First Time Pizza/3rd time overall cook with BGE

stevez · September 2016

Only my 3rd cook on BGE and first time was a bust as I couldn't get it up to temp. Posted here on that and got a lot of feedback. 2nd was a few weeks ago with ribs and turned out good, but still struggled with temp although it was hot enough. This time for pizza and bought the stone/peel, etc. and gave it a run. Filled full with BGE lump and 3 starters and it was blazing before I put the place setter and pizza stone in. Waited a good 30 minutes and it was at 450 with vents top and bottom wide open. Eventually got close to 500 but never above.

Bought already prepared pizza dough from Pappa Murphy's which prepares and sells uncooked pizzas for take out. Made 3 varieties and they all came out excellent. Dough was thick and hard to roll out and get thin enough. Had place setter legs down, grate on top then placed a rib rack I have about 4 inches tall and pizza stone on top of that. Each pizza took about 15 minutes. They were all good, but dough was not perfectly done on the inside. The crust was perfect looking but just a tad under done on the inside. Everyone loved them so still a success. Look forward to more experiments. I still have work to do on controlling the temp. I just haven't seen the very high temps that have to be controlled down at all. Love the journey!

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5017260/uploads/editor/3u/tsbd8fao8qm4.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5017260/uploads/editor/ya/svpec46zbdz3.jpg

THEBuckeye · September 2016

Not sure why you didn't get a hotter temp.

You'll find pizza temps all over the board. I prefer the 450-550 range. Some go 600-700.

Pizza gets better with eggsperience but it is never perfected. Just a fun cook and great eats.

mac59 · September 2016

Pizza look great! I've always tried to get the dough as thin as possible and crank my heat up to 650-700....gets a nice crispy crust and cooks through well after about 8-10 minutes

EggNorth · September 2016

Pizza looks great, looks like you are coming along just fine. Make sure the dough is at room temperature before working, I leave mine out, covered, 2 or 3 hours and that seems to make it easier to work with.

NC_Egghead · September 2016

Pizza looks great! I don't know if I'd want to go higher in temp with the thick crust. If you do, next time pull the cap off but keep an eye on it so it doesn't get out of hand.

Zippylip · September 2016

I'm guessing from the photos the pizza tasted a lot like smoke & perhaps not in a good way? You definitely need to get that thing screaming hot & burning clear before putting pizza or bread on it

stevez · September 2016

Zippylip said:

I'm guessing from the photos the pizza tasted a lot like smoke & perhaps not in a good way? You definitely need to get that thing screaming hot & burning clear before putting pizza or bread on it

Actually, it didn't taste like smoke, but admittedly my tastes aren't that refined. My wife is sensitive to over-smoked food, but she never said anything like that. I can see where that could be a problem though; just didn't experience that.

onedbguru · September 2016

if you want it screaming hot it a very short time you can always use an old hair dryer or my favorite - the leaf blower and with a FULL firebox can get it > 600 in no time. Temp is a function of fuel, fire and airflow. That's it. With the first two, w/o air, you get nothing with no fuel but fire and airflow you soon will have nothing. with fuel and airflow - you get no heat w/o fire.

My preferred method for starting - which has worked every time (my egg is 7 years old this month) - is to fill up a Weber Chimney and start using 2-3 pieces of newspaper and walk away for 7-10 minutes. Then dump the contents onto the firegrate spreading it out and fill the firebox up to just above the firebox/fire ring line. Then put in the PLS (LD), Grate, 3 firebricks I had laying around and the PS on top of that. Open up the bottom vent and remove the DFMT, then go start preparing the pizzas. By the time I get back out to the Egg (30-45 minutes), it is sitting at ~600-650*, clean smoke. If I am making my own dough which takes 1.5hrs to rise and ready to use, I will start the Egg shortly after it starts the rising process, that way I am assured to stone will be hot enough. And at these temps, the pie is only on for 3-5 minutes (or less).

The eggsperience is a LOT of eggsperiment until you find something that works for you. Don't sweat the failures as you learn what not to do the next time.

JacksDad · September 2016

stevez said:

They were all good, but dough was not perfectly done on the inside. The crust was perfect looking but just a tad under done on the inside. Everyone loved them so still a success.

I had that exact problem the first two times I did pizza, using dough we bought from the local baker... Wasn't able to get the crust down thin enough and it turned out doughy in the middle.

Try cooking the plain dough for a few minutes on the pizza stone. I went until it started to form the big air bubbles. Then take it off, flip it over, take it inside, and put your toppings on the cooked side. Then put it back on, uncooked side down on the pizza stone. This is how my dad cooks his pizzas on his gas grill and it worked perfectly for us and the type of fresh dough we are able to get.

JacksDad

jtcBoynton · September 2016

stevez said:

... Waited a good 30 minutes and it was at 450 with vents top and bottom wide open. Eventually got close to 500 but never above.
...

Try removing the top vents. It is hard to get above 500º with the daisy wheel still on the egg. Go topless and you will get smelting temps without a problem.

First Time Pizza/3rd time overall cook with BGE

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