New Performer - 2nd Pizza Cook

[tcbritt]

1st pizza cook was a disaster.  Jumped in head first without researching technique.  Placed 2 coal holder full of hot coals and two hickory chunks directly under pizza stone.  Stone got way too hot.  Crust was burned before  toppings were even warmed. 
2nd pizza cook went much better.  Used lots of corn meal on cutting board.  Helps dough slide on stone.  Also these thin cutting boards work great as peels.  Pushed coal baskets filled with hot coals and two hickory chunks to back perimeter of the grill.  Inverted the Weber Pizza Stone Carrying Rack to keep from burning crust and also get pizza closer to dome.  Satisfied with results, but will continue refining and researching. 
Pizza sauce base, mix of mozzarella and ricotta cheese, then topped with red onion, hot sausage (couldn't find chorizo), and corn.  Its an unconventional pizza, but we had one like this a few weeks ago and it was delicious.  Anythings good on a grilled pizza!

[Nate]

@tcbritt  Since you're still practicing and researching technique, give this method a try. This what used to use before I got a KP. I still use this technique for deep dish pizza though.

- one full chimney lit. Place it around the perimeter of the grill.
- add half a chimney of unlit to the lit stuff.
- put your cooking grate on.
- set you charcoal baskets on the cooking grate upside down.
- set your stone on the baskets
- put the lid on with vent open. With kbb I use to get temps in the 550-600 range. If you can't get that, lift the lid a little to get more O2 in.
- let the stone preheat for 30-45 min.
- launch the pie to the stone and close the lid.
- check the pie at the 4-5 min mark and rotate it 180 if you feel it's necessary. Oh, and check how the bottom of the crust is cooking. This will help you determine how much longer you should keep cooking until the crust burns. Cook time appx 10min.

Practice is all it takes.

[WNC]

@tcbritt, great idea to flip the the stone like that, pizza looks and sounds great!

@Nate, that seems so genius! Simple and no need for a lot of fancy tools. I'm now keeping my eye out for a pizza stone.

[CharliefromLI]

Any pizza Rookies reading this who want to try pizza cheap listen to @Nate!

I have only done a few pizza cooks but they are working out really well working off his set up.

If you have the charcoal holders already (which many of us do)
for less then $25 ($12 for a stone and $12 for a pizza peel) you can be making really good pizza.


As stated above the prep and handling is the hard part. working with dough and a pizza peel takes practice but once you get the hang of that, the cook itself is fairly easy. Let the stone preheat properly and the pies cook fast.

@tcbritt looking at your photos: did you cook with the stone directly over the baskets? If so, did the top and bottom cook evenly? If they did. Awesome!

If your crust cooked faster then your cheese and toppings, you might want to push the stone and vent to the indirect side away from the coals. This will draw the heat over your pie to cook the toppings and cheese while the stone cooks the dough. 

[tcbritt]

@CharliefromLI
My first cook (not pictured) I had the pizza stone directly over the baskets filled with hot coals.  This did not work and I should have know better.  Crust burned within 3 minutes. 
My second cook (pictured) the baskets were pushed to the back perimeter of the grill, creating a "C" shape.   The stone was positioned near center of grill for indirect cooking and elevated to get some heat off the dome on the top of the pizza.  I positioned the dome with the open vent on opposite side of coals, in an attempt to pull heat (and smoke) across the top of the pizza. 
Wife and I were so pleased with the results from this cook, Im hesitant to mess with it much, but you'll never find something better if you don't try something new.  Looking forward to next grilled pizza!

[CharliefromLI]

@CharliefromLI
My first cook (not pictured) I had the pizza stone directly over the baskets filled with hot coals.  This did not work and I should have know better.  Crust burned within 3 minutes. 
My second cook (pictured) the baskets were pushed to the back perimeter of the grill, creating a "C" shape.   The stone was positioned near center of grill for indirect cooking and elevated to get some heat off the dome on the top of the pizza.  I positioned the dome with the open vent on opposite side of coals, in an attempt to pull heat (and smoke) across the top of the pizza. 
Wife and I were so pleased with the results from this cook, Im hesitant to mess with it much, but you'll never find something better if you don't try something new.  Looking forward to next grilled pizza!

Gotcha. the perspective of the photo makes it tougher to tell the location of the stone but your description makes total sense. cool set up especially using the rack raise the stone.