuel for cooking. So it is energy efficient and eco friendly as well!
Versatility:
The best thing about the Uuni Pro pellet burner oven is that it’s incredibly versatile. If you are thinking you can only make pizza in this thing, you have never been more wrong!
It is essentially a high heat oven that can bake, grill, and roast anything you want.
It is excellent for making cakes and cookies while being hot and charred enough to use skillets for different grilled items. You can prepare excellent kebabs and BBQ wings as well as delicious stakes.
Let’s talk about pizzas for a moment, given that the main purpose of this grill is to prepare chef-quality pizza at home. With a pizza oven like this, you have to think big.
The days of using premade frozen pizza are gone. With an oven so sophisticated and stylish, you would want to spend extra time crafting your pizza making skills.
From classic Margarita to Prosciutto e Funghi to Pepperoni and Diavola, you get the freedom to try authentic Italian pizzas like never before.
My personal favorite is Capricciosa as you only need a few ingredients and a super-hot oven like Ooni pro to prepare it.
The combination of fresh tomato sauce, mozzarella, and olives with a prominent charred fragrance from the Ooni wood pellet pizza oven is everything I want for my Sunday afternoon.
Portability:
Ooni Pro is 48.5lbs aka 22kg in weight. It is said to be the world’s first portable pizza oven. Ooni Pro comes with a revolutionizing outdoor cooking design that brings all food lovers together.
With a pizza oven like Ooni pro, you would want to throw as many backyard parties as possible. Its natural fuel and practical design make cooking pizza easy and fun.
Uuni pro pizza oven also comes with any must-have accessories and tools that can be used for a number of different dishes.
Our Ratings:
Build Quality- 9.9:
Keeping the price point in mind, this is probably one of the best pizza ovens in terms of longevity and quality of materials.
Made from high quality double insulated Stainless steel, this oven is built to last. You can use it all year round whether it’s summer or winter. The stainless body is rust and scratch-resistant.
Performance- 9.7:
The Ooni Pro has a really high-temperature interior that can prepare any pizza within two/three minutes.
Even though Ooni claims you can prepare a 16” pizza in it, I would suggest you prepare a 12-14 inches pizza. Because otherwise, you will have a hard time turning it or removing it without burning your wrists.
Do not use low moisture pizza dough as it will just become rock hard. You need fresh and soft dough full of moisture. This is crucial for any charcoal oven.
Ooni pro pellet burner provides some safety gloves for your hands.
But it is wiser to invest in a pair of high-quality gloves that will serve you for years. You can check here for our list of the best heat resistant gloves.
Ease of Use- 9.8:
The design is pretty simple and self-explanatory to use. The cleaning, however, is the best part of this particular pizza oven.
The chimney and dual doors mean you get an even air and heat distribution inside the burner. This gives you ease and flexibility to relax as your pizza is not going to accidentally burn. You get a clear understanding of the internal temperature with its built-in thermometer.
Even though the thermometer attached to the oven is quite good, we recommend you to invest in a good one for maximum control. You can find our top wireless picks here.
Ease of Cleaning- 9.5:
If you have ever owned a pizza oven or a charcoal pit before, you know they can be a pain to clean up. The Ooni Pro has a full stainless steel body while making cleaning extremely easy. You just need to wipe it with a damp napkin.
To remove ash and charcoal leftovers from the Ooni Pro oven, it is better to use a silicone baking mat to gently sweep the ashes onto it. You should do this after the oven cools down completely. Then simply throw the ashes into the garbage.
Value for Money- 8.2:
The Ooni Pro is not the most affordable option out there but it’s not the most expensive either. The quality, performance, and flavors in your food justify the price.
This is not a pizza oven you buy and forget. You enjoy Uuni Pro pizza oven with your friends and family for years. Good food, good memories and fun times make the purchase so worth it.
Specifications:
- Dimensions 31.1 x 19.29 x 29.13 inches
- Weight 57lbs
- Fuel Type Charcoal, Wood, Gas
- Max Temperature 900°F
- Preheat Time 15 mins
- Cooking Time 1-2 mins
- Max Pizza Size 16”
The Pros:
- Four different fuel source options.
- Very fast to heat up.
- Huge cooking surface ideal for extra-large pizzas.
- Portable and lightweight design.
- Solid stainless steel construction.
- Can heat up to 900°F.
- Built-in thermometer.
- Great range of accessories.
The Cons:
- Requires time to truly master the temperature.
- The safety gloves are not very durable.
Buying the Ooni Pro Pizza Oven: What You Need to Know
While you’re shopping for a new pizza oven, there are a few key things you need to know. Some features are more important than others. So it is important to know what to look for and where to look for it.
Understand the Temperature:
Using a traditional way of pizza making requires a good understanding of temperature and timing. In general, for any charcoal or wooden cooker, you need to be precise and careful. Otherwise, your food will burn.
You can look for digital thermometers or temperature controllers to give you an easy way to master it without learning. But either way, this is something every pizza oven owner needs to focus on.
Know Your Fuels:
With Uuni Pro pizza oven, you get four different fuel options: charcoal, wood, wood pellets, and gas. This does not mean all these fuels do the same thing to your food.
Each fuel has its unique touch and adds a specific flavor to your pizza. So know what you want before picking one.
For example, charcoal adds a classic charred, smoky flavor that has a bitter, nutty undertone to it. Woods like cedar or pine, on the other hand, adds a less smoky flavor to the pizza.
Hardwoods pellets like oak, maple, and birch are famous for their sweet aroma. So know what you want and use these fuel options as an advantage,
Pizza Stone & Pizza Peel:
Ever wonder why your homemade pizza never has that crispy, tasty crust we all love and enjoy? That is because you do not use a pizza stone.
A pizza stone basically conducts the heat and keeps the temperature inside the oven steady. So when the cold pizza touches the surface of the hot stone, it immediately gets a crispy, charred crust. The pizza also cooks more evenly and faster.
I personally love Cast Elegance Thermarite Stone for a foolproof crispy crust.
Pizza peel on the other hand is the tool you use to place your pizza in Ooni Pro.It looks kind of like a giant wooden spatula. Without a good pizza peel, you can not put pizza inside the narrow door of Ooni Pro.
The pizza peel lets you put the pizza directly inside the flaming hot Ooni Pro without burning a single finger. A good choice would be Checkered Chef Pizza Peel with an extra-large paddle.
Types of Pizza:
On a sophisticated pizza oven like Ooni Pro, you can make authentic and famous Italian pizzas with no effort. You can make classic Margaritas, Marinaras, Capricciosas, Quattro Stagione and so much more. For ovens like this, less is more.
So if you enjoy overstuffing your pizza with too much cheese, toppings and meat, we would recommend you to slow down, experiment with authentic Italian style, and enjoy the delicacy as it’s meant to be.
Setting up Your Uuni Pro Pizza Oven
Before you use the Ooni pro wood fired oven for your favorite pizza or other baked items, setting it up properly is a must.
Yes, we all hate this part of the process but it is what it is. Comparatively though, Ooni Pro is really simple to assemble.
You need to follow a few steps to properly set up Uuni Pro:
- Open up the four table legs on the main body of the oven.
- You need to align your chimney to attach it to the main body. You can use the clips that come with the set to secure the chimney in place.
- After attaching the chimney properly, you need to align the holes in the stone guard with front oven bolts. Make the bolts very tight so that the oven becomes very sturdy.
- Place all four baking stones into your oven and attach the baking and pizza doors.
- There is a fuel hatch door at the back of the oven. Attach it at last and install your charcoal burner.
- To install the burner, all you have to do is slide it through the back of the oven.
How to Use Your Uuni Pro Pizza Oven
Using your Ooni Pro pellet burner to make delicious pizzas in your backyard is really easy and simple to do.
We all know the basic preparations for a homemade pizza. Which means making the dough, preparing the sauce, and gathering the cheese and toppings. So I am going to skip that part.
Let’s talk about firing up your Uuni Pro pizza oven.
To ignite your Ooni Pro, you can use multiple fuel options. I personally prefer to use a combination of charcoal and wood.
Use lump charcoal and hardwood chunks. The charcoal keeps the temperature high and steady while the wood provides a beautifully woody and smoky aroma to your pizza.
To ignite the oven, you can either use the blowtorch method or go for some odorless non-toxic lighter cubes.
For the blowtorch method, use something like ipalmay Fast Electric Fire Starter to quickly start a fire.
For lighter cubes options, we prefer something natural and environmentally friendly. A great option is the Weber lighter cubes.
Once the fire starts, put some large chunks of hardwoods like oak, ash, cherry, or maples. When the fire kicks up a bit more, replace the fuel hatch, and attach the front door.
It is worth mentioning that you need to add wood once every ten minutes or so until the oven reaches the desired temperature. This will take around twenty minutes. So fast!
Now you have a properly hot pizza oven ready to prepare any types of pizza you might be craving.
Maintaining & Cleaning Tips for a New Uuni Pro
Even though Ooni Pro pizza oven is pretty self-maintaining by design, you need to paper it occasionally to get the most out of your pizza oven.
Ooni claims that you only need to gently dust it from time to time. This is all great but after extensive use, grimes and soot tend to gather inside the chimney and hooper.
If you don’t clean it properly, the air circulation and heat distribution get hampered and you will end up with unevenly baked pizza.
When to Clean It:
If you notice your Ooni Pro wood pellet pizza oven is not heating up as high as it used to or it’s not holding the heat for a long time, maybe a good cleaning is the best immediate solution. When grimes and soot builds up too heavily, the efficiency of the oven decreases.
How to Clean It:
To deep clean and maintain Ooni pro you can follow these simple tips:
- Remember how you assembled your Ooni Pro the first time you got it? Now you have to do it but reversely. So disassemble and dismantle your oven so that you can clean all the nooks and crannies.
- You need soapy water and a brush to gently scrub away any grimes or soot. This means cleaning inside the chimney, the burner, and the cooking surface.
- It is ideal to use a brush that is not too harsh on the stainless steel. So any standard silicone brush would do. For tougher areas, use a car wheel brush.
- To clean inside the chimney, use a long scrub brush to get into the tricky spots.
- After scrubbing everything, use a garden hose to wash away all the dirt and charcoal leftovers. You can use a sponge but a garden hose is faster and easier.
- Let the pieces dry under the sun before you assemble it again.
For the exterior, use a stainless steel cleaner like Weiman to clean and polish all in one.
Where to Buy Your New Ooni Pro Pizza Oven
[amazon box=”B079ZZ399V”]Uuni Pro pizza oven has become really popular over the last couple of years. Because of that, you can find Ooni products in most kitchen appliances stores near you.
We, however, recommend purchasing it online. This is because you get your pizza oven delivered straight to your doorsteps with no extra cash. It is also more convenient and handy.
A good place to purchase Ooni pro online would be from Amazon. Amazon does global shipping so it’s very easy no matter where you live in the world. You can also check to look for any Uuni pro for sale on the website.
Frequently Asked Questions ( FAQs)
01. Can you use an Uuni indoors?
No, you can’t. Uuni Pro is designed to be an outdoor pizza oven. This means it produces a lot of smoke. As Ooni is a multi-fuel pizza oven, it can not be used for indoor cooking.
You can, however, place it on your veranda or balcony if you live in an apartment. Ooni Pro is really small compared to other backyard pizza ovens.
It is small enough to fit in most apartment balconies while being large enough to prepare a solid 16” pizza! Win-win!
02. How do I cook pizza in my Uuni Pro oven?
To make a delicious pizza in your Uuni Pro wood-fired oven, first, you have to set it up to reach 500°C. Then place your pizza stone inside the oven and wait till it gets hot.
Then grab some pizza dough, preferably homemade, and lay it on a floured work surface. Dust the top and start spreading it to have a somewhat circular shape.
You can make it as thin or as thick you want. Stretch the dough to be around 14 inches or 35 centimeters in diameter. Then put it on a pizza peel and start to add your desired toppings.
I personally love to use fresh mozzarella and homemade pizza sauce with some spicy salami on top of a strong flavor.
The sweetness of the mozzarella complements the spices of the salami and creates a beautiful, mouthwatering treat for you! Top it with some grated pecorino Calabria and some fresh basil leaves.
03. What else can I make in my Uuni Pro pizza oven?
Whoever said pizza ovens are only for pizza is seriously missing some delicious foods in their life.
With a pizza oven like Uuni Pro, you need to think outside the box!. You can prepare a variety of different meals with this oven.
You can make deliciously smoky and charred vegetables by adding them to a pan with a drizzle of olive oil and paprika. Put it inside the oven and wait for a few minutes.
You can cook salmon or other types of fish to cook using softwoods. This adds a sweet aroma to the fish.
Some other things you can prepare on your Ooni Pro pellet pizza oven includes: stakes, hot potato, cookies, baked fresh bread, and so on! It is incredibly versatile so feel free to experiment.
04. What is the difference between a pizza oven and a regular oven?
The main difference between a pizza oven and a regular oven is the temperature range. Pizza ovens can go as high as 900°F whereas a standard oven can go only around 500°F.
This is a great advantage because a lot of recipes require a really high temp cooking environment. Pizza is probably one of the most popular ones in this regard. Pizza requires extremely high heat and only a minute to cook.
The high heat immediately cooks it without making it overdry or chewy. You can not achieve the same result with a home oven. The aroma and flavor of charcoal or wood are like a cherry on top!
05. How long does it take to make a pizza in Uuni Pro?
If you have set up your Uuni Pro pellet burner to be above 500°F, then you need only a minute or less to cook a pizza.
The setup, however, requires around 20 minutes. This is fast compared to other backyard pizza oven options. Ooni Pro is famous for being fast and efficient.
Resolution
So there you have it! Uuni Pro pizza oven is a very practical and economic option for anyone who wants to enjoy the process and flavor of authentic homemade pizza.
Creating pizza at home is notoriously complex and tricky. Uuni Pro wood fired oven makes this hazardous process really fun and enjoyable. Not to mention they will literally last decades!
So what are you waiting for? Grab your Ooni pro oven and start enjoying real Italian cuisine with your friends and families!
Have questions?
Feel free to ask in the comments!
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