Pizza steel

[Mrs Pingu]

We had a family gathering at my parents' last weekend and my sister brought along her Roccbox. Very impressed. Almost certainly the next best thing after a proper brick-built wood-fired oven.

Only big enough to take one pizza at a time but that's less of a problem when it cooks in about two minutes.

Somewhat more expensive than a sheet of steel though.

Gas powered?

[citoyen]

Gas powered?

Works with either gas or wood fire. My sis says she has tried it with wood fire a couple of times but found it tricky to get going, so she sticks to the convenience of gas.

If I have a criticism of the Roccbox, it’s that the heat isn’t evenly spread front to back, so you have to rotate the pizza halfway through for even cooking. I do wonder if wood fire might be better in this respect, since it might heat the whole oven more evenly (the gas flame is right at the back of it).

I would be very tempted to get one if I could justify the outlay.

[Mrs Pingu]

I saw that they have withdrawn the woodfired bit from sale while they improve it.

[Gattopardo]

It was a 'nacho pizza', so yes it had cheese and chilli aplenty.

Nat yo pizza

[ian]

Gas powered?

Works with either gas or wood fire. My sis says she has tried it with wood fire a couple of times but found it tricky to get going, so she sticks to the convenience of gas.

If I have a criticism of the Roccbox, it’s that the heat isn’t evenly spread front to back, so you have to rotate the pizza halfway through for even cooking. I do wonder if wood fire might be better in this respect, since it might heat the whole oven more evenly (the gas flame is right at the back of it).

I would be very tempted to get one if I could justify the outlay.

I stumbled across the Ooni the other day, they do a wood/charcoal pizza oven that intrigues me (or they will, it's still pre-order). I can do OK pizza in the oven but it's not good pizza. If I had some kind of superpower (which I'm hoping to gain from watching every Syfy disaster movies) to conjure up a volcano in east Surrey just to cook a pizza, I would. If the news declared that a pyroclastic flow was rolling down from the North Downs, I'd be furiously making dough.

[Gattopardo]

Can but them second hand, go on to the pizza thread over on LFGSS and see what people have got.

[Jakob W]

I've always made pizza at home, and had been meaning to build a garden pizza oven for years, but while my girls were toddlers my OH wasn't particularly keen. Having priced up the cost of materials for a base and clay oven and come to the conclusion there wasn't much in it, I bought an Ooni Karu back at the beginning of April, and love it. I didn't get the gas attachment, so ordered some hardwood logs online and use those and/or charcoal. More faff than gas once cooking, but the gas adapters were out of stock, and I fancied the ability to play with fire. Like the Roccbox you have to turn the pizza half-way through, but once up to temperature pizzas take 90 seconds to cook. Of course this means a rabbit hole of further nerdery then opens up; 48+-hour cold ferment doughs, discussions of which 00 flours are the best, etc...

[neilrj]

Do any of these pizza ovens come sized for loaf tins (or with a spacer kit to raise roof from low profile) I imagine a loaf done in one might be rather satidfying - rather assumes that temperature can be regualted down from magma to only seriously hot...

[Jakob W]

Unfortunately none of the specialist portable pizza ovens are ideal for bread; the Ooni Pro is I think marginally taller than the Roccbox, but anything bigger than a small loaf tin might be tricky. Brick or clay ovens will obviously mostly be big enough for bread. I have been meaning to try baguettes in my Ooni, but will have to play with the temperature regulation.

[citoyen]

You definitely couldn't put a standard 2lb loaf tin in a Roccbox - not sure you'd even get the tin in, never mind have room for the loaf rising.

[Davef]

I have a roccbox and the aperture is 8.5cm high and my loaf tin is 7cm. I have only used it for burning pizzas

[Mrs Pingu]

I had a bash at making a white pizza on Saturday: smidge of olive oil, grated mozzarella, sliced goats cheese (the log type) with rocket and a drizzle of chestnut honey at the end. I had planned to shave a bit of parmesan on the top when serving but I forgot.
It was alright but something was missing. Dunno what though. Suggestions welcome.

2020-11-21_08-28-57 by The Pingus, on Flickr

[citoyen]

Looks very appetising. Maybe the saltiness of the parmesan would have given it a bit of a lift? I imagine you'd need something like that to give it extra depth of flavour with no tomatoes.

[Mrs Pingu]

Could be. I felt like it was missing a bit of moisture as well but I guess I could have put more rocket on. Or used the sort of goats cheese that comes like a mousse in a pot.

[ian]

Goat's cheese on a pizza? Honey? Stop this foul nonsense.

In my further studies in advanced pizzalogy, my wife did purchase a pizza stone. I normally cook my pizzas on a round, holey tray which is quite nice, because it enables a perfectly round and thin pizza.

The pizza stone variant had to be, by necessity, thicker to support the manhandling into the oven, crispier underneath but breadier. It also lacked pi, having only a vague relationship with the circular form. I think I may be able to make it thinner by bashing it out on some baking paper and transferring that to the stone.

For a sauce, I normally cheat by dabbing it with pesto and tomato puree and smearing it around to give an even – but not thick – coat.

[Mrs Pingu]

Hey, don't knock it til you've tried it!

[ian]

I can't eat goat cheese. It tastes exactly how I'd imagine licking a goat to taste and I've never wanted to lick a goat. Even the smell makes my stomach do the loop-the-loop. One of the reasons I stopped behind a vegetarian was goat cheese – every other vegetarian meal featured it and if there was a single veggie option on the menu, you guessed it.

[Mrs Pingu]

Hmmm, seems like you have associated the smell of goat cheese with goat. Whereas I have associated the smell of goat with cheese.
I spent a very happy fortnight cycling round Corsica being able to smell goats round blind corners and going "mmm cheese"

[hellymedic]

I've seldom had goats' cheese or milk but one Youth Hostel warden in Derbyshire kept goats and sold goats' milk cheesecake to travellers.

[Mr Larrington]

I suspect it may depend on whether the goats have the bingly-bongly nature.

[L CC]

Yes and no. Billy has no mates because he stinks, but Billie and her sisters do carry a bit of the aroma.

(I'm with Ian on this. I love cheese, but only from cows' or buffalo's milk).

[phantasmagoriana]

I've never licked a goat, but goat cheese on pizza is amazing. Preferably paired with caramelised onion and spinach.

Bizarrely, though, I've never managed to try goat milk, because I find the idea of it weird. This makes no sense whatsoever.

One of the reasons I stopped behind a vegetarian was goat cheese – every other vegetarian meal featured it and if there was a single veggie option on the menu, you guessed it.

It's better than mushroom risotto.

[ian]

Boy goats are very smelly, but I find all goats to smell like goat cheese, which is offputting. I can't eat the meat either. Maybe it's a genetic thing – like asparagus (which I also can't eat and my nose is so sensitive that I can detect the whiff coming off other people, it's my personal spargel-hell).

[phantasmagoriana]

I eat asparagus just for asparagus wee.

[citoyen]

I actually find a lot of goat cheeses too bland. And they often have a grassy flavour that's not entirely pleasant.

Goat meat is great. I've never tried it on a pizza though - I can't imagine it's a good choice for such a quick cooking method.