Let’s take a look see at the Walmart Expert Grill Extra Large Pizza Oven! Better than an Ooni? Here’s the link to John’s video about the dough…. • Homemade Pizza Part 1 ...
Hey Tom - not sure if anyone pointed this out but for high temp pies I would recommend a few things - 1 - use a high protein flour (either bread flour or 00 flour) 2 - less toppings - the dough doesn't have much time to cook so lots of toppings will cause an under cooked dough. 3 - shred or dice your own cheese - that bagged cheese has cellulose to prevent it from clumping. Cheers, Nate
Not bad for the price but i would tweak the oven a bit because the heat is too intense in the basket. I would cover the opening on the charcoal basket with stainless steel sheet towards the front so that 1/2 of the opening is only exposed to the top. That will keep the crust from burning. I would use way less charcoal too. Trial and error with any oven. Great video!
That's a good idea about adding the metal to block that heat. I put my pizza as far to the front as possible, making sure I turn quickly. The problem is the crust cooks faster than the bottom.
No need for modifications I've never burned one y in this oven, just close the lid cook open lid and turn j7st stay with it and turn and turn the pizza turns out great.
Hey Tom, thanks for this video! I really like how you used the thermometer and cooked a pizza as part of your review. I've been considering this oven for a few weeks now. I'm definitely going to buy it.
I just ordered one for under $100. I’ve been looking about getting an Onni but just haven’t been able to justify the $500 yet. I’m glad I found your video.
Great video 😊 I have my own Expert Grill Pizza oven that I'm breaking in tonight. On sale for $97 right now! Construction is superior to pellet oven I paid $150 for! I think it's going to make better pizza too! Had SOME creosote stained pizzas from the pellet oven!
Bought my wife one for Christmas. we used it tonight, and I found that when making multiple pizzas, it's best to two, then reload box and let stone reheat because it does cool down quite a bit
Love the video, Ill stick with my Akorn for pizza. You made me real nervous with that pizza sitting on the peel while you were talking, i was hoping it wouldn't stick. Keep us updated on how the over lasts over time.
I love this little pizza oven. I purchased one back in July and made over 150 pizzas with it by now. Mainting the heat is a bit of a challenge but once the fire is hot, the pizzas come out amazing. This is worth penny in the $137, now on sale for $97 but I see it's sold out.
The biggest challenge with these ovens is maintaining the temp. If you only make a couple pizzas it’s no big deal, but for parties, the charcoal/wood fire dance can be challenging. I burn oak because it’s hotter than charcoal.
I bought that oven and love it so far. I've baked 4 pies and only managed to screw one up! That on came off the peel wonky and when I went to fix it, the edge of the peel wasn't down on the stone and put a small fold in the pie. only lost about 1 slice of the pizza so, it could of bee worse! Your wife has a Hobart!! Love those old mixers... a real work horse of a machine!
Good review. I've been looking at small ovens and after reading and watching many reviews, I've set my mind on a charcoal model because the propane models really go through the gas! Question Tom, with the charcoal basket filled up and burning hot, did you have to add more charcoal for your bake? I usually do only two pizzas at any one meal and was hoping that one charge will do the job
Hey Tom, I was excited to see you did the review on the Pizza Oven, I was the one who reached out to you a few weeks back. Are you going to try a Papa Murphy's take and bake in it also?
Hey Tom, it seems they discontinued this pizza oven in the last year or so. I found one at a local walmart on clearance for $50!!!! can't wait to try it out
A bit dark on the crust but good is still good! Very reasonably priced pizza oven. I’m sure we’ll be treated to more cooks on this! Thanks for sharing Tom!
Due to our heat wave this summer, I just got around to using it last night. Any tips for jacking up the heat? I had occasional forays into the 650-700 range, but it seemed to settle at about 450. I'm using it again tonight, this time with a lazy Susan and a round pizza stone for easier rotation.
Nice video! What's the metal table you have it on? Any recommendations? Just bought a Z Grills 700 2C2E and am missing the table space. May have been mentioned previously, I've only recently started making my way through your videos though
Thanks, Tom. Good show, as always. You give it to us hot and fast! I have a KJ3 (no pizza accessories) and found that 550-600 deg. is the best temp for pizza. Any hotter and the crust burns and/or doesn't cook evenly or doesn't cook the toppings. I'd rather it take 8-9 minutes at lower temps for a nice even bake. Also, found a BIG difference in crusts. Some can take the heat but most burn if the stone is too hot. I sometimes cool the stone with a wet cloth if it gets too hot, like over 450 deg. Those 365 thin crusts from Whole Foods are the best we have found. Well, heck, you probably forgot more about making pizzas on the grill than I'll ever know! Thanks again.
You need to use the right type of flour to make your dough. Not all flour is the same. Neapolitan style is cooked at 900 plus degrees. They use caputo OO low moisture flour super fine… wont burn like traditional bread flour.
That's not bad! I'll bet with some more practice and maybe do a slightly smaller pie will be successful. Very impressive for a lower price oven. If they can last over time will be key, not just a year or so.
Here is a nice trick I've seen done on other pizza oven/kits especially if you can't master the peel,use a pizza pan on the stone(I do on my kettle oven kit),easy to turn plus the stone isn't giving the flavor its the wood and charcoal with the high heat giving the results not the stone
You could use this as a wood fired pizza oven if you have small enough chunks.... The stone should be around 650 for good results from what I have researched, 800, may be a bit on the hot side and yes, in these ovens the front door is probably not necessary because you need to constantly monitor and turn.....I personally and going to get one try it out and replace the stone with steel, steel is a game changer. Much better than a stone.
I replaced the stone with 1/4" steel plate..Works waaaaay better!, heats faster, crispier crust, I worry about it weighing more that twice as much as the stone though..
@@michaelmilitano3647 Where did you get the steel plate? I have tried making like 5-6 pizzas and all came with a bit of raw dough in the center of pizza. Only worked well when making a thin crust pizza.
I wonder if you attached a piece of sheet metal to the front facing coal basket to prevent flames from charging the Pie. Letting only heat escape up along the roof. Do you think that would make a difference and if it's possible?
For 800 degrees need a high hydration dough and proper 00 pizza flour with an appropriate "W" rating. All of these little tabletop ovens seem to easily burn pizza because the pizza is too close to the fire so constant rotating needing. In real wood pizza ovens, pizza is not next to the fire normally and is usually far away by the opposite wall.
You have it backwards - high temp ovens require less dough hydration. The continuous turning isn’t an issue because the pizza is done in two minutes or less.
I can not find a cover for my Expert Grill Pizza Oven. Not at Walmart, Amazon, eBay, Tractor Supply, or Ace. Does anyone have one? If so where did you get it? PS Good video.
I'd stand a piece of firebrick up in front of the charcoal basket to create more indirect heat. I think it'd give more of a baking effect rather than 'surface of the Sun' effect.
Can you cook on a wood table? What is the temp like when the oven is full blast and you hold your hands about 6" from it near the bottom and the top and the sides for a while?
Just curious how well it will hold up over time. Can we get a follow up after say 10 cooks ? I'd like to see if any part of it starts to warp due to heat.
OK Tom, I got one of these. After watching videos on this I knew not to walk away when cooking and rotate every 30-45 seconds. One thing I see for an issue with this. The top/edges cooks really fast and the bottom, not so good. Since the pizza stone is heated from the top, as soon as the pizza is put o the stone there is no stone heating any more. And the stone goes from 600F to 400F really quick. So, 3 minutes in (with rotating) the edges and top are finished cooking and the bottom is just getting started. The third pizza I made last night actually had the middle still kinda doughy. Yes, I let the oven heat up for 25 minutes so without any pizza inside the temps looked good and steady at around 600F. If we could figure out a way to get heat for the bottom of the stone so it doesn't cool down when the pizza is put inside, this would be a better pizza oven. Just my opinion.
Thanks for Watching Mike! The second set of pizzas I did I went with thinner crust, and it was pretty crisp, plus I think with some extra attention that 700 might work better. Thanks for the feedback Mike
@@TomHorsmanAmateurBBQ I was thinking maybe cast iron or steel plate but those might be too heavy without adding support to the legs so they wouldn't splay out.
Having issues with the bottom not cooking and the top ends up burning cause of the time the bottom takes to cook. And the dough sticks to the rock when I first try to rotate it. Any tips? Awesome video by the way!
Wondering if you can use wood in this? Some mesquite would be awesome. Have you tried cooking the pizza with the door off after the stone has been pre heated up to temp?
Thanks for Watching! Yes to the mesquite. The door is only used during pre heat, the door stays off during cooking because you are turning the pizza very often
@@TomHorsmanAmateurBBQ Tom. how much smoke flavor you add in a smoker in 5 minutes? i suggest you try a blind taste test if you think you are actually getting smoke flavor in your pizza.
Thanks for Watching! Wouldn’t use it on wood or plastic, keep on watching, I’ll be previewing an all metal table made specifically for pizza ovens like this
Hey Tom……i watched your video with great interest…not understanding why you got a flare up on your stone?….did some pepperoni come off the pie and landed on the stone?…pepperoni has a lot of fat…..one thing I would suggest is maybe cooking a pizza without the front cover….it’s good to have some charring on the crust….keep us posted on your progress
im sure you have found the proper temps to cook these at by now, but a heads up, I worked for a "National chain" pizza franchise and we cooked ours @ 580°
Bought mine for $97, did the first burn in tonight, liking it.... Stone got to 650 after 35 min, you'll need a full basket of lump coal. Lump coal, brickets.....
You put the pizza in before it was hot enough. I have an Ooni Karu and in order to get the crust to be cooked thoroughly and crispy, the pizza stone needs to be at about 900 degrees. That way the crust cooks well without burning the top. Takes about 90-120 seconds to cook completely.
I have an Ooni Karu as well and learned that you rotate the pizza every 30 seconds (NOT every 45-60 seconds). Either that or learn to enjoy burnt crust! The other thing is to absolutely ensure that the stone is hot enough as it will take much longer to reach proper cooking temp than the air inside the oven. Even the amount of toppings you put on your first pizza are a bit much for this style of pizza cooking, which contributed to the soggy crust. My primary tip when you get into this type of pizza oven is that many larger grocery stores sell pre-made pizza dough in their bakery (one ball can easily make two pizzas). I suggest using that so you can perfect your oven game before getting into making your own dough.
As a person who owns a few pizza ovens and makes probably 10+ pizzas a week this oven is legit for the price with a couple downsides. 1. it's advertised as a "charcoal pizza oven" but that's simply wrong. Your pizza is burnt on the side because you need a rolling flame over or the stone won't get hot and the top won't cook. That means you're technically supposed to use charcoal with wood to get the most optimal bake. I could see it baking a good pizza this way. 2. The design of the fuel tray in the back would be very susceptible heat spikes from wind which would roar up the flame and easily scorch your pizza due to the low ceiling. I think ooni's airflow design is a bit better in this regard and is better shielded from wind. 3. I suspect heat management for a lot of pizzas would be more difficult than ooni because of the fuel tray design and the stone being 9.75mm. Ooni stones are 15mm and when you have stones that thin they tend to get too hot too quickly. And then you have to cool down the stone by drawing a cast iron on top. 4. I would imagine that with the fuel tray design and not being able to easily load in fuel I would not want to cook more than 1 or 2 pizza in that thing at a time. Especially with the ooni gas models I can flip the switch on and cook 30 pizzas in a row. I would say if you are serious about making pizza an ooni oven like Karu 12 would be more of a buy once, cry once product, but I just ordered one of these because I think it's a nice oven to have that's more portable than the ones I own and would be fun since I can abuse it more. Also you don't have to buy anything ooni. I would say once you spend around $300 there look like some better options on amazon like Mimuo. Also the new blackstone pizza oven with rotating stone (that was teased) should be an affordable option too. Edit: one last thing to note is magnetic doesn't mean anything because Ooni are made out of 400 series stainless steel so they are magnetic too. the karu 16 (the most premium oven) is made out of 304 stainless steel but I think the chimney is 430 so the chimney is magnetic.
@@TomHorsmanAmateurBBQ definitely to hot 🔥 try half the amount of lump and a chunk of wood? Or let it burn down a little.. going to take some experimenting for sure!
Thanks for Watching Mickey! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-813firr6f_8.html,,,,,,ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5z_Cq9lyk_4.html
I got this oven and used is several times now. Purchased a second stone for my husbands gluten free pizzas. Hard time not letting the edge get burnt even with putting the pizza really close to the edge of the door. Then decided to make smaller personal size pizzas and didn't have as much of an issue with the burning. But I think I have not been waiting long enough for the stone to heat up, and even though I filled the charcoal tray It didn't get up past 700 degrees so not sure what's up with that. Over all the pizza tasted awesome. I add in a couple chunks hickory wood a few minutes before putting the pizza in for more smokey flavor
I wanted an Ooni, but when price dropped on this to $97, decided what the heck. I can't get it to reach really high temps. W/ stone the deck was around 600ºF. With lump charcoal I could get the air temp thermometer up to around 800. Oh I added big hickory chunks to get flame. Replaced stone w/ 1/4" pizza steel (from attempt to turn grill into pizza oven) Steel up to only 700. There is a reason it's cheap. Not saying it's junk, but if you expect 900º like the Ooni......not happening. You can make a Neapolitan style at the lower temps, but it's not quite right. I'll eventually pony up the cash for an Ooni.
@@TomHorsmanAmateurBBQThanks Tom. Was not trying to step on your review. I may try something goofy like using a blower to get more air moving over the coals to boost temp. Seems like I remember Alton Brown did this w/ a kettle grill in his book to sear steak. I would put this on par w/ using the steel in my rectangular charcoal grill, where I put coals up on the cooking grate next to the steel to simulate pizza oven. Works, but uses a lot of fuel. If opting for the Walmart.....I'd say at this point, get something like a frozen Frescetta, let it thaw and then bake. Be way better than in conventional oven, but don't bother w/ trying to make dough and expect good pizzeria results. But this opinion is only after a few test. Who knows? May discover the secret and end up loving it.
