A couple of questions

RGBHV

Before cooking the zahs yesterday, I let the egg go nuclear to give it a clean burn. Man it was pretty white inside - almost like new! I know I buried the temp way past 800. I don't know the exact temp, but I do know that I've never had the temp that high before.

My question; before I brought the temp down to 575 for the pizza, I saw a lot of green flame and I thought I smelled something funny. There wasn't any smoke. I don't ever recall seeing any green flame before. It looked like the northern lights. (blue / green) Is this the colour of flame I should expect at those temps or do you think I was burning something. (gasket maybe?) When I brought the temp down the flame looked normal and there still wasn't any smoke.

Second question, when cooking multiple zahs, do you keep them warm in the oven so that they're all warm when served together. And, if you do, do you under cook the first couple of zahs as they will continue to cook while they're in the oven?

Michael

Fidel

A blue flame is indicative of complete combustion of your fuel source and some oxygen gas burning independent of the fuel source. In other words a really hot fire. The green you see is most likely an optical trick combining the blue flame with some yellow flame (which is also quite hot, but not quite as hot as blue and has some non-combusted particles in it).

Regarding your pizzas - they should stay warm under a loose tent of foil. You could keep them in a 200&deg oven and not risk any further cooking.

FearlessGrill

Michael,

Not sure about your green flames.

For making multiple pizzas, I usually like to turn it into a group activity. I make up the dough and prep the toppings and sauce ahead of time, then let each of my guests make up their own pizza. I cook them high temp so they only take 8-10 minutes each, so one can be cooking while the next one is being prepared. We slice and eat each one as they come off, sharing with everyone there. I've done this a number of times, and everyone has always had a great time.

I wrote a blog post about one of the times we did this with come additional details, at http://www.fearlesskitchen.com/2009/09/recipe-pizza-party-guest-post-from-fearless-grill.html

Enjoy!

-John

RGBHV

Sounds like a fun idea. Just like raclette. But nobody gets to touch my eggs. Ha! Ha!

I made 4 pizzas yesterday and the first one wasn't as fresh and the last one off.
(apx. 40 minutes difference) It probably would have tasted better if we used your method.

Thanks for sharing.

Michael

RGBHV

You're probably right - it probably was an optical illusion.

The blue/green flame appeared when the temp was over 800. It was blue with a more pronounced yellow when the temp was 575.

I wondered what temp to "warm" the pizzas but wondered if it would overcook the zah.

I think I like Fearless's idea, but the family would have to feed me while I cooked so that I could sample everything.

Michael