Kettle Pizza Disaster

[Lightning]

Everything that could go wrong did.

This was my first time using dough that was actual dough and not those flat pre-made pre-baked crusts.  I bought two pouches of frozen pizza dough and the first mishap took place the night before while these were defrosting on the kitchen counter.  I didn't realize the dough was active without being exposed to air so I didn't think it would start rising until I opened the packages. Well, in the middle of the night I heart two fairly loud poof sounds. I thought it was the cat so I ignored it and went back to sleep.  When I got up in the morning and went into the kitchen, I saw the pizza dough had burst out of the packages and started spreading across the counter so I removed the remains of the packages and put the dough into bowls.

Then when I made the pizzas, I rolled out four crusts, put the sauce and toppings on, and got the Kettle Pizza rig going. This took enough time that I think the sauce started to seep through the dough to the cutting boards I was making the pizzas on.  The pizzas stuck. Despite using what I thought was more than adequate corn meal. Getting them off the cutting boards onto the peel was a pain and then into the pizza stone in the barbecue was a nightmare.  And by the time this was all ready to go it was nighttime, well after dark.

Most of the first pizza landed on the side of the barbecue, on the ground, and on the pizza stone. The mess on the stone burned up badly and the remaining three pizzas ended up cooking basically on top of a thick layer of carbon.  I don't know how salvageable that stone is. I got three edible pizzas out of the deal. Two of them were actually quite nice.

I've attached pictures of the whole fiasco.




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[Seth1025]

I had a similarly horrible first  experience.   Used two chimneys of coals plus wood - easy 1000 degrees.  Too many coals under the stone so the crust burned. And had the same buildup on the stone.  We pulled the lid after every pizza and brushed the stone with the grate brush to remove the carbon.   I wouldn't put more than a few coals under the stone in the future maybe 5.  one chimney plus hardwood would be sufficient to reach 600 degrees. 


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[Firemunkee]

Thanks for sharing the experience. That pizza still looks yummy though!  I've yet to use my KP yet and I'm taking as many notes as I can to reduce my high likelihood of making a big meas

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[varekai]

@Lightning AH YES, the first time, who can forget...lol   Mine was similar, my first went from pizza to "calzone" pretty quick.  If the dough sits too long on a peel or board the moisture in the dough makes it practically impossible to "slide" off.. I now have a few pizza screens to use and simplify the process... But hey, no learning without mishaps!!! 

[Pat G]

Been there, done that.  I have two peels and I spread a lot of corn meal on them before I put the dough on them.  You will learn how to transfer them on to the stone. That stone will be fine.