There’s solely room for one or two items of wooden at a time, although. Don’t lose monitor of the removable deal with that allows you to open the again door, since you’ll be opening it a number of occasions throughout a cooking session. Also, there isn’t any secondary burn right here—after one use, the smoke rising from the oven’s mouth blackened the highest of the oven. It wipes off, however only a warning.
Too Hot to Handle
Photograph: Solo Stove
The Pi is remarkably compact, particularly when positioned subsequent to an unlimited oven just like the Gozney Roccbox. But as I cooked with it over the course of two weeks, different benefits rapidly confirmed themselves.
First, the cooking house is 15 inches in diameter. It’s large enough to suit our 12-inch Lodge cast-iron pan, however—and that is loopy—my pan’s deal with stands proud. The physique of the pan heats as much as 600 levels, sizzling sufficient to roast asparagus inside a few minutes, however the deal with stays comparatively cool. As somebody who has burned themselves by heat-resistant gloves, this can be a revelation.
Second, the highest is flat. This will not be a characteristic that it could have occurred to me to request in a pizza oven, however it’s a remarkably handy and sturdy place to rapidly put a burning sizzling pan when you rapidly tong out the asparagus, put them in a serving bowl, and exchange them with potatoes. This is clearly one thing that has occurred to Solo Stove as properly, because it lately got here out with a lid ($75) for its firepits.
I used to be additionally a bit of bit fearful that there’s a noticeable cut up in the midst of the pizza stone—that it could be troublesome to wash, or that the dough would sag or burn within the center. It seems that when the oven is 700 levels (and you’ve let the stone preheat for a minimum of an hour), pizza cooks rapidly sufficient that it’s not a trigger for concern.
Like most issues involving recreation, your alternative of your yard cooking implement comes down to cost and private preferences. That’s the one quibble I’ve with the Pi—the choice I attempted is the one with swappable wooden and fuel attachments, which prices a cool $645 at its present presale value. That makes it a tough promote when in comparison with the Ooni Karu 12 ($399), which can be a fairly nice, engaging, and easy-to-use oven.
However, in the event you get pleasure from cooking with wooden—and you want your dinner to be quick, sizzling, and on the desk in half an hour—it’s laborious to think about a greater, no-brainer summer season purchase than the wood-fired model. I work full-time and have two school-aged children, and with a small, high-heat pizza oven, I can nonetheless have dinner cooked exterior and on the desk in a matter of mere minutes. I would even sip a calming beverage whereas I’m at it.
