Aldi Gas Pizza Oven

[BanditDave]

Mid last year I decided a wood fired pizza oven would be my next purchase.

I looked at a number of steel ones and also considered building one from fire bricks etc.

One day whilst in Bunnings I spotted a charcoal burning kettle barbeque for $99 and decided to give that a go first.

I have an abundance of firewood in a small forest close to the house and collecting fallen hardwood branches was easy.

I purchased a pizza stone and the experimenting began.

As a "seasoned" pizza maker, I started experimenting with various fire sizes with some under the pizza stone and others around the edge of the barbeque (on the inside of course )

Well, I was disappointed on more than one occasion with overcooked (cremated) pizzas to undercooked ones. I also cracked two pizza stoned probably due to heating them too rapidly.

October came around and Aldi advertised their gas Pizza Oven for $219. I had to give it a go,

To cut a short story long, this is the best purchase I have made for outdoor cooking ever.

The interior has a pizza stone at the bottom and two metal racks above.

Cooking a pizza on the stone was not successful as the base burned ahead of cooking the topping.

I changed to cooking on metal trays on the racks and results are superb.

The pizza oven has a gas valve not a thermostat and a thermometer on the door so regulating temperature requires some human intervention but "easy as".

The oven has a temperature range of 180C up to 260C which I have checked with an infrared thermometer. The temperature on the stone and the racks is very similar but a little hotter at the back meaning you need to rotate the food during the cooking process.

I have cooked around 100 meals in the oven including pizza, pasties. roast vegetables, cannelloni, garlic bread, cob bread loaf, apple crumble, self saucing puddings, muffins, biscuits, rock cakes. BTW we are vegos so there is no meat on our list.

My suggestion to anybody having trouble getting the oven hot is to avoid placing it in a draughty location as that will limit your maximum temperature.

According to my calculations an 8.5KG gas bottle should provide 20 hours of cooking time at maximum heat. I am averaging around 25-30 meals from a bottle as not all food requires the oven to be running flat out.

Recommended - you bet

[titch]

Good write up mate, sounds honest.
Are these big enough to cook a roast in?
I may have a use for one in the future( prezzie)

[urbangriller]

If it's the thing I'm thinking of, you can pull the back off and fill the cavity between inside and out with insulation to make it use less gas and hold heat better.

Cheers
Chris

[BanditDave]

Good write up mate, sounds honest.
Are these big enough to cook a roast in?
I may have a use for one in the future( prezzie)

Being a vego I haven't tried any meat recipes.
The oven is the same size as they sell at Bunnings, Barbeques Galore and Harvey Norman so best to check for yourself.
I understand Aldi have these on sale in October every year

[BanditDave]

If it's the thing I'm thinking of, you can pull the back off and fill the cavity between inside and out with insulation to make it use less gas and hold heat better.

Cheers
Chris

Thanks Chris.
I was wondering about the amount of ventilation and whether is was totally necessary. I also wonder if the chimney is just a marketing feature.
I am achieving a temperature range between 180C and 240C. I don't require any higher temperature for my recipes but a slower cool down (from added insulation) might be good for some delicate recipes I am presently considering.

[urbangriller]

If it's the thing I'm thinking of, you can pull the back off and fill the cavity between inside and out with insulation to make it use less gas and hold heat better.

Cheers
Chris

Thanks Chris.
I was wondering about the amount of ventilation and whether is was totally necessary. I also wonder if the chimney is just a marketing feature.
I am achieving a temperature range between 180C and 240C. I don't require any higher temperature for my recipes but a slower cool down (from added insulation) might be good for some delicate recipes I am presently considering.

It needs ventilation coz it's gas...if you don't have the chimney it'll fill up with spent air and the flame will choke.

Have a read of this from Smokeaddict on his Mods to a Gasmate one: http://www.aussiebbq.info/forum/viewtop ... 40&t=11013

Chris

[djb3500]

I wrote mine off at first - ended up with one side on fire and the other raw. Just dreadful. Forgot to take it back in the defined time and parked it in the garage for a year as a dead loss. Then decided to have another go - turned it upside down and poured 65kg of concrete into it. very easy to do, just close off the hole around the chimney using a bit of hose. thick tile cemented onto the back and fire bricks lining the top rack (cuts off some of the overly large chimney, too) and it is now an absolute ripper - better than my cousin's $2000 + pizza oven.

One regret though - I should have taken it back up to the deck BEFORE filling the bastard with concrete. On that point the base needed major reinforcement - it would have been extremely dangerous without it.

[djb3500]

If it's the thing I'm thinking of, you can pull the back off and fill the cavity between inside and out with insulation to make it use less gas and hold heat better.

Cheers
Chris

See my post below about concrete poured into the space between the inner and outer shell. Worked a treat.

[BanditDave]

My Aldi gas pizza oven had it's first birthday a couple of months ago and is still producing exceptional results.

It gets used on average between 3-4 nights a week.

I was considering the consequence of it failing and how difficult it might be to get replacement parts. It's very basic so I would consider the only parts that would fail would be the gas components and maybe the door glass.

I was in Aldi this week and they had several on a clearance sale.

I paid $219 for the original oven and the special price was $139.

I purchased a second one (100% spares) as I considered the most likely component to fail would be the gas control and I suspect this would cost at least $100.

BTW since my last post I have added soufflé and egg custard to my cooking successes. Yum! Yum!