“Kitchen appliances tend to intimidate me, especially ones that require propane,” Masin explains, “but after the first time using the Solo Stove oven, I realized it was incredibly user-friendly and easy to set up. Once you slide in the pizza stone and hook it up to propane, you turn it on like a gas stove with a dial that ignites a flame, then turns to set the heat level. That’s essentially all the setup required.” (On that note, it’s a breeze to assemble, too. “There are no extra parts to put together, besides screwing on the propane tank. It’s pretty much ready to use out of the box,” Masin adds.)
As for the cooking process, it’s pretty much foolproof. “The pizza itself cooked incredibly fast, and the dough came out perfectly crisp, Masin claims. “Solo Stove recommends cooking when the temperature reaches 650°F, but I found that it needed to get hotter than this (closer to 800°F) so that the bottom of the dough cooks through. I learned that, after it has been on for some time, to turn the flame down to about halfway to prevent any burnt edges. I also like that the oven’s opening is big enough to maneuver a pizza. If it were smaller, I’d feel a bit more pressure to get it just right. I feel like the bigger opening takes a bit of the stress out, and you can easily move the pizza around if you push it too far or not enough.”
There are also plenty of accessories available that make using the oven even easier. “Solo Stove sells an infrared thermometer, which was extremely helpful for knowing when the oven was the right temperature to start making pizza,” Masin says. “I love both the stainless steel pizza peel and bamboo version. Both need to be floured so that the dough doesn’t stick, but I enjoy having two peels, so that multiple people can make pizza and start cooking back-to-back. The rocker blade is also something I never would’ve thought I needed, but now that I’ve tried it, I won’t cut a pizza any other way. It cuts nice, even slices and makes me feel like a pro. Lastly, the silicone mat is great for resting the pizza peel on the top of the stove while cooking.”
Masin has minimal complaints about the product, the main one being its somewhat clunky size. “The oven is bigger than I expected,” she notes. “You need to have a big enough surface outside for both the pizza oven and prep work. This means you’ll need quite a large table if you plan to roll the dough and assemble the toppings outside as well.”
