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I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire (pizza)

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  • Botch
    Botch Posts: 15,471
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    JohnInCarolina said:
    500 said:
    You're not using the preshredded cheese are you? That stuff doesn't melt good. I go PS legs down, pie pan and egg feet on PS, stone on egg feet at 550. Takes about 12 minutes every time. Oh and parchment paper too, and rotate pie after 5 minutes, and buy dough from local pizzeria.
    No I've been cooking margherita-style pies with fresh mozzarella.  
    I was going to suggest that the thicker the pie, the lower the temp should be; BUT a margherita shouldn't be burning at 550!  How thick are you making them?  I do my margheritas at 700, but if I'm lazy and throw on a Papa Murphy's, I keep it below 500, because its a thicker, heavier pie.  
    _____________

    Remember when teachers used to say 'You won't have a calculator everywhere you go'?  Well, we showed them.


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  • Beaumonty
    Beaumonty Posts: 198
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    My recommendation is to rotate it a quarter turn at about two minutes.  You're pulling your parchment out, so that probably does close to the same thing.  I'm a "flour the peel, slide it off" kind of guy.  I have to rotate it, but i found that it does something magical to the crust and i've never burned it since.
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  • jlsm
    jlsm Posts: 1,011
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    Here's another recipe. I like it much better than the Cook's version.
    *******
    Owner of a large and a beloved mini in Philadelphia
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  • JohnInCarolina
    JohnInCarolina Posts: 30,949
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    Botch said:I was going to suggest that the thicker the pie, the lower the temp should be; BUT a margherita shouldn't be burning at 550!  How thick are you making them?  I do my margheritas at 700, but if I'm lazy and throw on a Papa Murphy's, I keep it below 500, because its a thicker, heavier pie.  
    You mean the crust thickness?  Really not very - maybe 1/4" max.  
    "I've made a note never to piss you two off." - Stike
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  • JohnInCarolina
    JohnInCarolina Posts: 30,949
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    Beaumonty said:
    My recommendation is to rotate it a quarter turn at about two minutes.  You're pulling your parchment out, so that probably does close to the same thing.  I'm a "flour the peel, slide it off" kind of guy.  I have to rotate it, but i found that it does something magical to the crust and i've never burned it since.
    I'd buy this if it was getting burned on one side and not the other, but that's not the case.  
    "I've made a note never to piss you two off." - Stike
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  • Federalist226
    Federalist226 Posts: 82
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    In my opinion, your problem is almost certainly the dough, which probably contains sugar. Sugar causes dough to burn at hotter temperatures. Also, there should be some air-space between your stone and your platesetter, otherwise, the stone will probably get too hot.
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  • JohnInCarolina
    JohnInCarolina Posts: 30,949
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    Federalist226 said:
    In my opinion, your problem is almost certainly the dough, which probably contains sugar. Sugar causes dough to burn at hotter temperatures. Also, there should be some air-space between your stone and your platesetter, otherwise, the stone will probably get too hot.
    Yes, the dough seems like the likely culprit here.  As I mentioned upstream, I had similar problems when the PS was sitting on a wire bracket a couple of inches off the grate.  

    What do you use for a dough recipe?  
    "I've made a note never to piss you two off." - Stike
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  • Federalist226
    Federalist226 Posts: 82
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    I use a standard Neapolitan style dough. The exact recipe is found in "The Bread Baker's Apprentice," though similar recipes are easy to find. The Forno Bravo website  has a recipe for Neapolitan dough that is very similar to what I use.

    You can see some of my pizza cooks on a thread I posted this morning. Like you, I've been trying to master high-temp pizza cooks. The hardest part for me has been to get the top and the bottom done at the same time, which is what you described, but I think I found a decent workaround (other than just lowering the temp), which I describe in my post from this morning.
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  • Beaumonty
    Beaumonty Posts: 198
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    I put my stone on three egg feet too.
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  • HogHeaven
    HogHeaven Posts: 326
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    Pizza on the BGE... Pre-cook your toppings that require cooking temps higher than your dough. Getting all ingredience to be done at the same time is... The Art of cooking.
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  • The Cen-Tex Smoker
    The Cen-Tex Smoker Posts: 22,961
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    It's burning because you are cooking too hot and your stone is sitting on your Platesetter. You need an air gap or it will burn any crust on higher temp cooks.
    Keepin' It Weird in The ATX FBTX
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  • JohnInCarolina
    JohnInCarolina Posts: 30,949
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    The Cen-Tex Smoker said:
    It's burning because you are cooking too hot and your stone is sitting on your Platesetter. You need an air gap or it will burn any crust on higher temp cooks.
    Well this may be a contributing factor for this last cook, but as I mentioned above - I've burned pies using a setup with a pretty large air gap as well.  So it's not the whole story.  

    For my next cook I'll go with the gap and just lower the temp to 500 or so.  If I get ambitious at some point I'll try making a homemade crust.  
    "I've made a note never to piss you two off." - Stike
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  • WokOnMedium
    WokOnMedium Posts: 1,376
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    I just saw a pizza post using firebricks on the other forum.  He did two, which for me is always a test.  Sometimes I can get the first one to turn out, but nothing after that.  They look pretty good.
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  • WokOnMedium
    WokOnMedium Posts: 1,376
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    WokOnMedium said:
    I just saw a pizza post using firebricks on the other forum.  He did two, which for me is always a test.  Sometimes I can get the first one to turn out, but nothing after that.  They look pretty good.
    Nevermind,  he posted it here too, it was 4 pies.  Sorry I didn't see it until after I wrote that. 8-|
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  • Cowdogs
    Cowdogs Posts: 491
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    At higher temps > 500 degrees is not that easy to get the egg dome temp and stone temp both to the optimal temp so both top and bottom come out perfect.  If the stone to cool relative to dome temp, the crust is pale when the top of pizza is done.  The opposite conditions will yield a burnt crust.

    My solution is to make sure the stone is good and hot.  I put the pizza in, and then I check the bottom after 4-5 minutes. If the bottom is ahead of the top in terms of doneness, I will slip a pizza screen under the pizza.  If it is really far ahead of the top, I use 2 screens.  Each screen lifts the pizza 1/8 of an inch off the stone.  The screens are cheap (link below), and once you get the hang of what to look for, you can use 1-3 of them to compensate for any stone that is too hot. 

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  • njl
    njl Posts: 1,123
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    My extensive oven experience with pizza and limited egg experience makes me think 600-700F is just way too hot for the type of pizza you're making.  Sure, there are places that make pizza at that temp or hotter...but I suspect you have to be very sparing with the toppings to get them to cook in the short amount of time that a crust can handle being exposed to such a high temperature.

    My pizzas have a nice layer of sauce and a nice layer of cheese, plus whatever other toppings I'm using.  I pre-bake the crust 2 minutes at 425F, then give it another 14 minutes at 425F once topped.  I don't think you can properly cook this sort of pizza in a flash at super high temperature.  Nobody cooks a rib roast at 600F, do they?
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  • kevinhville
    kevinhville Posts: 19
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    I use HarrisTeeter dough all the time with no problems. I'll never make my own dough again - I'm just too lazy, and I really can't tell a difference. My set-up: Plate setter LEGS UP, 550ish degrees, pizza stone on the grate.
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  • Charlie tuna
    Charlie tuna Posts: 2,191
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    I cooked this "pulled pork" pizza with raw onions, bell peppers on top of home made pizza dough at 450 degrees -- crust was perfect and the veggies were cooked...
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