Any regrets after Pizza oven

[EricD]

I don't know how many of you were lucky enough to score the Blackstone Pizza Oven sale last week, if you did...Congrats! great buy!
I however missed it.  If the sale was a bit longer, I would be a proud owner, but I missed out while hemmin n hawing over it.
I'm a bit hesitant because I don't want to lose the 'wood fired' taste' of the PizzaQue. Is there a place for a smoker box or something in this? Have any of you that have upgrade from a Kettle kit ever have any second thoughts?
thanks

[EricD]

No one?!

[MrHoss]

Do you have a pizza set up now?

This is my experience. Pizzas cook too fast to get any smoke taste on them. The way I do them anyways. Temps are around 700-800f. The temps do not get high until the smoke gets clean....or thins out. A smoker box would be useless as the wood I use on top of the charcoal takes about 10 minutes to get burning well enough. In that time the chips in a smoker box would burn to crap. Plus why do you want smoke taste on the cheese? Pizza ovens in Italy also have temperatures in the 700-800f range...this is why their pizzas are thin....a thick crust pizza will have a burnt crust and cheese before the ingredients or dough is really cooked.

For a pizza to get smoke taste on it the cooking temp would have to be around 475 or so....take at least 10 minutes to cook....and you would probably not get a crispy crust nor properly marked cheese. My early attempts at pizza using wood on top of charcoal with low temps and long cook times.....the resulting smoke taste was not desirable. Shooting for that result would not be advisable in my opinion.

[EricD]

I have the PizzaQue now.  Before that I was cooking pizza's on my gasser.  There is a distinct taste difference using the charcoal PizzaQue vs the gasser.   The PQ cooks pies way faster too.
I'm worried about losing that taste by 'upgrading' to the propane BS Oven.
Bertucci's is the only chain I can think of that uses a wood fire, but try a slice of Bertucci's against any Town House Pizza.  That's what I don't want to lose.

Too late now anyway, since I'm not paying full price for the BS.  Maybe another black friday sale price will be coming soon!
Thanks for your input!

[MrHoss]

Gas contains a little bit of water....wood or charcoal is drier heat. The end effect of each will be different.

[pbe gummi bear]

Bertucci's is the only chain I can think of that uses a wood fire, but try a slice of Bertucci's against any Town House Pizza.  That's what I don't want to lose.

Betucci's was a staple for me when I was living in Cambridge. Their rolls are the bomb!

[robert-r]

Got mine assembled 3 days ago and did 2 pies.

For the first pie - the stone temp was too high - 850. I also tried to load the pie while the stone was turning. That experience was somewhat like learning about pissing in the wind .  So... pie #1 didn't do too well & was cooked in about a minute & 1/2. Had a very burnt crust. Toppings were nice. It looked like someone put the back wheel of a very small motorcycle on it & did a spinout.

I couldn't get the temp down for pie #2 - even though I turned the heat down to the lowest setting & let the oven run for 10 minutes or so. I did stop the table from rotating while loading the pie, though. It cooked in 2 minutes. The bottom of the crust was burnt. The crust itself wasn't cooked, the toppings were cooked beautifully.

Will play with adjusting the regulator today & see how that works. Also clean the stone & interior.


Cleaned it up. I cracked the lower stone on the first cook.

Called customer service. They are sending a new stone under warranty.  The rep was a real nice person to deal with. Asked her about the high heat & not being able to control it. She kinda admitted the control on the front of the grill didn't work that well. Told me to adjust the heat with the regulator. Once set to my liking, leave it alone. Don't need to turn it off after a cook.

So... I can't really answer the question about the wood fired taste. I'm one of those people that never got along with my "early edition" KettlePizza & got rid of it. Cooked pizza in the oven for years.

Will do several more pizzas later this week & see how it goes. I'm sure there is a bit of a learning curve involved. I'm happy enough with my purchase & think it will work out positively. It's a $192 gamble... if it doesn't work out, I'm sure I can sell it & not get hurt too bad. It's also possible I could return it to Walmart for a full refund.

[EricD]

Bertucci's is the only chain I can think of that uses a wood fire, but try a slice of Bertucci's against any Town House Pizza.  That's what I don't want to lose.

Betucci's was a staple for me when I was living in Cambridge. Their rolls are the bomb!

Yes they are!!!!