Smoke flavor/taste with baked items

rjm522 · February 18

Fellow Eggers: I have had my egg for over 10 years and use it frequently. The inside is well seasoned and black as night. I also have a pizza stone and thought about baking a pizza on it. Since I use lump - Wicked Good specifically - how would a pizza taste with all that smoke blowing around? Every time I use it it smokes a lot........like it is supposed to do. I don't want to smoke a pizza or have it taste like I cooked it low and slow. Thanks in advance for your input.

Mickey · February 18

Have/do you ever do a "clean burn"? To answer question (as long as you don't have smoking wood in it) I think fine, that's the way I do it.

rjm522 · February 18

No, I have never done a clean burn.

gdenby · February 18

I have 1 platesetter and 1 pizza stone that I only use for baking breads. I do a clean burn before the bread goes on. Little or no smoke flavor.

gerhardk · February 18

By the time the egg reaches baking temperature the fire will be hot enough to burn cleanly so there will be little smoke to flavour the bread.

Gerhard

rjm522 · February 18

What temp should I get the egg to for pizza? 500*-600*??

Solson005 · February 18

I cook in the same egg I do long smokes in and do not do clean burns and my pizzas turn out fantastic. It has a woodfired pizza taste but not a smoke or bbq one.

It kinda depends on how thick your dough is 500° - 550° is probably a good place to start with your first pizza cook. There are tons of different ways to setup your egg but for the best crust this is my method. Plate setter legs down pizza stone on the little green feet creating a air gap between the stone and the platesetter so the stone doesn't get to hot and burn your pizza. Give your pizza a spin after about 5 minutes and check it every couple of minutes to prevent burning. My pizzas at 550° take usually 10-12 minutes depending on the dough.

Some people like to go higher in the dome but I don't like how the crust turns out so now I use my CGW Swing rack and start out on the bottom and use the top rack for 2-3 mins to finish the pizza.

burr_baby33 · February 18

Also, make sure you burn off the VOC's before you cook anything. VOC's have that very strong and unpleasant smokey smell and taste.

gerhardk · February 18

@burr_baby33 I am pretty certain that by the time a fire heats the egg, plate setter and pizza stone to 500º + the VOC will have been driven off. Most people doing pizza and bread will stabilize the egg for 1/2 hour before starting to put food in the egg.

Gerhard

Solson005 · February 18

I agree with @gerhardk you want the pizza stone in the egg for at least 20 mins to get it up to temp and the fire should be clear of all "bad smoke" by then.

cortguitarman · February 18

Pizza at 550-600 has zero smoke taste.

henapple · February 18

Every couple months I'll do a clean burn. I take the dw off, adjust the bv and go about 800 and finish the lump. I've read members on here flipping the dial but some say to remove the dial.

Skiddymarker · February 18

henapple said:

Every couple months I'll do a clean burn. I take the dw off, adjust the bv and go about 800 and finish the lump. I've read members on here flipping the dial but some say to remove the dial.

Like the chicken egg guy says, remove the dome thermo, no sense having it tell you the temp is so far beyond its range it doesn't matter, IMHO. Hot is hot, and an egg in clean mode is hot. I pull my dome thermo when the temp is approaching 600. Do not forget to pull the clip off the dome thermo before you start a clean burn.

A clean egg does not add any smoke taste to items baked at over 400, IMHO.

rjm522 · February 18

Thanks for all the input. I will try the pizza later this week.

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Smoke flavor/taste with baked items

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