Ahh.. Not expecting that.  

I really like the looks of a Blackstone pizza unit.  Egg'ed pizza on the Egg just isn't my thang.  

Not even gonna look. Your trying to spend my money.

That thing looks ridiculous but if the claims made in the ‘facts’ section are accurate I believe it will help the egg yield a better pie.  One of the big reasons Blackstone pizza is so much better than egg pizza is consistency of temp, it’s designed like a wfo in that there’s no door or dome to open so the temp, whatever it is, is stable.  Lifting a dome to slide your pie on does result in a massive heat loss & the result is your pie is in the cooker longer (not to mention hot spots that may cause you to open the dome again & again to rotate the pie).  The problem is the stone your pie is sitting on doesn’t lose its heat when the dome is open so that increased time does have a negative impact on the final texture.

For years I baked pies on the egg at, say, 550.  Those pies took an average of 9-10 minutes.  I thought that was normal.

I now cook pies on the Blackstone & although the thermometer often reads in that same range the pies take an average of 3 minutes to get to the same level of doneness. 

Both pies appear the same however there’s a huge difference in quality & texture.  The pies off of the egg are dryer & stiffer while the pies off of the Blackstone are lighter, crispier & just better to bite through, there’s simply no comparison between the average pie off of the egg & the average pie off the Blackstone. All those years I loved the pies off of the egg & really never considered that they could be better, until now.  Today, you couldn't pay me to fire up the egg for a thin crust pizza.  I still use it however for lower temp cast iron pies as it still bakes them beautifully, 400 degrees for 25 minutes - perfect every time though I owe that to the cast iron, they come out just as good in the old kitchen oven.

If the Pizza-porta delivers on solving this design shortcoming of the egg it’s a win.

Jeremiah said:

@tarheelmatt I haven't had blackstone pizza yet, so can't comment. One thing I like about egged pizza is I can throw a piece of apple wood in there and still get a little smokey flavor. On the other hand I've been looking seriously at building my own real pizza oven. There's plenty of ideas and plans on the Internet. 

The porta is interesting. If you build.....would love to help you. I promise I will only do as I am told....

This looks pretty interesting, reminds me of a post from a few years ago where someone had built a similar rig out of clay and/or brick, but without the extended lip in front.  I'd like to better understand how it attaches to the egg (does it just slide in or require band adjustment?) and get a sense of the price point.  

NDG said:

I personaly do NOT want smoke flavor in my pizza . .

I’m with you, I’ll repeat a comment I made on another thread about just that.  My concern going into getting a Blackstone was with what I thought I’d be ‘losing’ without the benefit of wood fire.  Turned out unfounded as I noticed no difference in flavor which I attributed to two things, one I used a dedicated baking egg that never had any kind of fat drippings so I didn’t get an of that residual smoke on my pies & two, pizza burns are long preheats on the egg so by the time your pie goes on you’ve got hot clean burning lump which doesn’t really impart any flavor I’ve ever been able to detect.  I remember thinking I could always add a smoke box with some chips up under the Blackstone to get smoke rolling up through the oven & across the pie to impart that ‘missing’ element but once I tasted the first pie as is that idea was quashed.

To the extent people do want smoke flavor that would be another plus for the Pizza-porta.

my pizza peel is bigger than that opening... maybe the XL version will have bigger porta{l}

I think Blackstone pizza ovens are under 350, hopefully he can bring the price in well below 300 or he may have an uphill battle to sell more than a few.  Clever idea though.

They have the price posted now:

http://www.pizza-porta.com/product/pizza-porta/

I had a feeling it would be about this much.  As stated earlier it would be hard to justify when you can get a BS for about the same price. 

damn this place...Blackstone. Crap.

So has anyone got one these yet and tried it out.  That's a lot of money to cook pizza when I like what I can make now on my XL.

I almost pulled the trigger on one last summer but resisted. There's nothing to remove or install, it wedges between the dome and base like a Jotisserie. It works on the principle of keeping the dome shut with ceramic cap on at all time to minimise heat loss. On the front bottom there are two bolts that protrude behind the front rim of the egg base, to prevent the unit from slipping out.  Each side has a daisy wheel for air flow control.  Not sure if the design generates rolling flame over the pie.

I think we need a trip to see @SciAggie s setup. The gold standard.....then build you one.

question for the blackstone fans, what makes it better than a regular kitchen oven? 

JohnInCarolina said:

Hans61 said:

question for the blackstone fans, what makes it better than a regular kitchen oven? 

Temperature range.  Stone above and below, so that the pies cook uniformly and quickly.  

And it has a spinning platter so the pie cooks evenly and you don't have to manually give it an occasional turn.