I had my first cook on my Koda 16 tonight. I had two problems. It was a disaster getting dough balls out of the individual containers. I put some olive oil in bottom of each container before I put the doughballs in. Needless to say my pies looked like you know what. I made the dough Thursday night because my oven was supposed to be in on Friday, but Fed Ex did not deliver it until Saturday.Second is I preheated oven for 25 min on high. I made 2 pepperoni and 2 cheese. Was using kraft shredded mozz and bag pepperonis. The cheese and the pepperoni burned before the the crust browned. I turned the burner all the way down just before i put the pies in. What did I do wrongand how can I fix it? I have been reading a ton but I have 0 experience.

Most people with this type of oven (I have an Ardore) face a learning curve wrt how to balance the bake. Some thing is necessary indoors in a standard kitchen oven but the extreme temperature differences aren’t so big and things do not move along as quickly.


First thing is get an infrared thermometer gun such as this (look around I just copied first link that came up on Amazon) [size=78%]https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VSHR9M6/?tag=pmak-20[/size]. Let your floor temperature determine when you put the pizza in the oven. I generally turn the gas down at that point, which is not using the oven to its full potential. However, I am not making Neapolitan Pizza too often and prefer 650-700°. Also, you will probably need to rotate your pizza 2-3 times to get the less done areas facing the flame. Like anything else, it tKes practice and accepting small incremental improvements.photos and some details on your dough for ula and workflow will help others to help you.

I do need to get a infrared gun, which I am going to do. The dough tasted great.

My dough recipe was
523 grams of 00 Caputo (red bag)
340 mL of cold water
15 grams salt
.5 grams Caputo dry yeast

try a fresh mozz, vs shredded. Its all a balance of bottom/top heat. Youll get it with some practice.Go light on toppings

I had my first cook on my Koda 16 tonight. I had two problems. It was a disaster getting dough balls out of the individual containers. I put some olive oil in bottom of each container before I put the doughballs in. Needless to say my pies looked like you know what. I made the dough Thursday night because my oven was supposed to be in on Friday, but Fed Ex did not deliver it until Saturday.Second is I preheated oven for 25 min on high. I made 2 pepperoni and 2 cheese. Was using kraft shredded mozz and bag pepperonis. The cheese and the pepperoni burned before the the crust browned. I turned the burner all the way down just before i put the pies in. What did I do wrongand how can I fix it? I have been reading a ton but I have 0 experience.

One of your issues is caused by the pre-shredded bagged cheese.  The anti-caking additive (cellulose) causes burning.  Shredding your own with something like this will greatly alleviate the issue: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000VLV6Q/?tag=pmak-20   

Alternately, you could hand shred fresh mozz by peeling the ball like you would an orange.

I also have a Koda 16 and had the same issue with toppings burning while the bottom wasn't cooked enough. This is what I do now to get around this problem.

1) Preheat the oven on the lowest temperature setting for 30 minutes.
2) Assemble the uncooked pizza, ready to deploy in the oven.
3) Take the uncooked pizza to the oven, turn the oven OFF, and deploy the pizza about in the middle.
4) Once the bottom sets up (maybe a minute or so), rotate the pizza on the stone keeping it in the back left corner where the burners are located. Rotate about 1/3 every 15 to 30 seconds to keep the bake even. Check the bottom for good color (eventually).
5) Move the pizza to the center of the stone, turn the oven ON at the lowest setting.
6) Turn the pizza every 15 seconds or so until the top looks done.
7) Take out the pizza and put it on a wire rack to cool for 3 or 4 minutes.
8) Move pizza to a cutting board, slice, paint the edges with garlic oil, sprinkle with oregano.

This flame off / flame on technique was a game changer in my pizza making quest. Good luck!

One thing I do is leave my fresh moz in the refrigerator until I'm building my pizza. That gives the cheese a bit more time.

As Tony said, there's a learning curve, so don't get discouraged. I'm still working on the heat management of my Roccbox. I'll list my process, maybe some part of it will help as you experiment.

• I start on high. Once the thermometer on the Roccbox hits 800F, I turn the burner to low and build my pizza.
• When I return I'll crank up the oven to high for 30 seconds or so. At that point the floor is about 825-850F.
• I then turn the burner to low and launch.
• I let the pizza sit for 30 seconds before I make my first turn. I count it out because I have a tendency to turn too quick, and I want some color on the bottom.
• I make the first turn, 180 degrees and then immediately turn the burner to medium and finish the cook hitting whatever side needs it.