Anyone use the KettlePizza with a Performer?

[macmanjpc]

Use wood. When was the last time you saw a charcoal fired pizza oven restaurant?

I loaded the kettle with a mix of kingsford and charcos coconut shell charcoal and couldn't get temps over 680 as you can see above. Added a hardwood log and a few lumps of unlit basque lump charcoal and you can see it spiked and stuck at over 900 during the entire 4 pizza cook. I'm actually not sure if the thermometer goes any higher or it maxes out where it was.

[kettlecook]

All this talk about Kettlepizza really got me in the mood today!

Those pizzas look mighty fine to me. Mighty fine. Any thing you've learned please share.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[macmanjpc]

I learned that knuckle flesh melts instantly when it comes into contact with stainless steel at 900 degrees! Lol.

Honestly though. A couple things...

1) Get a good thick pizza stone. I bought a BGE one.
2) Preheat for longer than you think. 45 minutes is good.
3) Splurge on those funny looking pizza spinner forks Kettlepizza sells. Makes turning the pies much easier.
4) find something long handles that you can brush or scrape the stone with between pizzas. The residual flour or cornmeal left on the stone between pizzas will burn black and then discolor and add a burnt taste to your next crust.
5) Less is more on toppings. Use high quality ingredients sparingly or it will take to long to cook the top middle before the bottom and edges burn to a crisp.
6) Let your dough rest a room temp for a few hours before using. It'll proof and increase in size and get nice airy pockets. You want those. One store-bought ball/bag I separate into 4 smaller balls and end up with 10" pizzas.
7) DO NOT BITE INTO A 900 DEGREE PIZZA. Seriously. Just don't.
If you have a spare grill foil it with heavy duty foil and place on top of the Kettlepizza before putting on the kettle lid (top vent closed). The foils did not melt and the tops of my pizzas cooked much quicker. Less wasted heat upstairs. It forces the hot wood flames to literally curl over top of your pies.

That's it for now. I'm sure I'll think of more later. Pizzas on the grill has really been a learning experience for me. Lots of trial and error. Usually the errors are still edible. Sometime not. But with experience I'm getting better. I remember the first time I tried a pizza stone (electric oven not charcoal grill) and I didn't know I had to preheat the stone. What an absolute disaster... But we still ate the topping and melted cheese. Lol.

Enjoy the journey. Cheers!

[kettlecook]

I learned that knuckle flesh melts instantly when it comes into contact with stainless steel at 900 degrees! Lol.

Honestly though. A couple things...

1) Get a good thick pizza stone. I bought a BGE one.
2) Preheat for longer than you think. 45 minutes is good.
3) Splurge on those funny looking pizza spinner forks Kettlepizza sells. Makes turning the pies much easier.
4) find something long handles that you can brush or scrape the stone with between pizzas. The residual flour or cornmeal left on the stone between pizzas will burn black and then discolor and add a burnt taste to your next crust.
5) Less is more on toppings. Use high quality ingredients sparingly or it will take to long to cook the top middle before the bottom and edges burn to a crisp.
6) Let your dough rest a room temp for a few hours before using. It'll proof and increase in size and get nice airy pockets. You want those. One store-bought ball/bag I separate into 4 smaller balls and end up with 10" pizzas.
7) DO NOT BITE INTO A 900 DEGREE PIZZA. Seriously. Just don't.
If you have a spare grill foil it with heavy duty foil and place on top of the Kettlepizza before putting on the kettle lid (top vent closed). The foils did not melt and the tops of my pizzas cooked much quicker. Less wasted heat upstairs. It forces the hot wood flames to literally curl over top of your pies.

That's it for now. I'm sure I'll think of more later. Pizzas on the grill has really been a learning experience for me. Lots of trial and error. Usually the errors are still edible. Sometime not. But with experience I'm getting better. I remember the first time I tried a pizza stone (electric oven not charcoal grill) and I didn't know I had to preheat the stone. What an absolute disaster... But we still ate the topping and melted cheese. Lol.

Enjoy the journey. Cheers!

We've been making not too thin pizzas and not having any issues getting toppings done. Actually I've had several where the top started to burn before the crust was crisp. I haven't burnt myself yet, but boy I've come close. Lots of great info you posted there. Thanks!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Idahawk]

I just got my kettlepizza and have received a ton of great advice on here from all you guys.  Unfortunately its been raining a lot here and I have not gotten a chance to try mine out.  @Idahawk Are you saying we should not use wood?  Now I'm confused.  I thought we were supposed to use wood in order to get the temps up high enough.  Are you achieving high enough temps with just charcoal?

I guess that depends on just how hot you think you need to be ? Acceptable range , correct me if I'm wrong is 650-900 degrees . I can hit the low end of that spectrum without wood fairly easily.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[MikeRocksTheRed]

I learned that knuckle flesh melts instantly when it comes into contact with stainless steel at 900 degrees! Lol.

Honestly though. A couple things...

1) Get a good thick pizza stone. I bought a BGE one.
2) Preheat for longer than you think. 45 minutes is good.
3) Splurge on those funny looking pizza spinner forks Kettlepizza sells. Makes turning the pies much easier.
4) find something long handles that you can brush or scrape the stone with between pizzas. The residual flour or cornmeal left on the stone between pizzas will burn black and then discolor and add a burnt taste to your next crust.
5) Less is more on toppings. Use high quality ingredients sparingly or it will take to long to cook the top middle before the bottom and edges burn to a crisp.
6) Let your dough rest a room temp for a few hours before using. It'll proof and increase in size and get nice airy pockets. You want those. One store-bought ball/bag I separate into 4 smaller balls and end up with 10" pizzas.
7) DO NOT BITE INTO A 900 DEGREE PIZZA. Seriously. Just don't.
If you have a spare grill foil it with heavy duty foil and place on top of the Kettlepizza before putting on the kettle lid (top vent closed). The foils did not melt and the tops of my pizzas cooked much quicker. Less wasted heat upstairs. It forces the hot wood flames to literally curl over top of your pies.

That's it for now. I'm sure I'll think of more later. Pizzas on the grill has really been a learning experience for me. Lots of trial and error. Usually the errors are still edible. Sometime not. But with experience I'm getting better. I remember the first time I tried a pizza stone (electric oven not charcoal grill) and I didn't know I had to preheat the stone. What an absolute disaster... But we still ate the topping and melted cheese. Lol.

Enjoy the journey. Cheers!

Great info here!  #4 a brush for cleaning stone between cooks is one thing on my cook on Friday I realized I needed.  I opted to just flip my stone over, but will definitely be getting a brush!  #7 is a good point too....I always wait at least 5 minutes to slice...if it's not sliced people want ignore your warning and grb a slice!!!

[jfbincypress]

Use wood. When was the last time you saw a charcoal fired pizza oven restaurant?

I loaded the kettle with a mix of kingsford and charcos coconut shell charcoal and couldn't get temps over 680 as you can see above. Added a hardwood log and a few lumps of unlit basque lump charcoal and you can see it spiked and stuck at over 900 during the entire 4 pizza cook. I'm actually not sure if the thermometer goes any higher or it maxes out where it was.

Russo's Coal-Fired Pizzeria: http://nypizzeria.com/about-us/

I've gotten to 725 with just charcoal on a sustained level, and my pies were great. Temps of 700+ will work perfectly fine...and temps of 900 will, too.

Like many things when cooking, find what works for you and make that magic happen.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Josh G]

It sounds like lid bales are obviously the problem because of where the fire is.  Has anyone experienced problems on the opposite side with their tables?

[kettlecook]

It sounds like lid bales are obviously the problem because of where the fire is.  Has anyone experienced problems on the opposite side with their tables?

No. The only issue is the plastic rollers on the lid bale. That's why you can probably remove much of the risk of them melting by putting the table at the back of the KettlePizza. Only thing is, then you don't have the support the table provides when lifting and sliding everything forward just far enough to load larger pieces of wood to the back.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jfbincypress]

I put the opening by the rollers, and the heat towards the table....




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[addicted-to-smoke]

....
2) Preheat for longer than you think. 45 minutes is good.  ....

How to do you keep the temp up high, when preheating that long? Just keep opening it up and adding more fuel? Also, if running high temp, wouldn't you need to preheat LESS?

[Troy]

....
2) Preheat for longer than you think. 45 minutes is good.  ....

How to do you keep the temp up high, when preheating that long? Just keep opening it up and adding more fuel? Also, if running high temp, wouldn't you need to preheat LESS?

its all about getting the stone heated evenly (or in the preheat case... heated)

Opening everything up is counter-productive if you have the baking steel (which is AWESOME).
You have to configure the grill to have lasting heat.
Dump a full chimney onto a bed of unlit, then put more unlit onto the bed of lit.

If you have access to better charcoal, this task becomes MUCH easier.
A chimney Coshell will bring a kettle pizza (with tombstone and baking steel) up to 500+ and hold it there for a couple of hours.

As for the charcoal vs wood - charcoal absolutely burns hotter than wood.
BUT - charcoal that we're using is designed to burn long, not hot.
Adding wood is great for flavor and for adding a burst of higher heat, but it's not going to maintain heat.

Even wood fired pizza ovens in restaurants have a PILE of burning coals - that's where the heat comes from.
It's just burned down from actual wood. (Many will cheat and start with a chimney of charcoal to get the oven heated)

[macmanjpc]

What he said