Ooni Koda 12 Assessment: Elevate Your Camp Cooking

It goes with out query that pizza is among the biggest 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’d get at out of doors mainstays like Miguel’s (for climbers) or Sizzling Tomato (for mountain bikers).

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

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 I wished to see if I may ditch my outdated two-burner range and solely depend on the Koda.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

Briefly: I examined the Ooni Koda 12 on various dishes, together with belongings you would make tenting, but additionally some very noncamping meals. On the finish of my check, I spotted I had unlocked a wholly 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 good, nevertheless it introduced me one enormous step nearer to replicating my at-home cooking setup within the outside.

Ooni Koda 12 Pizza Oven for Camp Cooking Assessment

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

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

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

Over the course of testing, I made breakfast hash with potatoes, bell pepper, onion, egg, and cheese. I think about this a basic 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.)

However I selected dishes that contain cooking strategies that apply to various different dishes — like sauteing, simmering, searing, and boiling.

The Good: Luxurious French Cooking

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

Nonetheless, bigger cuts of meat generally is a problem on a two-burner range. Chilly air temperatures plus minimal warmth from the common 10,000 BTU range may cause meals to take some time to cook dinner.

For my major check, I wished to push the bounds of what the Ooni may make. I selected a dish that included a number of cooking strategies, with simmering and boiling a sauce, plus searing and cooking a big minimize of meat. 

In considered one of my favourite French cookbooks is a recipe for pork tenderloin with purple wine prune sauce. It’s fancy, complicated, and oh-so-delicious to make at residence.

If the Ooni may create this dish, it will vastly increase the bounds 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 purple wine and purple wine vinegar, plus thyme and a bay leaf.

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

Then I added some rooster 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 fantastic. Then, I added the prunes and the sauce was full.

Subsequent, I cooked the pork tenderloin. I needed to minimize 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 shortly, so once more I lowered the warmth and continued to cook 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.

Due to 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!

For sure, this meal was extraordinarily scrumptious. Whereas making one thing like this at camp may be a bit absurd in comparison with sizzling canines or burgers, I’m all for pushing the bounds of camp cooking and it was undoubtedly good consuming.

The Dangerous: Simply 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 referred to 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 blended the brownies immediately into the baking tin, crossed my fingers, and positioned them within the oven. Virtually instantly, they began burning. I checked them after 5 minutes and the tops have been means too blackened for this stage of cooking.

Panicked, I ran throughout the road to a fuel station, praying they might have tin foil so I may hopefully salvage what was left of the brownies. Fortunately, 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 cook dinner them, rotating them each 10 minutes or so.

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

Sadly, the brownies didn’t end up nicely. I minimize into them and positioned them on the pan. The within was pretty gooey and the brownies have been troublesome to get out of the pan.

Though, biting into them was not horrible. It’s simply brownie combine, in spite of everything. They have been pretty chewy and cakey within the center and tasted like brownies.

Whereas this check was a failure, I’m not discounting brownies the subsequent time I am going tenting. I feel if I have been to cowl them in tin foil from the beginning, cook dinner them for 10 minutes longer, and use a completely greased pan, they might have turned out significantly better.

Conclusions: Ought to You Take the Ooni Koda Tenting?

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

After utilizing the Koda for various meals, sure, I did discover some drawbacks. The principle downside of the Koda is apparent, it solely has one cooking supply.

So, whilst you could possibly cook dinner two separate issues on the similar time with a two-burner range, with the Ooni you need to cook dinner issues one by one.

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

Nonetheless, given its versatility at camp and at residence, I imagine the advantages of cooking with a pizza oven outweigh the negatives. This won’t exchange my two-burner tenting stoves outright, however I think about it’ll accompany my two-burner on most tenting journeys. And infrequently, I plan to camp with simply the Ooni.

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

Take a look at the Ooni Koda 12 on the Ooni web site for extra product data.