Testing-does a steel plate help the ooni Koda 16 retain heat?

Enclosed are my initial results with adding a 3/8 inch steel plate to the floor of the ooni Koda 16. This was an attempt to assist the recovery time between pies. I figured additional thermal mass might help to even cooking times out.

The issue: the first pie gets cooked evenly...top and bottom are done synchronously. Second pie tossed in soon after the first pie comes out: uneven cook. Bottom doesn't get done while the top is finished. Since these ovens are not super large, that means cooking one pie at a time. If cooking for more than a couple people, that means folks are waiting anxiously for the next pie to emerge. Unfortunately, the stone that comes with the Koda 16 is fairly thin. The ooni website even mentions that the bottom stone is like "a battery" that needs time to get re-charged.

Well, I'm impatient. I got used to the original Blackstone being able to power through pie after pie without issue. So...is it possible to reduce the recovery time between pies?

First impressions? No idea if there's any impact. Still having issues getting the cook times to even out.

The results:

White pizza in the oven (this was the second pie we cooked...smoked garlic oil, ricotta and moz):


Finished!


Bottom:


After waiting ~ 10 minutes, the next pie went in. This time, a Margherita:



Margherita out:



Margherita bottom:


It's easy to see the difference between the bottom of the white pizza vs. the Margherita. Again, totally edible and tasty, just not the ideal leoparding I was going for.

The good news?

Even a slightly less than perfectly cooked pie is pretty amazing! And, like all good research, the results of this experiment means "additional research is necessary". :becky:

Bruce

BTW: If there are other ooni Koda users that have solved this issue, would love to hear your solution(s)!

Bruce

For the sake of science, I tried another experiment. This time, I let the oven pre-heat for just over an hour on full blast.

OK, it wasn't so much a pre-thought out experiment, but a scheduling issue with a bud that was supposed to stop by for dinner. Unfortunately, I had the date wrong.

But, that's serendipity in science!

The result?

The deck got pretty hot!





Heavily caramelized:


Top looked pretty good:


So...will need to fiddle a bit with timing and temp adjustments to get things dialed in for knocking out multiple pies in a row.

Bruce

@ Bob: this is a known issue with the ooni oven. Their website describes the floor of the oven being like a battery...that it needs some time to re-charge after cooking before it's ready to go. They suggest waiting ~ 10 minutes in between pies in order to "re-charge" the heat in the stone.

This is just my attempt to decrease that "battery" recovery time. If possible, I'd prefer not to wait 10 minutes between pies or if choosing to not wait for the stone to recover, have the pies come out unevenly cooked.

If that means a longer time to pre-heat (over charge?) the stone/steel, great! That's a lot easier to deal with for me than extending the waiting time between pies.

I guess the guests that we've had for pizza have been exceptionally polite. Despite our pleas to dig in and eat while the pizzas are just out of the oven, the usual response from folks is to wait until more pies are done and everyone is eating. By that time, the pizzas are no longer ideal.

That may also be more of a me issue...I'm the one that is so enthusiastic about getting as close to Neapolitan perfection that I do what I can to learn, to buy equipment, to experiment with different dough and different ingredients. I'm not only hoping to get that perfect pie for me, I'm hoping to share it with others.

And with that, I'm going to head off to make some more dough!

Bruce