Hey, guys. Today we're performing our Expert Overview on the Cru 30
Portable Wood and Charcoal-Fired Pizza Oven. Let's get to it.
Starting with a look at quality. The Cru 30 comes with a refractory ceramic stone that measured in
at about 10 and a half millimeters thick. Pretty nice. The interior and exterior walls of the oven
are constructed from one millimeter thick 304 grade stainless steel, as confirmed by caliper
and XRF analysis gun. The removable chimney tested as 304 grade stainless as well
and measured in at a thickness of 0.6 millimeters thick. And the removable front door tested as 304
grade stainless steel as well and measured in at one and a half millimeters thick.
The insulation used between the double walls of the oven is made of a refractory ceramic blanket.
Although I can't actually show you the material, I can tell you that after
plenty of real world use, as in having the oven extremely hot for a very long time,
there were no signs of heat treatment to the exterior walls of the oven, which is
very impressive. For a portable wood-fired pizza oven, I give the Cru 30 high marks for quality.
Let's have a look at performance. The first thing lots of people want to know is, "How large in
diameter of a pizza can I fit in this oven?" The front opening of the oven measures 13 inches wide,
so that, of course, would be the max. And for real world notes, I was able to fire 10 to 12
inch diameter pizzas with ease all day long. Next, we performed a 15 minute preheat test with various
temperature measurements on the actual cooking stone. This test is only for gauging how easy the
oven is to get up and going. I personally wouldn't start my first pizza in any oven that hadn't been
preheated for at least 45 minutes. But when you are the pizzaiolo, you get to make that call.
With all that being said, here are the 15 minute test numbers. On the center back of the stone,
the temperature read 900 degrees Fahrenheit. The center middle was 750 degrees. The center front
was 580 degrees. Left center was 700 degrees, as well as right center being 700 degrees as well.
We performed the same test after about 45 minutes of preheating and here's what
that looked like. Towards the center back of the stone again, the temperature read
over a thousand degrees Fahrenheit. Center middle was about 840 degrees. Center front
was around 720 degrees. And the left center and right center both came back at about 820 degrees.
Pretty impressive for a portable wood-fired pizza oven. Let's see how all of that translates
to the real world. The Cru 30 may have a small footprint as far as counter space is concerned,
but it had no problems handling high quantity pizza demand. I was able to steadily fire
three to four minute pizzas all day long with little to no hiccups.
In fact, I wouldn't recommend walking away from the oven once you throw a pizza in.
Okay, so pizza performance is spot-on, but can this oven do anything else?
Let's see. Maybe you want to have salmon this weekend instead of pizza. Throw a couple of cast
iron pans and said salmon on top of some embers and the Cru 30 will return you two dishes of
beautifully broiled salmon. What if you are more of a meat eater? No problem. Just set
your preferred steak over a nice bed of embers, and again, enjoy a beautifully broiled steak.
Of course, you could make the steak in the cast irons as well, but that won't look nearly as cool
as broiling it right on the embers. And of course, no meal would be complete without a delicious,
bubbly, gooey side to feast on. By now, you know the drill. Cast iron in, set directly on
the embers, and the Cru 30 will return to you ooey, gooey, delicious macaroni and cheese.
Now let's have a look at features. For starters, it's truly portable. The oven is built well, but
Cru still managed to build this oven reasonably light and within a small footprint. It comes with
a removal door on the front that has a nice wooden handle, a pizza peel for easily transferring your
pizza pie from your workspace, an ash rake that works well for cleaning the oven floor but it also
does a great job with ember placement, whether that's having the ember's banked against the back
oven for firing pizzas or a more even allover distribution for perfect broiling. And finally,
the Cru 30 also has a removable chimney to make it an even smaller package for traveling or storage.
All things considered, I was very impressed with this oven. If you are looking for a well built,
portable, wood and charcoal-fired pizza oven, the Cru 30 deserves strong consideration.
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