Pizza Stone Temp

AD18

Sorry for another pizza stone question, but I need a wee bit of clarification.  I have a large BGE and just bought the BGE 14" pizza stone.  I'm hopefully going to try first pizza this weekend and have read a bunch of posts on temperature requirements.  Seems to be anywhere from 550 to 700 dependent on dough.  My question is should I put the stone in for the whole preheat time to get the Egg and the stone up to the same desired temp?  Or put it in part way through Egg preheat?  I understand the possibility of putting a cold stone in a 550+ Egg of the stone cracking, but is there a way other than one of those fancy laser temp gauges, which I do not have, to see what stone temp is?  I'm concerned that I either get a burnt crust because the stone is too hot or not cooked enough because the stone is too cold.  Thanks for your help:)

Little Steven

First off, you won't hurt the BGE stone, I've dug mine out of a snowdrift and put it right in a hot egg. You don't mention a platesetter or indirect piece? Is your plan to just use the stone on the grid?

AD18

My current plan is to put the plate setter in, then the grate, and put the stone on top of grate.

AD18

Plate setter in, legs up or down?

Little Steven

Do you have a way to raise the platesetter? Slit bricks or something. Best results are higher in the dome with some spacers between the two pieces. If you do it at the gasket level with legs down you might pooch them

awm

I put mine in PS legs down and then some sort of spacers on top and the stone on top of the spacers. Ive learned from the great folks on here the spacers lets air flow under the stone to keep the bottom of the pizza from burning.

AD18 said:

Plate setter in, legs up or down?

awm

I plan on doing a couple of pizzas myself tonight

AD18

If I have the plate setter legs up, then put the grate you grill on in is that not accomplishing the same thing?  I have seen some setups where they put the place setter in legs down and then put the 3 little green ceramic legs/pads you get when you purchase the Egg under the stone.  Is that a better way?

Little Steven

I've found that the stone can still get hotter than the ambient temp with the big space underneath. There have been millions of great pies produced that way though.

AD18

I think I will try setting up with plate setter in legs up, then the grate, and then pizza stone on the grate.  Give it a whirl and see what happens, gonna learn one way or the other:)  Little Steve see you are in Caledon, I'm down near Cobourg and can relate to the snow comment big time:)

Skiddymarker

PS legs up helps preserve the gasket a touch, the flames have a chance to wrap around the setter before the gasket line. Depending on your dough moisture and topping mix you will find what works best for you. I use dome temp 550ºF PS legs up and a grill dome extender grid that puts the stone about 2" above the felt line in MBGE. Stone is a cheap 13" rated for 450º that is on its third year of duty. I put it on about 15 minutes before I want to cook, stone temp typically reads 400ºF with IR thermo. Pies take 8-10 minutes. 

I suggest you put your stone in a stable egg for 20 minutes, before you cook. If crust is overdone either more moisture in dough or put stone in 15 minutes before cook. If crust is underdone, put stone in 30 minutes before. Change one thing at a time. 

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