Pizza Perfection

GulfCoastSmoker · February 2015

I'm in an extended battle to perfect cooking pizza on my large Egg. I cook a pizza approximately once a week on the egg, and everyone loves it, but I know that its not perfect. The problem I'm having is the dough is not cooking all the way through. By this I mean the bottom of the crust has a good darker brown color, and the top of the pizza is getting some color, but in between it seems doughy. My set up is plate setter legs down, grill grate, an approximately 2" thick deep dish pizza stone, and the BGE pizza stone, then the pizza on top of that stack up. I added the deep dish pizza pan to raise the pizza itself higher in the dome to attempt to improve cooking of the top of the pizza. I throw the pizza on the egg when the pizza stone reaches approximately 500F, and the dome temp is 600F. I used to leave the daisy wheel completely off, but lately I've put on the daisy wheel with the cover slid over the vent, and with the daisy wheel vents as wide open as possible. This seems to help, but the pizza still is not perfect. Does anyone have any tips, I know there is a lot of pizza cookers on here, and any advice helps.

onedbguru · February 2015

How long are you keeping it on the stone?

I like NY-style thin crust and to help prevent burning I use the Reynolds parchment/foil (parchment side up). The pie goes on after the dome temp sits at ~600-650 for a minimum of 40-60 minutes. Not sure what the stone temp gets up to. The pie is on until the top starts bubbling and the pepperoni starting to be crispy. I pull the parchment out after ~3 minutes as it keeps the bottom from becoming burnt. Total time is 4-7 minutes and crust is perfect. If you are doing thick-crust, you may turn it down and cook it longer.

cookingdude555 · February 2015

The egg suffers from all of its heat coming from the bottom. The bottom will always be hotter than the top. Before getting my blackstone, I would only get a few pizzas just right, the pizzas on either side of this curve had uneven cooking. I used to put multiple pizza stones, and use contraptions to get the pizza as high in the dome as possible. Sometimes this would burn the crust because it was closer to the dome than the middle. I would also cook the pizza on a hot stone, and if the top wasn't done before the bottom, I would pull the pizza, put another cold stone in (I have multiple), and put the pizza back in. Then the top would finish but the bottom would stop cooking. It was a pain to get the perfect pizza. I finally gave up, paid 299 for a Blackstone, push a button and wait 10 minutes until it's preheated to 700. Sorry to come off criticizing the egg, but while kamados can cook pizzas, I don't believe they are the best tool for the job.

MaC122 · February 2015

pics?

UrbanForestTurnings · February 2015

To EARLY to read everything. Need more coffee.

grege345 · February 2015

@UrbanForestTurnings early? Or late? I'm concerned about your sleeping pattern

UrbanForestTurnings · February 2015

I dont have a pattern

UrbanForestTurnings · February 2015

On call 24/7 sleep when I drive

grege345 · February 2015

Band saw and lack of sleep = permanent shocker

UrbanForestTurnings · February 2015

Chain saws are the biggest problem

GulfCoastSmoker · February 2015

onedbguru said:
How long are you keeping it on the stone?

I like NY-style thin crust and to help prevent burning I use the Reynolds parchment/foil (parchment side up). The pie goes on after the dome temp sits at ~600-650 for a minimum of 40-60 minutes. Not sure what the stone temp gets up to. The pie is on until the top starts bubbling and the pepperoni starting to be crispy. I pull the parchment out after ~3 minutes as it keeps the bottom from becoming burnt. Total time is 4-7 minutes and crust is perfect. If you are doing thick-crust, you may turn it down and cook it longer.

I keep it on the stone for 12 minutes, turning in a quarter turn every 2 minutes and then a complete 180 turn at 10 minutes.

I'm a big believer in the parchment paper.

My next plan is to somehow hang a thin gauge steel plate or somehthing from the top of the egg to hang over top of the pizza and try and cook the top of the pizza at the same rate as the bottom of the pie.

cazzy · February 2015

grege345 said:
Band saw and lack of sleep = permanent shocker

Haha...that facial expression is awesome!

Tinyfish · February 2015

How high in the dome are you? Can you go higher in the dome=more radiant heat. Have you tried less topping less sauce like an Italian thin crust pizza.

GulfCoastSmoker · February 2015

Tinyfish said:
How high in the dome are you? Can you go higher in the dome=more radiant heat. Have you tried less topping less sauce like an Italian thin crust pizza. Right now I would say that I have the pizza about 3" off the grate. I agree that the higher in the dome the better, I need to rig something up. Whats your set up to get the pizza high in the dome? Good looking pizza you posted.

Hungry Joe · February 2015

What is your dough recipe? Every dough cooks different.

Tinyfish · February 2015

@GulfCoastSmoker you could make a raised grate from some stainless steel screws and bolts or buy an adjustable rig from Ceramic Grill Store or a swing grate from Ceramic Grill Works. Lots of info on the two retail products and lots of diy's for a home made job.

GulfCoastSmoker · February 2015

Hungry Joe said:
What is your dough recipe? Every dough cooks different.

I use pizza crust yeast, bread flour, pinch sugar, 2 pinches salt, olive oil.

onedbguru · February 2015

I did forget to mention the setup.

get a full firebox going with one full Weber Chimney in the middle then fill the firebox.

Platesetter LU

original grate

3 fire bricks (white-ish tan in color - found them in the woods behind the house left over from when they built the house/fireplaces(2) some 30+ years ago)

pizza stone (This gets the stone above the rim )

no DFMT

bottom vent wide open.

I have cooked as many as 3 pies in a row on this setup with perfect results.

jtcBoynton · February 2015

"My next plan is to somehow hang a thin gauge steel plate or somehthing from the top of the egg to hang over top of the pizza and try and cook the top of the pizza at the same rate as the bottom of the pie. "

That would be counter productive. The dough cooks from the heat from below. You need to find the right balance of time, temp, dough hydration, and dough thickness so that the dough browns nicely and cooks through without over cooking. This is controlled by heat from below. Your toppings get cooked/heated/melted by heat from above. One of the advantages of the BGE for pizza is the ceramic top will radiate heat back onto the top of the pizza. By adjusting the distance you can control the amount of heat the toppings get. A thin metal piece will not have the thermal mass to match performance of the ceramic.

I would also suggest stabilizing the temps in the egg. It sounds like the stone is still heating up when you start to cook. To address the dough not cooking all the way through, you can either lower the cooking temp or stretch the dough thinner.

SaskNortherner · February 2015

I second the Blackstone. I bought one about a month ago and it is to pizza what the Egg is to BBQ. I am not sure I would ever do another pie on my Egg. Still love my Egg but now I have another powerful tool in my arsenal.

westernbbq · February 2015

grege345 said:
Band saw and lack of sleep = permanent shocker
That'

That's the FORK 'EM sign for ARIZONA STATE SUN DEVILS! woo hoo!

on the pizza not cooking enough up top, I had the same problem-

here's a solution that worked for me;

1) Elevate the stone AS HIGH AS YOU CAN in the BGE. If you have an Adjustable Rig, or even a couple of bricks, or an inverted aluminum roasting pan (double up for some structural integrity)

2) Be sure to heat up your BGE for AT LEAST one hour, I like to heat it up for two hours and then get the 'zas going over the course of the next hour or so. fuel burn rate is higher than with a low and slow cook but you should be able to crank out enough pies over the course of an hour point 5 to make everyone happy

3) Make sure you ROTATE the pizza on the stone after it's on for about a minute- this helps you check the bottom for burning, and helps you monitor the pie while it's cooking

4) USE YOUR BGE DAISY WHEEL CAP. You can open it up to half moon setting and have all the watermelon seeds wide open to help create the draft from down below and more importantly, this helps keep some of the circulating heat from escaping too fast.

Preheating the pizza stone has importance that is equivalent to preheating the dome lid for radiant heat.

When I did these things it cured by burned crust, undercooked top

hope this helps!

cookingdude555 · February 2015

grege345 said:
That's the FORK 'EM sign for ARIZONA STATE SUN DEVILS! woo hoo!

Um, no ....

There is a reason his mother is mortified by his gesture.

westernbbq · February 2015

well in our part of the world, that kid would get a front row seat at an Arizona State Game!

NDG · February 2015

I third the Blackstone.

I fought the BGE PIZZA battle for a few years, made so many different dough recipes using every flour known to man, got a IR Thermometer to record stone temp, etc. Turned out some decent pies on my BGE . . but NEVER consistancy. Impossible to host a pizza party and feel confident.

I spent some time on the Pizza Making Forum and got the blackstone around thanksgiving. So easy, so powerful (2 mins pies) and so consistant. Besides the big "foot print" of a new machine . . . I love it and suggest it to anyone interested in taking there BGE Pizza Game up a few notches.

Pizza Perfection

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