My 2nd pizza

King-O-Coals · January 2000

I just finished eating three slices from the second pizza I have made in my whole life. And I used (Spins) dough that I made last week. I had three balls of whole wheat dough left in ziploc bags and decided to try one. When I took the bag out of the fridg, it was a flat blob of brown stuff. I let it warm up for just over an hour and dumped it out on a floured counter top. It started swelling up like a freshly hit thumb at a barn raising. I started with a rolling pin and found that it would spread out, but then snap back into the small pancake shape it was originally. I put my cornmeal on my peal and placed the small semi-round shaped piece of dough on it. I was going to do my stuffed crust again, so once I got my cheese and sausage piled around the edge and the edge folded over, it created a thick edge about an inch wide and an inch high. It looked like a pan pizza cruse without the pan. So then I used the thick edge as a handle and started stretching the crust out into a perfect round shape. It was so beautiful, I'm tearing up just think about it. Then I added the other ingredients. Sauce, minced onions, mushrooms, and bellpepper, frozen pre-cooked and dried Jimmy Dean Pampered Pork sausage, pizza mix cheese and a little sharp chedder. Fresh ground black pepper and some salt, and into the 400 degree egg directly on the plate setter. I had the bottom vent wide open and closed the top to just a crack so the heat would accumulate at the surface of the pizza. At 10 minutes, I lifted the edge of the pie slightly with the peel to check on the bottom. It still wasn't brown yet so I opened the daily a little to keep the coals breathing. At 15 minutes, the temp was back up to 450 and the bottom was just barely starting to brown. The cheese was just starting to melt good. At 20 minutes and still between 400 and 450, the crust was starting to get a nice brown color and the cheese was bubbling. I gave it another 5 minutes. 25 minutes and I took it off. It was like a picture. The topping had cooked and the colors of the peppers were brilliant, a few of the taller clumps of sausage had browned, the stuffed crust was tall, firm, and brown, and the crust never quite got to the crunchy stage. In fact, the pizza slices were too limp to hold up with one hand. The crust and edge was between crisp and chewy. Perfect. I could have gone 30 minutes I think. Three pieces and I full. I left my camera at work again. Next time I will have photos. I wonder if the other 2 bags of dough will keep?

Char-Woody · January 2000

King-O-Coals, you just about did it perfect. The only thing I would suggest is you go minimum 500 degrees on a preheated stone or sitter. 500-550 is ideal and you done in 12 top 15 minutes..Good luck and will look forward to your next with pics.
C~W[p]

King-O-Coals · January 2000

Char-Woody, thanks. I had it up to 500 at the git-go, but I think when I closed the daisy down to bring more heat to bare on the topping, it cooled to 400-450. Now, after my wife is full and lazy, she wants me to try to make the crust a little thinner where the stuffed edge is. When she first started eating, I'll bet I could have placed a piece on her head and her tongue would have beat her brains out. My big problem is trying to make the dough act right. I can't roll it with a rolling pin, it just springs back. I do a modified pizza toss with closed fists and that seems to work better, but sometimes the center gets thin and the outer edge stays thick. I think if I can keep the temp up to 500, it will help in the crust area, but I'm not sure the topping will cook like I want. May have to slack-off on the amount of topping. I really pile it on. Stay tuned!

Dr. Chicken · January 2000

King-O-Coals,
Do you leave your camera at work everynight? Or do you do it just to tantilized us poor, cold, stuck-in-the-snow midwestern Eggers! I think I'm beginning to believe the Guru of Grease! Quote, "All talk, no show"![p]Dr. C

King-O-Coals · January 2000

Dr. Chicken, actually,, the digicamera belongs to the Arson Investigation Unit. It's not used in photographing evidence for court due to the ability to alter the digital data and possibly set someone up in a crime like they did to O.J.,, and sometimes I bring it home to, ah,, to,,,, OH!, to clean the lense and adjust the strap,, yeah, that's what happens.. I usually accidentally have it when I'm doing massave cooking, but sometimes my cooking adventures are planned only 10 to 15 minutes before I get hungry..

Char-Woody · January 2000

King-O-Coals, If that group of firefighters gets a whiff of those pics..you will have to pay retribution..4 boston butts, three cornish hens, and partridge for just you and crew!! Did you say Mavica?? And O.J ?? Bad subject!! :-)

Char-Woody · January 2000

King-O-Coals, getting the dough to just the right consistancy without it being sticky to the touch is part of it. Once you have it well kneaded and let it rise, punch it down, let it rise..Then take a ball of it, flatten it on the floured counter and work it from the center outward. I do my 150 lb. method..pound if 150 times from center out, or use your fingers and prod it along. It acts like a rubber band and wants to snap back. But gradually it will lose that memory stuff and stay pretty well in place. The Betty Crocker stuff I used the other day worked really well in its shaping. Try it sometime for a evaluation. I have real good luck with Spins dough also..Did it a few days ago.
It gets better as you go along..Cheers..C~W[p]

Unknown · January 2000

<p />Char-Woody,
This is my first post to this forum. I am working on a webpage with pictures and might as well try to get a picture up with the post. If it works, the picture is of a large pizza about 3 minutes before it came off.

Unknown · January 2000

<p />Old Dave,
I think I will try one more time and if this one doesn't work, it's back to the drawing board.

Unknown · January 2000

<p />Old Dave,
Maybe the third time is a charm.

Dr. Chicken · January 2000

King-O-Coals,
No problem! I have to give you a bad time to keep you on your toes! It kinds keeps you a little sharper too. [p]Dr. C

Dr. Chicken · January 2000

Old Dave,
Very nice! I like the fact you can see the place sitter and the pizza stone. I haven't tried pizza yet, but King-O-Coals has sure got me hankerin' to try it. That pizza sure looks good enough to eat! Was it as good as it looks? Or better?[p]Dr. Chicken

Tim M · January 2000

Old Dave,[p]You broke the code - but you are using a doozy of a file name = http://www.ccrtcweb.com/family/stam/2bpizzbge1Mvc-019e.jpg[p]Also be careful using cap letters as some Unix servers don't see caps and small case letters as being equal. [p]Good looking pizza set up, its the same as I use - plate setter and thick pizza stone. Good looking pie too - loads of toppings. I found your 3 level rib rack gizmo - you might want to post that thing for all to see and explain the operation of it. [p]Tim

Grumpa · January 2000

Old Dave,[p]That is a work of art....do you deliver?

King-O-Coals · January 2000

Stop the music,, stop the music! Your topping ain't bubbling and your crust ain't brown. But that picture made me smarter. The main preplanning that I have to watch closely when I build a peatzah is to keep it small enough that it won't extend past the edge of my plate setter. Other than that, the plate setter works perfect as a pizza cooking stone. I had a Pampered Chef Pizza Stone that Guru and his wife gave us for Christmas one year. Then they stole it away from me to use at their southern branch office here on the beach. By your photo, I realize that I need it, so I'm going down there, break a window, and steal it back. I have to take the Mavica home to clean the lense tonight, so I may just post a picture of my left over pizza from last night. Great pic Old Dave.

King-O-Coals · January 2000

Char-Woody, there are very few of us old-timers left around the department. These new guys lift weights, cook in tiny non-stick frying pans, and nearly everything they bring in to cook is pre-cooked in a factory and packed in plastic containers. The little whiper-snappers have to remember to ask their wives for the recipe if they plan to boil weenies for hotdogs. They also couldn't put out a small grease fire in a Weber. A 5 year old can pick up a 50 foot section of fire hose today and throw it up on his shoulder. Hose butts are made of an alloy and hose fabric is a poly blend. Back in the good-old-days, the hose butts were made of brass, and so was a lot of other things. (I love to keep telling them that) I have shown some of them the pictures of some of my Egg-fodder. After looking at before and after pics of a 9 lb. Boston butt, they now hold me in god-like reverence. The're good kids,, and we continually pester each other, hince, my constant humor...

Char-Woody · January 2000

King-O-Coals,
You said it well. Amazing tho, how quick those guys grow into instant hero's.
God Bless em all, cooks or no cooks. You too my friend for understanding em!
Cheers... C~W

Char-Woody · January 2000

Old Dave, great job with the pics and plate sitter. Welcome to the forum and a great bunch of guys and gals here. I will have to dig out my 2 legged plate sitter and mend it. That is one monster pizza on a super large stone. Everyone is getting better and better. Cheers and thanks..C~W

Unknown · January 2000

King-O-Coals, a fellow just can't anything past you. The pizza in the picture was not quite done but I thought it would make for a better picture at this point.[p]Dave

Unknown · January 2000

Dr. Chicken, the pizza in the picture is our diet pizza. It only has 4 oz. of cheese and the sausage is no fat. Old Dave and wife are on a diet and we just won't give up pizza. It is pretty good made this way but is super with a bunch of hunky peppers cut up on top. [p]Dave

Dr. Chicken · January 2000

Old Dave,
I hear where you're coming from on both accounts! The only diet I've ever had any luck with was the the "sea-food" diet. See food, eat it! Yum, yum, eat'em up![p]Dr. C[p]p.s.: still a good picture!

Guru of Grease · January 2000

King-O-Coals, Let's tell everyone as Paul Harvey says the rest of the story, I like to do this in order to keep KOK a little modest! I took the stone away after I realized he had attempted to season the stone like an old cast iron skillet! I also gave him the place setter with specific directions not to season and if you check the board he did have to ask how to use it.[p]

King-O-Coals · January 2000

Guru of Grease, I figured stone and ceramic are like cotton. You don't feel it is part of you until they are stained..

King-O-Coals · January 2000

Old Dave, I figured as much. Although I would have eaten that one raw, I knew in my heart that you probably took that picture after just enough heat had gotten to it to make it sweat beautifully. I've got some left over pizza,, I think I may go dispence with it..

Dr. Chicken · January 2000

Guru of Grease,
now we see what's really going on! Here we thought you wuz a little teched in da head, and we find out he's a little teched by da sauce! My! My! What else do we's need to know?[p]Dr. C

My 2nd pizza

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