Ooni Koda 12 Review: Elevate Your Camp Cooking

It goes with out query that pizza is among the best meals on the planet. And after an extended day on the path or the slopes, nothing fairly satisfies starvation cravings like salty, tacky, saucy pizza. 

I’ve tried to make pizza whereas tenting earlier than (Exhibit A), nonetheless, it was extraordinarily tedious and got here nothing near what you’ll get at outside mainstays like Miguel’s (for climbers) or Hot Tomato (for mountain bikers).

And then it hit me: What if I take a pizza oven tenting? Is such a factor even potential? Indeed it’s — the Ooni Koda 12. It is the smallest pizza oven mannequin available on the market, so it suits into your automobile and runs on propane. So it’s permissible throughout some hearth bans.

But then a good larger query arose: What if I prepare dinner every part I make tenting within the pizza oven? I imply, the Koda will get hotter than my two-burner range and might prepare dinner issues like an oven, making meals like baked dishes or bigger cuts of meat potential. I needed to see if I may ditch my outdated two-burner range and solely depend on the Koda.

So, I made a decision to seek out out!

In brief: I examined the Ooni Koda 12 on quite a lot of dishes, together with belongings you would make tenting, but additionally some very noncamping meals. At the top of my take a look at, I spotted I had unlocked a completely new degree to my camp cooking. The Koda impressed me with its versatility to not solely brown meat and cheese excellently, but additionally deal with decrease cooking for simmering. It’s not excellent, but it surely introduced me one large step nearer to replicating my at-home cooking setup within the outdoor.

Ooni Koda 12 Pizza Oven for Camp Cooking Review

The Ooni Koda 12 units up just by unfolding three legs and connecting its hose to a propane tank.

Heat is managed with a dial within the again. This dial has an built-in sparker to ignite the gas, and provides adjustability from excessive warmth to low warmth.

The dial resembles what you’ll discover on a stovetop.

Over the course of testing, I made breakfast hash with potatoes, bell pepper, onion, egg, and cheese. I contemplate this a traditional tenting dish, and one I make on a regular basis on a two-burner camp range.

I additionally cooked pizza with it. (As anticipated, it excelled at this.)

But I selected dishes that contain cooking methods that apply to quite a lot of different dishes — like sauteing, simmering, searing, and boiling.

The Good: Luxury French Cooking

I’m no stranger to pushing the boundaries of camp cooking, having cooked issues like gnocchi from scratch, fresh-pressed tortillas, and beef bulgogi all whereas tenting.

However, bigger cuts of meat could be a problem on a two-burner range. Cold air temperatures plus minimal warmth from the common 10,000 BTU range may cause meals to take some time to prepare dinner.

For my main take a look at, I needed to push the boundaries of what the Ooni may make. I selected a dish that included a number of cooking methods, with simmering and boiling a sauce, plus searing and cooking a big lower of meat. 

In one in every of my favourite French cookbooks is a recipe for pork tenderloin with pink wine prune sauce. It is fancy, advanced, and oh-so-delicious to make at dwelling.

If the Ooni may create this dish, it might vastly broaden the boundaries of what any person may make whereas tenting.

I began with the sauce, which concerned simmering carrots and shallots in butter. Then I added some pink wine and pink wine vinegar, plus thyme and a bay leaf.

To my shock, on the lowest warmth setting, the Ooni truly managed to simmer the sauce. The simmering occurred within the again half of the forged iron that was closest to the flame. But with some stirring, I used to be in a position to prepare dinner the sauce as instructed within the recipe.

Then I added some hen inventory and introduced it to a boil, earlier than simmering some extra. I cranked the Ooni to its highest setting and it managed a boil nice. Then, I added the prunes and the sauce was full.

Next, I cooked the pork tenderloin. I needed to lower the tenderloin in half to slot in my forged iron, after which positioned it into the Ooni with butter, olive oil, and a few garlic.

The pork browned pretty rapidly, so once more I lowered the warmth and continued to prepare dinner. The recipe requires cooking this for 10 minutes, so I checked its doneness then. I sliced into the pork, and it was undercooked. So I put it again into the Ooni for roughly 10 extra minutes.

Because of how a lot the pork caught out, I needed to always rotate these in order that the tops didn’t brown an excessive amount of. After 20 minutes, I once more sliced the pork and it was cooked. Success!

Needless to say, this meal was extraordinarily scrumptious. While making one thing like this at camp could be a bit of absurd in comparison with scorching canines or burgers, I’m all for pushing the boundaries of camp cooking and it was undoubtedly good consuming.

The Bad: Just Desserts

For my subsequent meal, I ventured into one thing unattainable to make whereas tenting: brownies. I used a Ghirardelli brownie combine and adopted the directions on the field. The recipe known as for baking these in a 325-degree oven for 45 minutes, so I used to be a bit nervous about how the Ooni would deal with this.

I combined the brownies instantly into the baking tin, crossed my fingers, and positioned them within the oven. Almost instantly, they began burning. I checked them after 5 minutes and the tops had been means too blackened for this stage of cooking.

Panicked, I ran throughout the road to a fuel station, praying they’d have tin foil so I may hopefully salvage what was left of the brownies. Thankfully, the Phillips 66 had tin foil so I sprinted again to my truck on the trailhead, coated the brownies within the foil, and continued to prepare dinner them, rotating them each 10 minutes or so.

After 45 minutes, I took the brownies out and fortuitously, the tops hadn’t browned anymore. The tinfoil had achieved its job.

Unfortunately, the brownies didn’t end up effectively. I lower into them and positioned them on the pan. The inside was pretty gooey and the brownies had been tough to get out of the pan.

Although, biting into them was not horrible. It is simply brownie combine, in any case. They had been pretty chewy and cakey within the center and tasted like brownies.

While this take a look at was a failure, I’m not discounting brownies the following time I am going tenting. I feel if I had been to cowl them in tin foil from the beginning, prepare dinner them for 10 minutes longer, and use a completely greased pan, they’d have turned out significantly better.

Conclusions: Should You Take the Ooni Koda Camping?

I don’t know why it took me this lengthy to consider utilizing a pizza oven whereas tenting. But the outcomes fully stunned me and impressed me to proceed to make use of this factor whereas tenting.

After utilizing the Koda for quite a lot of meals, sure, I did discover some drawbacks. The major downside of the Koda is clear, it solely has one cooking supply.

So, whilst you could possibly prepare dinner two separate issues on the identical time with a two-burner range, with the Ooni it’s a must to prepare dinner issues separately.

It’s additionally solely in a position to prepare dinner issues that will match into the cooking slot. So bigger pots, boiling water, or espresso are out of the image. Finally, at $399, it’s actually an funding.

However, given its versatility at camp and at dwelling, I consider the advantages of cooking with a pizza oven outweigh the negatives. This won’t change my two-burner tenting stoves outright, however I think about it is going to accompany my two-burner on most tenting journeys. And sometimes, I plan to camp with simply the Ooni.

And sure, I’ll even use the Koda at dwelling for pizza.

Check out the Ooni Koda 12 on the Ooni web site for extra product info.