Burnt pizza crusts -- four of 'em. Any help?

PhilsGrill

A 16" stone is just fine. Been using one for over 5 years. Your fire is just too hot. 450-500 for 12-14 mins. Have never made anything but perfect pizza's using the above.

PhilsGrill

Ditto!

guzzijason

Forgot to add - before you sweat the dough details too much, it sounds like you need to get your temp issue under control. As others have mentioned, once you're set up OK, the dome and stone temps should be fairly close to each other.

And I'll also second another comment I saw on here - check your BGE thermometer calibration. This is done easily by removing it and clipping it to the side of a pot of boiling water, making sure that it reads ~212º. If it needs adjusting, you can use a wrench to do so, turning the hex nut on the back of the thermometer.

For sanity's sake, I usually check my thermometer about once a year, or sooner if I have reason to suspect it's off.

__Jason

ibanda

best stone wrote:

Get the stone Big Green Egg sells for the large egg, 14". Your 16" stone is hanging out in the hot gass stream and is getting too hot.

Self confessed novice pizza maker on the egg (worked in a pizza restaurant 20 years ago) but I think this post is right on the money as applied to the temps you are trying to cook at. With the 16" stone too much heat building up under it, and not enough room around the sides for the heat to go up and over/heat up the dome and cook the top. I think if you went to the 14" BGE stone you might find the bottom and the top finishing at the same time.

There are a lot of methods that will work, but I'm a fan of the high temp, fast cook, thin crust style and it will work on the egg.

Bacchus

I have to disagree about the fire being too hot. I routinely cook pizza in the 600-700deg range with great success. My set up being PS legs down, green feet, BGE L stone.



Buffalo Chicken Style

fishlessman

sometimes we forget that pizza isnt the same for everyone, i know you know there isnt enough grease on this newengland greek pizza but for the rest of the world i think they would pass on it. :laugh: :laugh: i like all pizza, those low temp deep dishes, those extremely thin high temp chewy ones, those cooked at middle 500/550 pies, the droopy ones, the crisp ones, the gooooey ones, i even like them on an english muffin 500 is a good starting place to start with and gear a pie towards, but sometimes i need more. check out the cupping on these pepperonis, im loving it, but i see posts on how to remove grease from pepperoni before cooking the pie, thats soooooo wrong :laugh:

Fidel

If you have the proper dough, setup, and toppings then some pizzas NEED to be cooked at higher temps. I do pizzas at 425&deg while other pizzas I have done in excess of an estimated 900&deg (the thermometer doesn't read that high). You have to know your ingredients and how they will respond to the heat.

Pizza is so diverse that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to the proper setup or temperature. Some brick oven joints cook at 800&deg plus while others use conveyor belt ovens set at 475&deg - cooking one's pizza in the others oven will give terrible results.

Hopefully my (as of now) 7854 posts, years of contribution, and literally tens of thousands of pizzas in commercial and home cooking will somehow at least get you to entertain the idea that I know what I'm talking about.

Mainegg

O/T Rod, your new tag line makes my stomach heave and then sink.....
"At the rate of one dollar every second, it would take 416,000 years to pay off our national debt." :(

PhilsGrill

Ah... but you have a dinky pizza stone. :laugh: A larger 16" stone at those temps may burn at those temps.

Rezen73

Reisen....With your 30 posts, I know you are an expert by now. You diss the prior posters with nearly 3000 and over 12,000 posts and ignore them? Keep telling folks pizza should be cooked at 650-700...the posts for burnt crusts will never end.

Wait, I think I'm missing something here... how exactly did I diss any other posters? It certainly wasn't intentional. All I posted was some seemingly supplemental information that other posters didn't (in the posts that I read, that is). Was any of the information I posted factually incorrect?

Pizza cooking temperature is a matter of personal preference. It's been proven that people can cook pizzas successfully at very low temperatures up to scorching temperatures. For the pizza dough that my wife and I use, and the method & temperature we cook at, 700 is good for us. The crust comes out perfect for our tastes and is never burned. Others' mileage may vary.

I don't claim to be an expert at anything other than my chosen profession, which has absolutely nothing to do with cooking. As ceramic cooking is strictly a hobby of mine, I'll gladly defer to the advice of those with more knowledge than me. However, that said, it is wrong to assume that just because a user only has 30 posts, that he or she is a complete idiot or newbie when it comes to anything. It only means that said person only has 30 posts. For all anyone knew before I posted this message, I could have 30,000 posts on another cooking website, or I could have been Alton Brown or Bobby Flay. I'm neither, but I have been cooking on grills of various types for over 20 years (wow, this made me feel old ), so I'm certainly not a newbie. Just a newbie to these particular forums.

Best regards,

-Rezen

DrZaius

Fidel wrote:

If you have the proper dough, setup, and toppings then some pizzas NEED to be cooked at higher temps. I do pizzas at 425° while other pizzas I have done in excess of an estimated 900° (the thermometer doesn't read that high). You have to know your ingredients and how they will respond to the heat.

Pizza is so diverse that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to the proper setup or temperature. Some brick oven joints cook at 800° plus while others use conveyor belt ovens set at 475° - cooking one's pizza in the others oven will give terrible results.

Hopefully my (as of now) 7854 posts, years of contribution, and literally tens of thousands of pizzas in commercial and home cooking will somehow at least get you to entertain the idea that I know what I'm talking about.

I am not sure about your logic. You speak as if you are the Prince of Pizza!

Fidel

I could quote a big hairy dude from Oklahoma that told me my pizza was the best he ever ate. But that would cloud the issue.

DrZaius

Bacchus wrote:

I have to disagree about the fire being too hot. I routinely cook pizza in the 600-700deg range with great success. My set up being PS legs down, green feet, BGE L stone.



Buffalo Chicken Style

Hey Bacchus not to be an ahole but it looks like your pizza IS burning :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

Bacchus

"not to be an ahole, but Im going to anyway" ? I supposed I need to get used to it. :laugh:

It came came off seconds after the pic. A little char never hurt anyone did it?

What can I say, we can't ALL be cooking royalty....


:woohoo: :P :ohmy: :laugh: :cheer: :cheer: :laugh: :P

Ricklesss

Man, sometimes I really wish there wasn't a "post count", as it so often seems to be a contest for some...
the "I've got more posts then you, so obviously I know more then you do..."
It's B.S.
All I know is that, at about 600* when I bake a pizza pie from a ball of store bought dough, (due to being lazy), the bottom burns before the top is done, but at the same temperature, if I make my own dough, the top and bottom come out even.
I think the doughs hydration percentage makes a big difference.

DrZaius

Fidel wrote:

I could quote a big hairy dude from Oklahoma that told me my pizza was the best he ever ate. But that would cloud the issue.

I have talked with him and he reassures that fact with your amazing pizza's. They are pretty f'in good.