Performer max temperature

[BertVentures]

The vortex is just another type of charcoal holder.  The shape does not make it hotter. Concentrated charcoal makes it hotter but no hotter than any round or square holder that holds the same amount of fuel. It holds one full weber chimney. One full weber chimney with vents wide open reaches a certain temperature whether it's in a vortex or any other charcoal holder.

You need more AIRFLOW to achieve any substantial higher temperatures. Just crack the lid. No mods needed or use a pizza accessory but no magical fairy dust or gadget is going to raise the temperature without more air.

Charcoal holders create natural draft, I belief cone shape type create better draft, it might be negligible with just few inches high, but every bit help especially if you don't have any magical fairy dust  .

On my old cheap grill, I increased the lid vent size and added a stack to increase air movement, that is not an option for my performer. I do see two main advantages the performer has over my old grill that will help with needed heat, it is thicker, it will retain heat better, and it has bigger bottom vents.

[BertVentures]

@Jules V.  How high is your second rack?

[Jules V.]

@Jules V.  How high is your second rack?

It can  be set at 1 or 3 1/2 inches.



JV

[BertVentures]

@Jules V. I recommend your first setup, here's why:

The most ideal way to cook a pizza is to balance cooking rate of pizza top and bottom by balancing the heat below and above the pizza stone.

With the high intense heat being located below the stone, the goal is to limit that bottom heat to the stone so it will be hot enough to cook pizza bottom at the same rate as the heat above the stone will cook pizza top.

And since the heat above the stone increases as we get closer to the lid, it is best to position the stone as close as possible to the lid top to take advantage of the highest possible heat available above the stone. But, at the same time we don't want to be too far from the charcoal flames where the stone is not getting enough bottom heat.

MPS comes with feet that will raise MPS by ½" and extension legs for additional 3" to bring pizza top closer to lid top heat.

I would use MPS with the ½" tall feet and place it on your secondary rack set at 3 ½" high, that will position the stone about 2 ½" form the lid and about 4" from the charcoal concentrator flames.

I am not sure if cracking the lid open is more helpful than harmful.  I think cracking the lid will allow for lots of heat to escape from the bottom where we want all the heat to flow over the pizza on its way out through the lid vent's. Any way try both and see what works best for you.

Also, you may want to cover open area around your heat concentrator with aluminum foil to maximize amount of air flowing through it.

[BertVentures]

First bake on Performer went well, I used two loads of charcoal, positioned MPS under the vent, MPS diffuser gap set at the lowest setting + ½" high feet on, and moved the charcoal to opposite side after the 1st pizza. 

Bake time: 1st pizza 4.5 minutes, 2nd pizza 8minutes, 3rd pizza 9minutes.

Kept the lid closed and kept top lid vent wide open most of the time.

There is room for improvement, I think I can do better managing the heat.

[HoosierKettle]

Those are nice looking pies. The crust looks perfect while the top looks like it could have cooked a little longer. I have been getting the best results using a regular gas oven. I have a pizza que accessory that works well but still lacks browning the toppings before the crust is done. I assume the kettle pizza with the baking steel addresses this issue but I don't have one to know. This is how I prefer the cheese which has been difficult to achieve in the grill. Maybe to too done for some?

Either way, your results look on par with a pizza accessory or just a cracked lid.






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[BertVentures]

@HoosierKettle, Thank you and nice pie too.

The top will be better next time, all I need is to increase the gap on MPS. Still, this is the best what I can achieve with this basic straight forward setup, 6 to 9 minutes bake time.   

Next step will be to try different setup with no modification to the grill, to get more top heat.

Using MPS on charcoal has been the most challenging to figure out the simplest way to make pizza on that match my results on my 5 burners gas grill or electric home oven.

Here's few pics off my last bake on 5 burners gas grill:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BcYbu39jPn-/








And pics from my electric home oven:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BSmKqR2DiMd/

[Jules V.]

@HoosierKettle, Thank you and nice pie too.

The top will be better next time, all I need is to increase the gap on MPS. Still, this is the best what I can achieve with this basic straight forward setup, 6 to 9 minutes bake time.   

Next step will be to try different setup with no modification to the grill, to get more top heat.

Using MPS on charcoal has been the most challenging to figure out the simplest way to make pizza on that match my results on my 5 burners gas grill or electric home oven.

Here's few pics off my last bake on 5 burners gas grill:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BcYbu39jPn-/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BcXIhfMjqyz/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BcXH0fRDLOi/

And pics from my electric home oven:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BSmKqR2DiMd/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BSZc1DLjBVk
https://www.instagram.com/p/BSZcyMgjjun/

I've never cooked a pizza before so here are some of my concerns.  What is the optimal temperature at the pie level? All I know is that it should be very hot. My setup should have no problem reaching 600-750F. Also, what is the maximum temperature that the stone can handle before it cracks or break? 


JV

[BertVentures]

I've never cooked a pizza before so here are some of my concerns.  What is the optimal temperature at the pie level? All I know is that it should be very hot. My setup should have no problem reaching 600-750F. Also, what is the maximum temperature that the stone can handle before it cracks or break? 

JV

The stone can take the heat over 1000 deg F. Ideally we want the air temperature above the stone at the pie level to be 50 to 100 deg. F more than the stone temperature. The higher the temperature the faster the bake
.
If you never made pizza before, start with the basic setup like I did. There is nothing wrong with the pies that I made yesterday tasted great. The crust was nicely cooked and the cheese was melted nicely, except, I prefer to have the rim darker.

[HoosierKettle]

Hey Bert your pies did look great and I think this pizza stone idea is a good one. There have been more than a few times I've burnt the crust before the top was done.

I was only nitpicking for constructive criticism's sake but I'm sure I would have eaten every bit of that pizza


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[BertVentures]

@HoosierKettle, criticism or nitpicking is welcome, I can take it  .  I was just clarifying to JV since he is new to pizza making, handling pizza at lower temperature is much easier, at least for me.

[BertVentures]

Short 10 second video - https://instagram.com/p/BckQdXDjmnf/

[BertVentures]

For my next pizza making attempt on my Performer, I want to do a similar setup as shown below except without the chimney mod that I did on my old grill where I increased the vent size. The bake time on this setup for the pies shown below was 3.7 and 2.5 minutes.

Do you see any issues with placing the charcoal on the cooking grates?

[mhiszem]

It will burn off the protective coating that charcoal grates don't have. If you have an old grate you could try it out.


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[BertVentures]

@mhiszem good point, I do have old grate that I bought from Academy for about $20.