Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Countless reviews have well established that the Ooni Karu makes great pizza, so I'm just going to share a few "pro tips" to help those getting started: 1) Fuel. You'll see no shortage of small, pizza oven wood logs on Amazon. They are ridiculously expensive for wood. If you've ever bought firewood, you know how inexpensive wood is. A far more economical option are wood chunks intended for smoking -- they are substantially less expensive. You can find them at any store that sells grilling supplies, and you can probably find someone local who will sell you a bulk amount at a discount (I would recommend buying these in person to ensure you are getting good sized chunks). 2) Launching the pizza. As you'll quickly find out, if your pizza doesn't glide off the peel into the oven, your pizza will be ruined. Easiest way to overcome this is use a wooden paddle because the dough doesn't stick to it as easily as a metal one and to heavily flour your dough before stretching it. Don't go light on the flour -- be very liberal. When you're building your pizza, shake the paddle from time to time to ensure there's no sticking. And then don't wait too long after making the pizza to put in the oven. When the oven hits 600 F, that's when I start preparing the first pizza. If you add another piece of wood at that point, it will get up to 750 F very fast. (You will still need a metal paddle because it works best for helping to rotate the pizza while it's cooking and then removing it from the oven.) 3) Burning and burnt edges. To avoid burning, you need to rotate the pizza as often as every 15 seconds with tongs. Your inclination will be to avoid disturbing the pizza while it cooks, but it cooks extremely quick, and thus, burns quickly. 4) Soft center. If the pizza crust is soft in the center, despite cooking it so long that the edges are over cooked, this could mean three things: A) The crust is thick in the center. This often happens when stretching the dough if you're not intentional about starting from the inside and working out -- be mindful of this while stretching it; B) Too heavy on the toppings, especially sauce. If you go heavy on the toppings, it takes longer to cook the pizza in the center because it ever gets close to the fire; or C) The pizza stone wasn't hot enough. The pizza stone really needs to be at 750 F. Anything lower and the bottom side of the crust just won't get cooked right.