First thread from a n00b... thin crust pizza.

caliking · January 2013

Decided to go for it and get the 1st pizza cook done. This is my first thread about one of my BGE cooks.

I have been giving the BGE a workout since I brought it home a few weeks, so now it was time for thin crust pizzas. Its been a bit of a learnign curve, but I think I am making progress.

Used Alton Brown's recipe for the pizza dough. Let it sit in the refrigerator overnight so that i would have one less thing to worry about during the cook today.

Fired up the egg with B&B, my current fav lump charcoal. Good size pieces which work well in my homebrewed tandoor. I found this humongous piece in the bag today when I filled up the egg. It was as thick as my forearm! There were 2-3 other pieces almost as big. By far the biggest pieces of lump I have found to date.

Here is what a virgin BGE pizza stone looks like! I set the platesetter legs down, then the stock grid, then the pizza stone. I don't have any ceramic feet. The stone was almost at the level of the gasket but not quite. I hear that the pizzas come out better if rasied higher in the dome, so I will try and figure out a way to get it higher.

Dough sitting for the final rise/rest. The recipe makes two 12-14" pieces, but i divided itinto three balls (about 120g each).

Leftover toppings from when we made pizzas in my stacked brick WFO over the holidays. Homemade sauce, bufala mozz, pepperoni, basil, onions, red bell peppers, and elk sausage I smoked a few days ago.

First pie rolled out. Had to work on it a little bit, adding flour until it stopped shrinking back. About 10" in diameter.

Almost hit 600°F. I could have gone higher if I had paid more attention to packing the lump in, wiggling, and lighting more lump when I started, but this was good enough. I was a little worried about frying the gasket, so didn't want to go nuclear the first time. Temps probably averaged 550°ish.

First pie was a margherita - my favorite!

View from the top vent. Cooked 3-4mins then turned 180° and cooked for another 3-4mins.

First BGE pie! [Sorry the pic is blurry].

Gratuitous upskirt shot.

2nd pie - sauce, pepperoni, bell pepper, parmesan, red onions.

The crust was thin, crispy, and flavorful. The best pizza I have made yet.

Last pie was a garbage pizza - put on whatever we had left. Sauce, basil, parmesan, bufala mozz, bell peppers, red onions, elk sausage.

Overall, it was a resounding success!! When I fire up my stacked brick WFO, it ends up being over a half-day affair. With the egg, we could enjoy pizza on a weeknight. The sauce was made before hand, and frozen in an ice cube tray, so I just took out 2 cubes per pie.

Improvement for future cooks will include making the sauce more garlicky, not using 2 cured meats on the same pie (too salty for us), and experimenting with the dough to add some other flavors to it. I will also learn how to tend the fire better so I can maybe hit higher temps, but I don't see the need to really. Unless someone thinks there is some benefit to higher temps. I thoght I smelled the gasket vaporizing a few times, but it seems to have withstood the temps well.

Thanks for looking!

caliking · January 2013

I'm sorry if the pics are too big - I don't know how to resize them.

Skiddymarker · January 2013

Nice pies, nice pics. When I first tried pizza I went down the high heat road, now we get better results at 500-550. Great cook.

SkinnyV · January 2013

Nice work and great color on the crust

Bham_egger · January 2013

Awesome post with great looking pizza!

bodski · January 2013

Awesome pics. How did the flavor compare to the WFO?

jfm0830 · January 2013

Nicely done! I'll taka slice of each please. I do my pizzas at 600. I did a few experiments with higher and lower cooking temps and for me 600 degrees strikes a balance between flavor, control & cooking time. Whenever I do a high temp cook above about 500 degrees I do a more thorough clean out of the Egg before starting. Then it is easy to get the Egg to 600 or beyond if you aren't paying attention.

Jim

Eggcelsior · January 2013

Looks great. I wish my first few turned out like that. I went nuclear and blew away my gasket like "dust in the wind". Flipping your plate setter so it is in the "legs up" orientation may allow your gasket to fight another day, FWIW.

I love your idea for the sauce. I have done that with stock, but this gives me more reason to convince SWMBO to allow me to invest in an extra "Egg" freezer for a 1/4 cow and what not.

caliking · January 2013

Skiddymarker said:

Nice pies, nice pics. When I first tried pizza I went down the high heat road, now we get better results at 500-550. Great cook.

That's good to know. I think the pies cooked well at 550ish. I might cook for a min less next.

bodski said:

Awesome pics. How did the flavor compare to the WFO?

My WFO is a low-tech, stacked brick (no mortar), uninsulated, unattractive beauty. I burn white oak in it when we do pizzas in it, but it is a pretty involved affair. I love it though. The pizzas have great flavor from the oak, which I found lacking in last night's pizzas. I think lump burns a little too clean, especially at higher temps. Next time I might try adding some wood chunks just before throwing the pizza on to get some smoke flavor.

jfm0830 said:

Nicely done! I'll taka slice of each please. I do my pizzas at 600. I did a few experiments with higher and lower cooking temps and for me 600 degrees strikes a balance between flavor, control & cooking time. Whenever I do a high temp cook above about 500 degrees I do a more thorough clean out of the Egg before starting. Then it is easy to get the Egg to 600 or beyond if you aren't paying attention.

Jim

I was making my wiggle rod while the egg was firing up, so I didn't have a chance to clear ash from all the holes in the fire grate and fire ring, so that's probably why I had a little trouble with the temp. But everything turned out well.

Eggcelsior said:

Looks great. I wish my first few turned out like that. I went nuclear and blew away my gasket like "dust in the wind". Flipping your plate setter so it is in the "legs up" orientation may allow your gasket to fight another day, FWIW.

I love your idea for the sauce. I have done that with stock, but this gives me more reason to convince SWMBO to allow me to invest in an extra "Egg" freezer for a 1/4 cow and what not.

The sauce trick worked great. We always have some leftover pizza sauce in the freezer, but the last time we did pizzas, I froze it in the ice tray. Perfect for weeknight pizzas!

We used to have a 2nd chest freezer when we lived in Iowa. We called it the "animal freezer" because we bought meat from the farms and froze it. Had a goat and a hog butchered, and bought chickens from the Amish regularly. I miss those days. I can't find a decent butcher here in Houston.

YEMTrey · January 2013

Nice work! Great pics as well.

nolaegghead · January 2013

Nice pies. Next time I do pizza, I'm going to use only oak (no lump). My thin crust takes around 7-8 minutes...I cook hot and I have a huge pile of oak. I'll report results.

R2Egg2Q · January 2013

Welcome aboard the EggHead Forum caliking! You may be a n00b here but certainly not a n00b at cooking (I've seen your posts elsewhere

). Plate setter legs up is the way BGE is recommending these days to reduce the amount of heat deflected right at the gasket. At least your gasket looks like the new high heat variety. Nice job on the pizzas!

Duganboy · January 2013

R2Egg2Q said:

Welcome aboard the EggHead Forum caliking! You may be a n00b here but certainly not a n00b at cooking (I've seen your posts elsewhere ). Plate setter legs up is the way BGE is recommending these days to reduce the amount of heat deflected right at the gasket. At least your gasket looks like the new high heat variety. Nice job on the pizzas!

His post said PS legs down, but the pic looked like he had it in there legs up.

SaltySam · January 2013

Curious as to how you liked the elk sausage on the pizza? We did a garbage pizza the other night as well, and my kid threw some sliced bratwurst on his. Garbage is a pretty fitting word, because it was disgusting.

:-&

Aside from that, nice work. I've still yet to get the perfect crust, and it looks like yours are dead on.

caliking · January 2013

nolaegghead said:

Nice pies. Next time I do pizza, I'm going to use only oak (no lump). My thin crust takes around 7-8 minutes...I cook hot and I have a huge pile of oak. I'll report results.

Please do report back. I'm curious to know how that works out for you.

R2Egg2Q said:

Welcome aboard the EggHead Forum caliking! You may be a n00b here but certainly not a n00b at cooking (I've seen your posts elsewhere ). Plate setter legs up is the way BGE is recommending these days to reduce the amount of heat deflected right at the gasket. At least your gasket looks like the new high heat variety. Nice job on the pizzas!

Thanks - and I recognize you from "elsewhere" as well! I'll set the platesetter legs up next time.

Duganboy said
His post said PS legs down, but the pic looked like he had it in there legs up.

It was definitely legs down this time. Was taking pics with my phone, so the pics are not the best.

SaltySam said:

Curious as to how you liked the elk sausage on the pizza? We did a garbage pizza the other night as well, and my kid threw some sliced bratwurst on his. Garbage is a pretty fitting word, because it was disgusting.

:-&

Aside from that, nice work. I've still yet to get the perfect crust, and it looks like yours are dead on.

The elk sausage by itself was actually very tasty and tasted good on the pizza too. I just wouldn't put 2 cured meats together again, since I thought it was too salty for my taste.

Thanks for the kind words, folks. I would thank everyone individually, but I don't know if there is a feature on this forum that does that.

First thread from a n00b... thin crust pizza.

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