Pizza Stone Preservation

[mike.stavlund]

Hey, I'm hoping to gather some expertise about using pizza stones on the kettle.  I've got one that I'm a little afraid to try for fear of breaking it, and I have a buddy who was just trying to bake bread on his and cracked it right in two.

My sense is that the stones do alright with high heat, but not so much with rapid changes in temperature.  So do folks put them in a relatively cold grill as it comes up to temp?  Do you try to keep coals around the perimeter of the grill to avoid the really direct heat?  I also see people elevating them up above the top grate-- what's the thinking behind that, and what do you use to elevate the stones? 

I'm all ears-- bring it on WKC brain trust!

[G$]

Mike, two cents here, even though I do not use a stone:

Part of the reason folks elevate them is to get the cooking item closer to the dome for even top side cooking.  I always off set coals to one side when doing pizzas.  YMMV.

[glrasmussen]

I use one all the time. On the 26 it is easy to indirect with. I have the stone on the grate and let it heat up, after dumping coals. On the 22 I do a half perimeter, heat the stone after the dump. I have not had an issue.

[One Touch Platinum]

I don't use a stone either but I have read in several places that you should put the stone in the grill when it ( The grill and the stone ) are cold and bring the stone up to temp at the same time the grill is coming up. As far as coal placement for doing pizza there was another thread recently we were talking about spreading the coals in a circle around the outside of the bowl with no coals in the middle. I do this with a cast iron skillet or my cast iron pizza pan and in fact do this setup with everything I bake now......which has been a lot lately. If you raise the stone up off of the grate you will get better cooking temp on the top of the pizza. You will get the top cooked without burning the bottom of the crust. You can use bricks or do what I do and flip the coal baskets upside down and then place your stone on them. I bake bread and desserts like this as well as pizza and you will get great results and better control without burning the bottom. Just my two cents.