Pizza on a large AR....

dougcrann · June 2016

If I am understanding this right I need to purchase the "rig extender" to cook a pizza in order to get the pizza as high up in the dome as possible, correct? When doing so will I need to use another stone as a heat diverter?
Reason I ask...I cooked a pizza last night. Had a stone in the upper notches of the AR. I also had the Eggs grate laying on top of the AR with a pizza stone placed on top of it. Had a raging fire, all Mesquite, dome temperature wouldn't get over 650*. I had just vacuumed the Egg out, so I know it wasn't from being dirty. The pizza we made was a simple pepperoni topped one. Crust was what I would call average thickness. Was far from thin, far from thick.

Noticed a "slide guide" on Toms site. How does that play into the use of the AR?

Zippylip · June 2016

don't over think it, it's pizza; as long as you have a heat deflector under your stone you're good

charliebatutis · June 2016

i agree. don't over think it. the thing i found most important is to make sure the pizza stone is hot before you start cooking. I leave mine in the egg for 30 minutes at temps of at least 500. Then i bring the temp up to 650 - 700 and put a pizza on they cook in about 6-8 minutes.

edit: i don't use an adjustable rig. take my thoughts/comments for what their worth...

buzd504 · June 2016

I'd probably (and I do) put the deflector stone down lower to your fire (I put mine in a spider). I do have the rig extender, but I wouldn't say it's necessary for good pizza.

I second the suggestion about preheating the stone.

dougcrann · June 2016

buzd504 said:

I'd probably (and I do) put the deflector stone down lower to your fire (I put mine in a spider). I do have the rig extender, but I wouldn't say it's necessary for good pizza.

I second the suggestion about preheating the stone.

I have the stones in the Egg as it is,warming up. My first attempt I had a stone on the Spider. Egg wouldn't get over 520*. The fire was hot enough that it "clean burned" everything under the lower stone. I contacted Tom about it...his suggestion was to move the stone up. While it helped it now wouldn't get over 600sh. When I was just using the plate setter, legs down, had no troubles hitting 750+*. Pizza was good yesterday....just thinking that it may have been a bit more evenly cooked at a higher temp. I hit my pizza stone with an infrared thermometer after pulling the,pizza...it was at 550*.

Carolina Q · June 2016

When I did pizza on the egg, I used a platesetter, three terra cotta feet and an old style Mini Woo. Then the pizza stone about 4" above the PS. At temps from 475 to 900°. Worked fine... but my oven works just as well so that's what I use now.

Point is, you can use anything as a spacer to raise the stone. Just make sure you have an indirect piece (with air gap) between it and the fire.

In the old days...

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5017260/uploads/editor/ux/k1m7olvj6sin.jpg

Raymont · June 2016

Whenever I've tried to cook pizza over 600, I end up burning the edges of the pizza (to close to edge of pizza stone). I guess I could shrink the size of my pizza so edges are covered more by stone, but I find that cooking pizza at 500 works for me. I use spider with stone, and then a stone on extender.

caliking · June 2016

I rarely make pizzas, but my last attempt turned out pretty good.

Setup was large AR, with AR stone set on the lowest level, pizza stone on rig extender to raise the pie up. Put the pizza stone in the egg when you light up and let it rip.

Pies were neapolitan style, done on parchment paper (pulled after 5 mins) in 6ish minutes each, at ~600°F dome temp.

ColtsFan · June 2016

I use an oval A/R with the oval stone on the lowest setting and then the OEM grate on top with a 15" stone. I've had good results with this setup with fairly thin-med crust. 550-600* and I let the pizza stone warm up with the egg and hold it there for a good 30-45 minutes before I start baking

bigalsworth · June 2016

is the pizza not coming out right or you just want to know why you aren't getting as hot as you did with the plate setter? What size of stones are we talking about here? Also I don't do the indirect stone anymore, I just put the pizza as high in the dome as I can on its own pizza stone and that is it, nothing underneath. I keep the temp under 450-650 deg. Wherever it lands as it is coming to temp, and I can roll out a pizza every two minutes cooked perfectly (to my liking anyway)

dougcrann · June 2016

@bigalsworth....more of a temp thing. The pizzas are good....but the bottom is not getting as done as the top.

Tom made mention of just going direct, or at least that is how I read his email to me. Course I deleted it a few days ago so....

Zippylip · June 2016

if the bottom is not getting as done as the top, one you're not properly pre-heated, two, you're too high up in the dome, which sounds odd as that's usually not a negative thing. But, as for going direct, it makes no sense. Can you do it? Yes. Can you have success? Yes. Can you have something approaching flawless success regardless of # of pies you're doing in any given batch? No. The setter (or second stone or other deflector) that's under your baking stone serves an invaluable purpose in regulating and evenly distributing the heat on your baking stone, it smooths out the heat and guarantees you won't burn the bottom before the top is done (opposite of your problem). To have success direct you need to rely more on the luck of catching the stone at a point in time when it's hot enough to properly bake the crust but not so hot it burns it before the top is done. With a deflector you eliminate having to rely on that sort of luck (or playing around with IR's & whatnot). Put your deflector of choice in, an air space, then your baking stone, then properly pre-heat that whole thing & then throw 1 or 16 pies on & each & every one of them will be fantastic regardless of where they may land height-wise in the dome

bigalsworth · June 2016

dougcrann said:

@bigalsworth....more of a temp thing. The pizzas are good....but the bottom is not getting as done as the top.

Tom made mention of just going direct, or at least that is how I read his email to me. Course I deleted it a few days ago so....

direct works great for me and the pizza comes out done evenly and like I said i can churn out he pizza quite fast, I usually cook at minimum of 4 of them cuz i like having pizza lunches for a few days. With direct you have to watch the sugar content of your dough and I don't go super hot, 650deg pushes this and requires a bit more attention but under that works great.

westernbbq · June 2016

Slide guides with crossbars are helpful with oval grids for rotating racks durimg cooks.

As to rig extender, get it. You can not only elevate your pizza higher in dome (and spider and stone setup is what i use dewn below) but you get another cooking level for ribs, chix, veggies, reverse sear steaks, etc. I adds a lot more versatility to egging than i ever imagined.

Pizza on a large AR....

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