Uuni Pizza Oven

[KpaxFAQ]

Honestly a good quality baking steel is $100 or less and will deliver fantastic results in a home oven. I'm a pizza nut myself and love reading over on pizzamaking.com forums. The steel is awesome for bread and calzones as well.

I want a wood fired oven, and I want a stick burner, but I also want to pay off my house before I'm 35, provide my kid with the best opportunities, travel the world and retire comfortably using our blue collar income.

I'll be stuck with a 22" WSM that I bought with my change jar on my dresser for awhile, along with a digi q controller I bought with credit card cash I accumulated from the only card I have and pay off each month for the free money. It's not sexy, but it churns out some great food, with minimal babysitting for a small investment.

I'm boring and I vote for you to hold off on the pizza oven and fix your steps. :biggrin1: Hell, I used to get pretty solid pizza just using pizza screens with dough I let ferment 1-3 days. If you wait, the urge to get it will pass. I've gotten really good at this and it's saved me tens of thousands and I'm no less happier cause of it.

As far as flour. 00 flour is what you use for neapolitan style pizza cooked at blazing temperatures for short times like this oven can do. You'll see the classic leoparding of the crust when you get it right. You would want to use a high gluten flour such as General Mills - All Trumps bromated for classic NY style cooked at 450-500 degrees for 6-8 minutes. Great New york style pizza can be accomplished in the home oven, neapolitan not so much. I enjoy all styles but New York style is my favorite, followed closely by detroit style so that may make me biased that I don't absolutely NEEEEED one of these ovens immediately.

The idea of these ovens is amazingly simple. Genius really.

 

[wire-it-up]

I like this reply. It's funny how on a Sunday night I'm not as eager to get a new toy as I was on Saturday morning. I knew I wouldn't be cooking this weekend, for various reasons, so I was afraid I'd be bored. If I do what I should, which is take care of the house repairs, I won't have time to get bored.

I've shifted my focus from the front steps (they're not too bad yet) to putting a gate in the privacy fence we have along one side of the back yard. I was cleaning gutters yesterday, and the back yard is inaccessible from the south side because there's a privacy fence there with no gate. I had to go all the way around the house several times. I repaired that fence a few months ago (complete rebuild), and it had never had a gate, so I din't think a gate was all that important. Now, I want a gate. So I think that's my next project.

And yes, the pizza oven can wait. High gluten flour would wreak havoc on my wife's migraines.

 

[The Wookiee]

I grabbed the uuni pro about 5 weeks ago - love it!!! 800-900 degr on the roof and deck consistent and easy. Charcoal and wood. If you want to run a little cooler just charcoal; wood for higher heat. I buy premade frozen dough from a bakery around here I’ve been happy with so haven’t jumped into dough making. It’s bigger than the 3 and can do a lot in there (17.7x17.7 stone). I throw my 15” pizza steel in there as well so no real need to wait from Pizza to pizza. Also done salmon steaks asparagus and tomatoes in it. Really enjoying a and t ally good pizza. I almost never take pics but here are a few early runs...

 

[Badjak]

As far as flours go, I cannot get a lot of different types.
Bread flour makes a good pizza in the uuni. I prefer a bread flour/whole wheat flour mix and it works fine.


As far as priorities.....
You are the only one that can ultimately decide what's important and what not.
But it might be a good plan to keep the uuni in the back of your head and check for second hand ones.
They have just come onto the second hand market in Northern Europe, so the same should be happening in the states, esp since the uuni pro hit the market.

 

[wire-it-up]

I have been looking for used models, but there are only a few, and they aren't near me. I think I'm going to wait. I really would like to get some things done around the house first. The Uuni can be my reward for taking care of the most pressing home repairs first. With winter approaching, it would be best to get the outside work done, and hot fresh pizza is great for warming body and soul when the weather is arctic like.

I can also pick up some overtime at work, as it seems to always be available. I've already repaired a few things around here this summer. A few more, and we'll be set for a while. I never expected money to be so tight when we are both working good jobs. But making a house payment while putting a kid through college, along with high food prices... probably makes most of middle class America have to be a little careful with their spending. But I don't mind, our needs are all met.