Having a go at Pizza

[HankB]

SWMBO is nominally Catholic so I've been making meatless meals for the last couple Fridays. It has been fish and while we both enjoy that, man (nor woman) does not live by fish alone. I'm going to have a go at pizza tomorrow. I thought I'd review my plan so those with more wisdom can suggest improvements.

My understanding is that one of the bigger problems is getting enough heat to the top to cook the ingredients w/out charring the bottom of the crust. This is mostly due to the heat on the Weber coming from the bottom. To this end I have picked up some fire brick at the local building materials store. These are 1 1/4" thick (3+ cm) and I plan to lay them up the middle of my 26. Before that I will have made a fire and set it up more or less for indirect cooking on either side of the charcoal grate and aligned with the openings to the side of the fire brick. I plan to cook on top of the fire brick using cast iron tortilla griddles of which I have two. At 9" they're about right for a personal size pizza. (They also match the length of the brick)

I made some whole wheat pizza dough this afternoon and it is in the process of trying to escape from it's container in the refrigerator. I have fresh mozzarella, provolone, parmesan and other cheeses that I plan to use for topping along with mushrooms, red peppers, anise bulb, onion and kalamata olives. I'll probably warm some garlic in EVOO to bring all of the flavors together. (I have fresh basil, parsley and cilantro too.)

Starting with two chimneys of lump should put me in the range of 500°F in the cooker. The brick should approach that heat but the mass of the cast iron should moderate that when the pizzas are put in the cooker. Hopefully they'll cook fast enough from the top to avoid scorching on the bottom.

I appreciate any thoughts and suggestions on the plan. I'll also be doing a search to see what others have done so I can study what worked for them.

thanks,
hank

[Duke]

It sounds like you have the pie figured out, now just leave the mosaic laws behind and put some meat on that pie man! 

[1buckie]

Or.....

You can scrap that plan & go the Hell Fire Grill route ~~>










Just Kidding, but they don't call him Hell Fire for nothing !!!

Your plan sounds fine, just don't oil the cast, it will tend to scorch, use cornmeal under the pies......

[Duke]

I never get tired of those pictures Buckie. I'm glad HF is a member now. Maybe he will post some pies.

[1buckie]

Is that fuckin' rocket science, or what ?

Told you he was unique......


PS: We're talkin' about ya, Ray !!!

[Heyjude]

That Drum-Pizza Oven is brilliant! WHere can I find the details on its build? 

[1buckie]

Hell Fire Grill.......he's floatin' around here somewhere right now.....

I sent him a message to git over to this thread as we're in need of pizza pointers !!!

[Heyjude]

Have you heard of the "Pizza Hacker" He's brilliant!

http://sf.eater.com/tags/pizza-hacker

[Hell Fire Grill]

Here I am.

I think youll do ok with the plan you have. Use a fairly thin crust. Keep in mind not to pile the toppings on too much, just keep it simple.

Im no expert and havent used the UDPO or even cooked a pizza in almost a year and a half.

Drink lots of beer, have fun, dont get stressed out, and take pics.

[HankB]

Not getting the heat I need. Or maybe the bricks are just soaking it all up. I've got two pizzas on and they are coasting. I've cracked the lid of the kettle a bit to see if that helps.

Edit: That helped. I got enough heat to brown the cheese on top and I shot the brick with my IR and got 595°F. Best of all, SWMBO likes it and is impressed I made the dough from scratch.

[Duke]

Shots hank Shots!

[HankB]

Thanks all for the tips. It seemed appropriate to put the pictures in pron.

Couple things I'll do differently next time.

- give it more time to heat up. The fire brick takes a bit of time.
- use even more charcoal. I could have some charcoal under the firebrick as it did not get as hot in the middle as it did around the edges.
- keep the lid cracked open from the start. It didn't seem like the fire was getting enough air with just the vents wide open.

I might think about getting a proper peel and talking my wife into letting me use our Pampered Chef pizza stone in the kettle.

[Kilted_Griller]

Thanks all for the tips. It seemed appropriate to put the pictures in pron.

Couple things I'll do differently next time.

- give it more time to heat up. The fire brick takes a bit of time.
- use even more charcoal. I could have some charcoal under the firebrick as it did not get as hot in the middle as it did around the edges.
- keep the lid cracked open from the start. It didn't seem like the fire was getting enough air with just the vents wide open.

I might think about getting a proper peel and talking my wife into letting me use our Pampered Chef pizza stone in the kettle.

The pies looked great, Hank! I pile up the coals and the wood in back and let the stones heat up for about 30-45 mins before I put the pies on. The Pampered Chef stones work awesome. Tonight was the first time I tried a pizza on the 26'er and I was able to keep the heat just over 600, and it was the same for the XC's 22.5'er.