Ideal charcoal set up (no KP)

[jdefran]

I did pizzas last night and they turned out great..except they seemed to take longer than expected.

My set up is a stone atop inverted charcoal baskets. I set my charcoal up in the rear of the kettle in a c-shape using charcoal baskets and also had charcoal on between the baskets. I let the grill and stone heat up for about 30 min, at which point my lid thermometer was reading 600. By the time I got the first pie on the temp dropped to about 500 and seemed to decline from there. First pizza averaged 400 and took about 15 min. By the fourth pizza temps struggled to remain near 350 and that last pizza took nearly 30 min.

Perhaps I didn't use enough charcoal or set it up correctly. Anyone have insight I should try next time?

[varekai]

I tried it with my coal baskets once and had crappy results too, not sure why. Now I just make a pile at the back, let my stone come to temp then I start feeding scraps of oak, actually they are cut-offs from my shop, I have a little wood hobby shop...thats gets it HOT! also I don't elevate my stone that high, I just raise it to the height of the kettle lip...this link is what I use. P.S. your pie looks great!!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/varekai/albums/72157669475074430

[MikeRocksTheRed]

I have two thoughts...

1.  With the KP, the airflow allows your wood chunks to be in full flame giving high heat in the dome.  You might try putting the lid on so that it isn't on snug and you have the lid slightly off the bottom of the kettle in the back....so the lid is hanging off of the back a little bit.  This should allow good airflow directly to the hot coals and wood chunks while still catching all of the flames from the wood that should be licking up the back of the grill.

2.  If you have high enough heat in the dome and your crust is cooking slowly, you might try a pie without the charcoal baskets.  I'm not sure if you are getting enough heat to the stone with it elevated the way you have it.

A few other thoughts....looking at your pics it doesn't look like you have enough coals.  I use a good chimney and a half plus my wood chunks.  During my last pizza cook I had to load more wood chunks every other pizza.  I ended up using 3/4 of a 10lb bag of mesquite chunks.

I think with a few more attempts you'll be able to get it dialed in.  I think the last cook I did last week was the first one where I finally felt like I had everything 99% dialed in.   It just takes trial and error, a few burned pizzas and some patience.


Here is what I mean with the lid.  This pic is the front of he grill. 

[jdefran]

To follow up on my own thread, has anyone tried this method: http://grilling24x7.com/pizza-stone-on-a-charcoal-grill/

[The_Masteres]

As the KP is not available in my country, I have tried this method with the improvements suggested by MikeRocksTheRed and the pizzas turned out really good !  I will post pictures soon as they are on another phone.

The pizzas took 10 minutes to cook, and I wonder if it would not be more efficient if I use wood chunks to boost the heat ... What do you think ? 

[JordanW]

1.5-2 chimneys of lit evenly spread out on charcoal grate. Stone directly on cooking grate (I use the GBS stone from Weber). Pre-heat stone for about 8-10 minutes. If you pre-heat the stone too long your first pie will burn. Regular crust pizza about 12" take about 8 minutes each. Cook with all vents open and lid on normally.

[The_Masteres]

Now with the pics :

[The_Masteres]

We do not see it very well on the pics (not easy to capture while cooking pizza) but the stone was sitting on two fire bricks.

I have tried different settings (lid on normally and open a little bit) and this is the best result I have achieved so far. Opening the lid a bit really makes a difference as it helps the charcoal heat up (Lump).