Tell me about home pizza ovens?

[Nole Lou]

I had never heard of Buffalo-style pizza. I also don't think I've heard of cup-and char pepperoni either. Does the picture and description below check out to you?

"Characterized by a light, fluffy, almost focaccia-like crust, a semisweet sauce, copious amounts of mozzarella cheese and exclusive use of cup-and-char pepperoni"

According to Patrick Kaler, president and CEO of Visit Buffalo-Niagara, four key features define the Buffalo style of pizza. “First, it doesn’t have your normal outer crust,” Kaler says. “The sauce and toppings go all the way to the edge of the pizza. The sauce has a little sweeter taste to it. The pepperonis are cup-and-char. As for the cheese—you have to have that perfect cheese pull on it, so when you pull the slice off the pie, the cheese is really trying to fight you.”

That description is ok, but the picture is not really typical.

I would say that this is more like what you would expect:

That said, it's not monolithic. Some places have a crust on the edge, the thickness can vary a bit.

To me, the main factors are:

- That the crust is a medium thickness. Probably closer to Detroit style, or a little thinner than that. The only Detroit style pizza I've had is from the chain Jets, but that's close-ish. Cut the thickness down about 30% from a Detroit style pizza, and not quite as crisp on the bottom, and you've got a bit of an idea. It's not quite foccacia, which implies a toughness to me...more soft and bready than foccacia, but I see why they say that.

- That the sauce is a little sweet...not altogether sweet so you notice it on first bite, but it's there when you think about what makes it different.

- Proportional in crust, sauce, cheese and toppings. All are ample and have equal billing. The thing that really misses most about all the other pizzas which are usually a variation on NY pizza is very light on the sauce. A buffalo pizza has enough sauce to matter, enough cheese to pull, and enough crust to hold it together.

 

[McLovin32]

Cup and char

 

[lucas80]

It’s the hardest cooking experience I have ever had. Trying to get the dough right. Getting the pizza to land perfectly on the stone. Not overcooking at 800-900 degrees.

Then….when I was preheating it the other day, I looked out and flames were shooting out of the gas hose. Scared the shit out of me. Hose was burning and melting. Probably going to try again this week later because I want to figure this out!

I'll bet that was a thrilling culinary experience.

 

[lucas80]

All I know about pizza ovens is that you can get one plus a juke box a lot easier than you can get an incubator. Just use the standard requisition form, and write in pizza oven or juke box where it says machine gun.

 

[Nole Lou]

Hormel has a cup and char variation now that works pretty decently, but I prefer to get a stick of Margherita brand pepporoni at WalMart and slice it as thin as I can by hand.

 

[BelemNole]

All I know about pizza ovens is that you can get one plus a juke box a lot easier than you can get an incubator. Just use the standard requisition form, and write in pizza oven or juke box where it says machine gun.

You from Ottumwa?

 

[Derekd3408]

I use this

 

[Nole Lou]

This is a recent attempt, not my best, but it's in the neighborhood.

There's something I just don't have just right in the cook time, everything tastes right, but it just isn't quite melded together into a single taste. It's probably a little undercooked, but it's really hard to not either brown the cheese or get the crust too done. I think I will try to cook it a bit longer next time before putting it directly on the steel. Also might cook the last several minutes with the oven door open, I saw that the last time I was there at a pizza place. The cheese goes from melty-gooey to yellow/brown if you go a second too long, and then its ruined.

 

[lucas80]

You from Ottumwa?

Bloomington, IL. And, those sure would come in handy on movie night.

 

[Nole Lou]

I use this

Once you have that on pizza its hard to go back.

If you have this at your local Walmart or anywhere else, and slice it thin, it's even much better, but a lot more work.

My favorite pizza place where I live is almost perfect, but they use the regular pepperoni, if they switched to cup and char pepperoni, I would probably stop my experimentation.

By the way, if you eat Jet's or Marco's pizza, you can choose that kind of pepperoni as an alternative - they call it something like old world pepperoni or zesty pepperoni or something, but that's it.

 

[Tenacious E]

I had never heard of Buffalo-style pizza. I also don't think I've heard of cup-and char pepperoni either. Does the picture and description below check out to you?

"Characterized by a light, fluffy, almost focaccia-like crust, a semisweet sauce, copious amounts of mozzarella cheese and exclusive use of cup-and-char pepperoni"

According to Patrick Kaler, president and CEO of Visit Buffalo-Niagara, four key features define the Buffalo style of pizza. “First, it doesn’t have your normal outer crust,” Kaler says. “The sauce and toppings go all the way to the edge of the pizza. The sauce has a little sweeter taste to it. The pepperonis are cup-and-char. As for the cheese—you have to have that perfect cheese pull on it, so when you pull the slice off the pie, the cheese is really trying to fight you.”

foccacia-like crust? Seems gross to have an oily bread crust topped with cheese and pepperoni. Give me thin and crispy, of if I'm going full fatso, give me chicago-style.

 

[GOHOX69]

I read somewhere they take like 20 minutes to heat up. Is that your experience or do you have a model that is more instantaneous?

Much faster than that. Get a dual fuel like a ooni karu. Within the time you put your pizza on the peel, it is blazing hot. 10 min max. FYI, please don't make it at near 900 F. You'll get black pizza dough.

 

[cfbfan23]

foccacia-like crust? Seems gross to have an oily bread crust topped with cheese and pepperoni. Give me thin and crispy, of if I'm going full fatso, give me chicago-style.

I’ve only had it from two places (one here in Atlanta and one in Niagara Falls. Trust me, when you eat Buffalo-style pizza, you’re not getting the crust confused with focaccia.. it’s about 1.5-2X thickness of NY-style. A lot less thick than Sicilian, and less thick than Detroit.

It’s good. I do prefer a good NY-style over it.

 

[BelemNole]

Here's the home setup

 

[Jewlick]

I have the Ooni Karu 16. Used to use the weber kettle with the kettle pizza attachment to turn it into a pizza oven but I get a lot better results in the Ooni. Maybe it was user error but I like the Ooni a lot better for pizza.

Part of the fun for me is doing different dough recipes and trying different styles. My neopolitan is on point now but want to try and get a NY style and Chicago thin crust. Going to try Kenji's chicago thin crust sometime soon. Just need remember to make it far enough in advance. Fun to make your own sauce too. And if there are times I want pizza and don't have dough, Trader Joes dough is actually pretty solid. You can split and have a couple nice 12 inch pies from it.

The propane on the Karu makes it easy but I love using wood and charcoal on the weekends. Is it necessary to get a pizza oven to make good pizza at home? No. Does it help and is it more fun, absolutely.

 

[Tom Paris]

I'll bet that was a thrilling culinary experience.

Not at all. Lots of f bombs.