I've had the amazing Ooni Karu 12 for 3 years now and thought it was about time to update you with my best practice for lighting the oven and bringing it up to temperature.
I used to fall into the marketing hype in the small pizza oven world, that getting the oven to temperature as quickly as possible is the right idea, but now I have more experience with wood fired ovens I've realised that even with an Ooni, there are benefits from taking a little longer and saturating the oven with heat. The main benefit is a faster recovery time between pizzas, which allows you to bake more pizzas in a shorter timeframe.
I now use a base of lumpwood charcoal to bring the oven almost all the way up to temperature, with barely any topping up of my fuel, then I add wood to give the oven the final kick of heat. I then run the oven on a combination of the two fuels - lumpwood is amazing if I need some time to step away from the oven for a while, whereas I'll always use wood when I'm cooking a pizza.
This method is a totally different experience from cooking on wood alone - it allows you more time, makes the whole experience more relaxed, and ultimately allows you to make better pizza.
Obviously, we recommend watching the whole video to nail down your end to end process - it's only three minutes long!
But if you're looking for something specific, you can use the scroll bar in the video to jump forward to the chapters below:
Fair enough, in that case, you don't need to worry as much about heat retention and can focus more on heating your Ooni up quickly - so follow my wood-only lighting guide at the link below!
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Cooking with wood in a pizza oven is an experience like no other. Building your fire to hit 500ºc, watching that cheese bubble, hearing the unique sizzling sound and smelling an incredible, freshly cooked pizza as it comes out of the wood fired oven.
But your wood-fired oven is only as good as the wood you put in it, so make sure you have the right fuel for your appliance!
The Love Logs team are proud owners of twelve different wood fired pizza ovens, so we know what we're talking about when it comes to the best wood to use in your pizza oven.
With the exception of ovens powered by wood pellets, you should only ever use hardwood in your wood fired pizza oven.
Hardwood burns hotter than softwood, so it will get your oven up to temperature much quicker, and it will burn for longer so you can make more pizza!
Due to the high sap content in softwood, it smells horrible and can actually impart a pretty unpleasant flavour on your food - not what you want when you're trying to host a pizza party!
Lastly, hardwood burns ‘cleaner’ than softwood meaning it emits less smoke and soot than softwood, so you won't be brushing the ash off your pizza before you can eat it!
We've tested most species of hardwood and found that for bigger pizza ovens which take larger logs, ash and beech are best as they light easily, burn red hot and leave a great bed of embers.
When you're using smaller logs or hardwood kindling, the species doesn't make much difference as long as it's hardwood! Oak, ash, beech and birch all work brilliantly as long as they're dry enough.
If the wood is dried to less than 20% moisture content and cut to the right size and thickness for your oven, you can easily start a fire that gets your oven hot enough to cook pizzas!
With so many different models out there, it can be hard to know which wood you need to buy for your pizza oven. The first question to answer is whether your pizza oven needs pizza logs, thicker logs, kindling, pellets or even a mix of two or three?
We've done the hard work and created fuel kits for most brands of wood-fired pizza oven, just find your brand and model below.
Can't find your pizza oven in the list?
If you still aren't sure which pizza oven wood to buy, just send us an email on info@love-logs.com and we'll do our best to help!
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Otto started as a small restaurant in the Jewellery Quarter area of Birmingham and has expanded to become a chain of three incredible pizza restaurants around the Midlands. Known for their amazing Neapolitan crusts and signature Chroizo, Nduja and Honey pizza, these guys are passionate about good pizza and never go with the safe option!
He needs no introduction. Winner of Great British Bake Off, proud Britalian and Ooni enthusiast, Giuseppe knows good pizza!
Along with the bragging rights of being 'The UK's Best Amateur Pizzaiolo', we've got some awesome prizes available for our winner and finalists:
First prize
Second Prize
The remaining three finalists will each receive a Love Logs Pizza Oven Fuel Kit of their choice.
Love Logs will provide:
Finalists must:
Over the course of the next couple of weeks we'll share all the details, but the basics are as follows:
Full terms and conditions will be published before the formal opening of entries.
Please sign up to our newsletter to avoid missing out on important dates or details - you can do that here.
We can't wait to share this event with all of you!
Paul & Heather
]]>We LOVE our Ooni Karu 12! It's a simple, flexible and highly portable oven that allows you to create amazing pizza with a tiny amount of fuel.
Here's an end to end pizza cook in the Ooni Karu 12, with a few tips along the way that we've learned while using our Ooni Karu 12 for the last couple of years.
A guide to lighting your Ooni Karu 16 pizza oven using lumpwood charcoal and kiln dried wood, which is our preferred method - we typically reach Neapolitan pizza cooking temperatures of 400-450°C (750-850°F) in around 30 minutes.
Don't forget to take the chimney cap off, fully open your flue vent and close your door, and switch on your inbuilt digital thermometer to monitor the air temperature of the oven.
In the fuel tray of your Ooni Karu 16, layer lumpwood charcoal with several natural firelighters, making sure that you allow for good airflow with gaps between the fuel, but also ensure lots of contact between the firelighters and charcoal.
Light the natural firelighters, put the fuel cover back on, and leave the oven for at least 5 minutes.
Check on the fuel every 5 minutes from lighting to around 30 minutes in.
Add more fuel when needed but don't overdo it - more charcoal doesn't always mean an increase in temperature, so be careful to maintain good airflow through the fuel tray. I find that I add more lumpwood at the 10 and 20 minute marks.
If the oven temperature is increasing by 1°C every 5 seconds, your fuel is burning well and no more lumpwood is needed.
You're aiming to hit and maintain a consistent air temperature of 400-450°C or 750-850°F, I prefer to do this over 30 minutes than rush up to temperature which will ensure the stone is saturated and it loses less heat during each cook.
I find good lumpwood charcoal gets me to 350°C (640°F) in around 30 minutes depending on wind. In this video I added wood at 330°C because it was a mostly still but gusty day, and I felt the oven needed the kick given by a wood flame.
Use your handheld digital thermometer to check the temperature of your stone. The ideal cooking temperature for Neapolitan pizza is 420-430°C but in reality, anything from 350°C to 500°C floor temperature will work.
As you will see in this video, it is possible for the stone temperature to be higher than the air temperature.
Time to cook! Have fun, and if you need any help with the next stage, come back for our next video with the Karu 16 where I'll show you end to end pizza making & baking.
Make sure you share your pictures with us on Facebook and Instagram by tagging @planetfriendlyfirewood
You should only ever use hardwood in your Ooni Karu 16. Softwood may be cheaper but it will burn through quickly, struggle to get your oven to temperature and leave behind a lot of excess ash,
Make sure the wood you use in your pizza oven is dried to well below 20% moisture so it burns hot with minimal smoke.
With the Ooni Karu 16, it works best to use a bed of lumpwood charcoal along with wood. You don't want any nasty chemicals in your pizza so make sure you use restaurant grade charcoal with no additives.
Here I cook three Neapolitan style Margherita pizzas using wood fire in the Gozney Dome.
I use a different mozzarella for each pizza and explain the differences between the most popular types of mozzarella.
You should only ever use hardwood in your Gozney Dome. Softwood may be cheaper but it will burn through quickly, create a lot of black smoke, struggle to get your oven to temperature and leave behind a lot of excess ash,
Make sure the wood you use in you pizza oven is dried to well below 20% moisture so it burns hot with minimal smoke.
It's also important to make the sure the hardwood you use in your Gozney Dome is cut to the right size. The airflow is really important to keep the fire going so don't stuff the oven full of big, thick logs which will smoulder and smoke.
Our Gozney Dome Logs are 100% British beech hardwood, cut 15cm long and up to 10cm thick and dried well below 20% moisture.
We recommend bringing your oven up to temperature with our Pizza Oven Hardwood Kindling then using our Gozney Dome Logs to maintain it.
Find them both in our Gozney Dome Fuel Kit
Hit play to watch our video guide for lighting the Gozney Dome, using our Pizza Oven Hardwood Kindling and Gozney Dome Logs.
Don't forget to take the chimney cap off, and if your Dome is dual fuel, remove the puck from the wood air inlet and place it in the gas inlet. Switch the inbuilt digital thermometer on to track air temperature.
In the middle of the stone, build two "log cabins" out of hardwood kindling with a natural firelighter nestled in the corners of the kindling stacks.
Using hardwood kindling instead of softwood will create long lasting embers, making the process of getting to temperature much easier.
Use matches or a lighter to light the natural firelighters and step back.
Keep an eye on the development of the fire during the first few minutes and if the kindling isn't catching fire then move around the top layer of kindling to ensure it's in the flame created by the firelighters.
Check on the fire every 5 minutes from lighting to around 25-30 minutes in.
You're aiming to hit and maintain a consistent air temperature of around 450°C or 850°F, which will saturate the stone and ensure it stays hot and cooks consistently.
Add fuel when needed but don't overdo it - more wood doesn't always mean more fire, so be careful to maintain good airflow through the fire.
The stone in the Dome is saturated after about 30 minutes meaning it won't lose temperature too quickly between pizzas - you could probably cook after as little as 15 minutes if you rush the oven up to temperature, but the overall experience will be much easier if you heat up slower for longer.
Use your turning peel or wood rake to push the fire over the air inlet on the right hand side of the oven, and add one or two Gozney Dome logs which should burn for around 15 minutes, allowing you to relax and prep your first pizza.
Use your handheld digital thermometer to check the temperature of your stone. The ideal cooking temperature for Neapolitan pizza is 420-430°C but in reality, anything from 350°C to 500°C floor temperature will work.
Time to cook! Have fun, and if you need any help with the next stage, there are more videos below
Pellet Pizza Ovens can seem tricky to use at first, but our ‘little and often’ method makes it simple to get your Ooni Fyra oven up to pizza cooking temperature, and keep it there
Here's our video guide to lighting your Ooni Fyra pizza oven using wood pellets where we get to over 450°C in less than 20 minutes.
It's critical that the door is closed, the chimney is open and the chimney cap is off before you start trying to light your Ooni Fyra.
Put a large scoop of wood pellets into the fuel tray at the back of your pizza oven, and add a natural firelighter on top.
Don't overload the fuel tray - you need to ensure good air flow from the back of the oven.
Light the natural firelighter with an extra long match and slide the fuel tray into the back of your Ooni Fyra.
Check on the fire after around 3 minutes to make sure the wood pellets have taken a flame.
Come back in another 2-3 minutes and add a small scoop of wood pellets through the hopper.
Add small amounts of wood pellets every 3 minutes or so.
You might think it's too much effort to add small amounts every few minutes and it would be easier to add a huge scoop and not have to worry about it for a while.
Please don't do this!!
Using too many pellets at once can block the airflow which will make your fire smoulder and smoke. That's not pleasant to be around, and will not get your oven up to temperature!
By adding wood to your pizza oven little and often, you will avoid the pellet hopper getting clogged and allow the airflow to help create a roaring fire.
Depending on outside temperature and wind conditions, the Ooni Fyra should be at cooking temperature within 15 to 20 minutes.
Use a digital thermometer to check the temperature of the stone. You need it to be in the range of 400-450°C to cook Neapolitan pizza.
Once you're at your desired temperature, you're ready to go - so add a small scoop of wood pellets to make sure you come back to a rolling flame once you've opened your dough and built your pizza. Enjoy!
Make sure you share your pictures with us on Facebook and Instagram by tagging @planetfriendlyfirewood
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A video guide to lighting your Ooni Pro pizza oven using wood alone - we get to over 450°C in less than 20 minutes using super dry, mixed species British hardwood, cut perfectly for Ooni Pro.
You should only ever use hardwood in your Ooni Pro pizza oven. Softwood may be cheaper but it will burn through quickly, struggle to get your oven to temperature and leave behind a lot of excess ash.
Make sure the wood you use in you pizza oven is dried to well below 20% moisture so it burns hot with minimal smoke.
It's critical that the door is closed, the chimney is open and the chimney cap is off before you start
Put two or three firelighters into the fuel tray at the back, criss-cross some kindling around it and add one hardwood split.
Don't overload the fuel tray - four or five pieces of kindling is plenty
Use an extra long match to light each of the firelighters and put the fuel tray door back on
Check on the fire after around 10 minutes, and if there's space in the fuel tray, add one or two more hardwood splits to keep the fire stoked and burning aggressively - smouldering wood won't get you to temperature.
If there's not yet room, come back in another 5 minutes to refuel.
Depending on outside temperature and wind conditions, the Ooni Pro should be at cooking temperature within 20 to 25 minutes.
Use a digital thermometer to check the temperature of the stone. You need it to be in the range of 400-450°C to cook Neapolitan pizza.
Once you're at your desired temperature, you're ready to go - so add one or two hardwood splits to make sure you come back to a rolling flame once you've opened your dough and built your pizza. Enjoy!
Make sure you share your pictures with us on Facebook and Instagram by tagging @planetfriendlyfirewood
Found this useful?
We'd love it if you shared it with your fellow pizzaiolos!
I've had the amazing Ooni Karu 12 for 3 years now and through that time I've learned the best practice for lighting the oven and bringing it up to temperature.
I used to fall into the marketing hype in the small pizza oven world, that getting the oven to temperature as quickly as possible is the right idea, but now I have more experience with wood fired ovens I've realised that even with an Ooni, there are benefits from taking a little longer and saturating the oven with heat . The main benefit is a faster recovery time between pizzas, which allows you to bake more pizzas in a shorter timeframe.
I bring the oven up to temperature for longer than the advertised 15 minutes, usually heating up over 20-25 minutes to ensure full saturation of the oven. Our kiln-dried oak kindling creates beautiful embers as it burns, ensuring a base heat remains even if I lose my focus and forget to top up the fuel on time.
It's critical that the door is closed, the flue cap is off and the flue vent is open before you start.
Put 4 - 5 pieces of hardwood kindling in a log cabin formation, then add the natural firelighters
Air flow is important so don't overload the fuel tray!
Use an extra long match to light each of the firelighters and put the fuel tray door back on
Check on the fire every 3 - 5 minutes, and if there's space in the fuel tray, add more kindling to keep the fire stoked and burning aggressively - smouldering wood won't get you to temperature.
After around 20 minutes and several refuels, open the front door to check you have a rolling flame at the back.
Use a digital thermometer to check the temperature of the stone. You need it to be in the range of 400-450°C to cook Neapolitan pizza
Wind can affect the way the Ooni Karu runs, so if it's not ready, close the door and add more kindling, checking again in a few minutes. A small electric fan can help with airflow into the fuel tray if there's no wind at all
Once you're at your desired temperature, you're ready to go - so add a piece or two of hardwood kindling to make sure you come back to a rolling flame once you've opened your dough and built your pizza.
Enjoy!
You should only ever use hardwood kindling in your Ooni Karu. Softwood may be cheaper but it will burn through quickly, struggle to get your oven to temperature and leave behind a lot of excess ash,
Make sure the wood you use in you pizza oven is dried to well below 15% moisture so it burns hot with minimal smoke.
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We'd love it if you shared it with your fellow pizzaiolos!
Through plenty of trial and error (alright, more error than we'd like to admit) we know that getting your Igneus wood fired pizza oven up to temperature, and keeping it there, can be a challenge.
Our guide gives you an easy step by step to get your Igneus pizza oven up to pizza cooking temperature and keep it there.
We used to struggle to find the best logs for an Igneus pizza oven, so we designed our pizza splits to make this part of the process a little easier. Our Steel Pizza Oven Fuel Kit contains
You're going to build a fire right on the cooking surface of your oven. This heats the stones, which is what's going to cook and crisp your base while the rolling flame adds flavour and cooks through your toppings.
Start with a couple of natural firelighters right on the stone where you're going to cook your pizzas.
Use pizza splits around the natural firelighters to create a base for the fire, and build a lattice from 6-8 splits.
Time to light this baby up! Make sure your firelighters sit under the criss-crossed parts of the tower. Once you have a fire burning, add a few more pizza splits every 3-4 minutes.
After 10-12 minutes, it should be up to temperature or getting pretty close. Keep the fire stoked for the next 3-4 minutes and keep the heat right where it is on the pizza stone.
After about 13 or 14 minutes, push the fire to the back or side of your oven using your ember rake, and add two of the larger logs from your Steel Pizza Oven Fuel Kit using your pizza peel. We add our heat deflector in at this point too.
As soon as the two bigger logs have caught fire, you're ready to cook and your Igneus pizza oven will sustain cooking temperature for up to 20 minutes.
If you're just cooking a couple of pizzas in your Igneus you won't need to add any more logs.
If you're cooking for an extended period of time, just keep adding larger logs to the fire to maintain temperature and keep that amazing rolling flame going.
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