So used it last night for dinner and it backed up what I've always thought, which is that my pizza crust has never had enough heat to get that pizzeria feel to it. My oven in the house only goes up to 500 deg. This thing holy shite.
Some images...
Oven at work. You have two temp controls, one for top and one for bottom (under the stone). I put them both at max because I'm dangerous and live on the edge. And also because the directions say to do that:
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Finished product, a pepperoni & onion which is my favorite toppings combo:
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That was my first pie which I consider a resounding success. I've never produced crust like that.
Lessons learned are that at 800 degrees you get bubbles in the crust and they rise quickly and need to be popped. How you pop them is important. By the third pie I had it down. You gotta crack it open just a little to slide the knife into the bubble and push it down then put the lid back down quickly so as not to let the heat escape. Second lesson is rotating the pie. The elements will produce leopard spotting moreso in certain areas and I like it uniform because I'm a perfectionist prick so same deal here I'd use a metal paddle the same way, by minimally opening the oven and spinning it to achieve this.
If you like thicker crust pizzas this oven is not good for you. Because of the bubbling and all it would be very challenging to try to cook a thicker pie. Also there are measurements in dough thickness in the manual but ain't nobody got time for that.
Pies cook in 4 minutes. Still gotta find the ideal time for my oven.
I prefer crispy, California crust like the old Shakey's or Straw Hat pies I grew up with in SoCal, so very happy with this thing. Gonna cook up some breakfast pies here soon. Basic idea is put some partially cooked bacon up top (this thing cooks the shit out of toppings btw), crack two eggs on them, put some cilantro and maybe tomatoes and see what happens when I fire it up.
