Finally Did Pizza

[CharliefromLI]

After months of planning and prepping i finally did pizza last night.

Knowing that this will be "novelty" project i really wanted to keep the budget low. I didnt want to expose my new Performer to the high heat directly against the bowl and rollers so i found a decent OTG on CL for $25. Theres a few small dents and scratches so i dont feel bad if it gets a little abuse during this project.

I grabbed a pizza stone from Bed Bath Beyond ($12 with coupon)
Wooden Pizza Peel ($12 with coupon)
Parchment paper $4

Entire set up with kettle was less then $50!

Like many others here i used upside down charcoal holders to lift the stone closer to the lid to allow the cheese to melt.

I used my Gasser to heat the stone while i prepped the charcoal and the pizza.

Since it was middle of the week and there was already so many variables on my first cook. i went with premade trader joe's joe. Threatening rain was also causing problems as i was rushing a bit more then intended.

I dumped a full load of lit Kingsford spread around the edge of rear half of the kettle.

Stone on upside down charcoal holders was closer to the front of the kettle to allow quicker loading and unloading to prevent heat loss.
I assembled pies on parchment paper to prevent sticking on peep and stone.

I made two pies in case one went bad.

First was a little too thick as I was having issues getting dough to spread without tearing.

Second spread better but by the time the first pie cooked the coals weren't as hot and it didn't cook as well. By the time the second pie was cooking, it was raining heavily, and moisture was affecting my cooking as well.

Results:


A ton of room for improvement but this was still tasty. For my cook i will consider it a success. Most importantly my two year old "helped cook" and enjoyed eating it so that portion of the cook was a total success.

Needs for improvement:
Not enough fuel:
I don't think the kettle was hot enough, and the heat didn't last long enough for the second pie.
Next time I will use more charcoal, and probably use lump, maybe add wood once i get the hang of it.
I had planned to go with two chimneys but let it ride with one. i should have done a second and will in the future.
Hotter fire will cook faster and more fuel will last longer so I can do two pies on one load of coals.

I didn't have a IR therm so i cant tell how hot the stone was but that could have been an issue too. I know a ton of people heat the stone in the oven first. I didn't do that since carrying a hot stone through the house and outdoors is problematic, plus a raging oven on a 90 degree day isnt ideal. My Genesis got up over 550 on the dial but i cant say if that got the stone hot enough. I will probably grab a cheap IR therm to research this further. 

Equipment Improvements:
My CL Kettle didn't have a lid therm, and these temps are too high for my maverick, and instant read therm.I may add a lid therm at some point to monitor temp swings as i cook.

Using the charcoal holders to lift the stone worked to cook the top of the pie but i think the holders blocked some heat from reaching the bottom of the stone and the stone didn't get as hot or stay as hot as i needed it too.  I've been tinkering with making a raised grate using carriage bolts for use as an upper grate on my kettle and third grate on my WSM  anyway so this might be a better set up to allow more heat to reach the stone.

I have a few extra old 22 cooking grate's that are a bit rusty anyway so i may cut one like this to allow more charcoal reloading:


One other note:
Being a lifelong new yorker i've watch pizzeria's make thousands of pie by hand spinning/spreading the dough so i tried doing it by hand too.

They're pro's, im not. my pies were too thick.

The second pie spread better then the first but i had to use parchment on top and bottom of dough to spread by hand. next time i will humbly use a rolling pin to get the thinner crust i want to cook faster.

I will give another shot again soon, but will watch the weather a bit closer next time

[Nate]

Nice pie Charlie. Here's how I raised the stone for regular pies before I got the KP.



I also used the charcoal baskets and didn't see any difference in the way the pie cooked. When doing deep dish pizzas, I just use the charcoal baskets. If done deep dish both ways too and haven't seen any difference.

I believe the key is to allow enough time to let the stone preheat.

[CharliefromLI]

@Nate

Thats the general idea of raising the grate. Need to figure out what size grate to use since ideally i would use the same grate for multiple applications:

- Third rack for 18" WSM

- Upper rack for indirect cooks on 22" kettle (this would probably be the most common use)

- Raised pizza stone rack for pizza cooks

I have extra ~14" grates from SJ's, ~15" grates from old ECB and ~18"grates from 18" kettle and WSM.

[Nate]

@CharliefromLI

I use a JJ grate in my 22's. The SJ grate would work in your 18 and 22.

[truckertrash]

Thanks for posting this Charlie, i have just started collecting info on the pizza thing, like you i plan to improvise so thanks for the insight you have shared.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[CharliefromLI]

Thanks for posting this Charlie, i have just started collecting info on the pizza thing, like you i plan to improvise so thanks for the insight you have shared.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

I do the same thing. I recently searched "pizza" and read every pizza post back to 2013

[CharliefromLI]

New cook update here: http://weberkettleclub.com/forums/bbq-food-pics/pizza-2-0/