The Solo Stove Pi Prime Pizza Oven came in to our hands as a press sample to test and evaluate and we jumped at the chance to put this oven through the ringer. Over the last 90 days, we have made pizza in this oven about 2 dozen times. That is about twice a week over this entire summer and that explains quickly the extra 5 pounds on my weight. I have enjoyed just about every pizza we have created. I have also absolutely destroyed a few along the way but that is how you learn a new cook system.
Pizza is one of my top favorite foods because of it’s versatility. From wild mushroom pizza to wild game pizza and even a simple pepperoni or the questionable pineapple pizza. My favorite is mushroom, pineapple and pepperoni with Buffalo Mozzarella balls. The options are tremendous and having your own oven and options for pizza dough allows you to have the ability to make a quick dinner, lunch or entertain friends and family around the camp site. It’s so easy to set up.
The Solo Stove Pi gas oven allows you to quickly and easily set up this oven, quickly get it started and be ready to cook in just under 20 minutes. It takes all of 2-3 minutes to screw the propane tank on to the unit, turn on the oven and get it heating up. We found the unit to rise to full heat around 700 degrees on the stones and close to 900 on the roof in about 15 to 20 minutes depending on the outside temperature and the wind. Turn the opening away from the wind and it works better. A quick temperature reading from an infared thermometer allows you to know that you are set and I will be honest, we kind of winged it through the first 8 to 10 pizzas and you can live without the thermometer, but having it allows you to be a little more precise. We found about 2 minutes between loading pizzas allowed the pizza oven to quickly get back to full temperature. On average each pizza took about 2 minutes with 3 to 4 turns to keep the pizza cooking evenly and easily at about 30 – 40 seconds per side at max..
PIZZA DOUGH
I am currently learning pizza dough. We have been playing with Trader Joe’s Pizza Dough because we have one of their stores within 5 miles of the house. However, we have also been playing with the Outdoor Pizza Oven Pizza Dough and both are pretty epic and easy to use. The food processor has been my friend and small containers allow us to separate the pizza dough and easily stack it into our fridge out of the way for cold fermentation over 2-4 days. When making dough use weight for ingredients and not volume. Our next step is to find the right sourdough pizza oven recipe and start working that in to our routine. There are some recipes out there, I just haven’t found the right one. We are utilizing King Arthur All-Purpose Flour but have tried generic flour and still gotten some pretty good results. We will be playing with King Arthur’s ‘00’ flour which is ground super fine to get a little more elasticity which is perfect for a Neopolitan crust.
Cooking with the Solo Stove Pi Oven
Within a few cooks on this oven, I was trying to figure out how I could put a pan into this oven to do a pan pizza or a steak in the oven and after searching through the accessories, I was excited to see the Pi Cast Iron Cookware Set which can be used to cook steak and vegetables in the pizza oven and I am 100% here for it. The accessories available for this oven are tremendous and all of them should be seriously considered. The Pi Stand and the cooking accessories are seriously worthy of taking a look at. Learning to cook with the Pi Oven is really just a matter of trial and error.
The oven has a click button start to get the propane flame and you turn it your desired temperature. On the knob you use to adjust temperature, we generally turn it to the two marks that are red and just let it heat up and adjust according to the temps we are getting with the thermometer. Adjustment can be very gradual. While the oven is heating up, we make our pizza and we try to handle the dough as lightly as we possibly can. A little extra flour on the bottom or a small amount of corn meal allows us to get it on and off the pizza peel quick and easily. As you cook, if you get a little cheese on the stone, it is going to burn off and your can brush out the oven as you go. It’s easier to do this when it is cool.
Is the Solo Stove Pi Prime worth it?
The Solo Stove Pi Prime comes in as incredibly affordable and I tried like crazy to find something about this oven to complain about but honestly the only thing I can really say about this oven is that it is going to take some practice to fully learn it. It isn’t really complicated but you are going to have a pizza slide off from the peel incorrectly and it’s going to burn or dump cheese everywhere. Figuring out the right amount of flour under the pizza will make this process easier but it is all trial and error, just like learning to cook on a grill. I promise you mistakes will happen but honestly don’t freak out, this oven is easy to clean. The pizza stones are easy to remove and brush off outside the oven. Do not bring them in to the sink and wash them. Give them a good hard dry scrub and stick them back in and heat them up, any residue will burn off like a self cleaning oven. The entire oven is stainless steel so you can wipe it down easily and move on to the next pizza, all when it is cooled down of course.
If you are looking for versatility in your pizza oven and a pizza cooker that can help you to make some tremendous pizza for friends and family, the Solo Stove Pi is a tool that can absolutely help you achieve your pizza goals. I am darn sure that I will not be ordering pizza delivery anytime in the near future especially when I know that I can make a better pizza at home with my own pizza oven. You can get the best deals directly from Solo Stove and they often have some pretty great sales and bundles and of course you can also get this from Amazon. Remember you are going to need some accessories like the thermometer, a pizza peel, a pizza turning peel and a pizza cutter at a minimum in order to be ready to go when you get this.
