Pizza Failures .. Pics Added

520dvx · July 2009

We purchased 3 kinds of pizza dough mix .... Martha White, Jiffy, and Great Value and prepared each one per the instructions including pre-baking them for a few minutes prior to sauce and toppings.
First Set up .... plate setter legs down with stone on top of it with spacers in between. This was NOT a BGE stone and I believe is a little larger than a BGE stone .... about 15 inches. Had a blazing fire, but could not get the dome over 400. Cooked the first pizza this way.
Second setup ..... plate setter legs down with a smaller rectangle stone directly on the plate setter .... this stone is about 15 X 10 .... Was able to get the dome temp to 475 to 500, but was wide open to do it. Cooked the other 2 pizzas that way.
All of the pizzas were very overdone on the bottom and the crust hard in order to get the crust brown and toppings melted and toasty. Also ..... running wide open, I ran through lump like crap through a goose .... filled the fire box twice to cook 3 pizzas. I was using Royal Oak .... a lot of small pieces.
Any thoughts on what to do ??

First Setup

This was the best of the bunch

Thanks

Rascal · July 2009

Give the goose a couple of twists! 8 - )

Grand Oeuf Vert · July 2009

Your issues seem a little strange. I use your first set up and have never had any issues. My suggestions to prevent a toasted crust are not to do the pre-bake and use parchment paper under to pie. As for lump usage, that puzzles me also. A full load of lump should easily handle 3 pizzas. After all, it should only take about an hour to bake all 3. Hope this helps.

520dvx · July 2009

We used parchment paper on all 3 ...... I'll post pics later

Zippylip · July 2009

520, try not pre-baking them. Also, try & pick up a BGE stone, put it on legs down with the feet as a spacer, stabilize the egg for 30 minutes minimum at 500-550, then give it another go, I think it will work out much better. Also consider leaving the jiffy on the shelf & picking up some flour & yeast, cheaper & much better, good luck

520dvx · July 2009

My first setup was EXACTLY like the pic above from Grand.
We will start making our own crusts, but this was done on a whim and we just grabbed the mixes.

Mainegg · July 2009

hmmm. We cook our pizzas at about 400 to 450. trying to keep it at 400. I do legs up and the grate then the stone. no parchment any more as I have mastered sliping of the peal and onto the stone. cover the peal with corn meal and give it a good tap against your hand to see if it slides a little toss a little corn meal under any sticky spots and then add toppings. we go for about 10-15 a pie once everything is hot and rolling right along. We did about 15 pizzas the other night on the med and the mini and both eggs were tooting right along for quite awhile and we had lump left. we do not do a real thin crust so they take a bit to bake but the only burns were the edges in a few from the mini if the pizza was not round

on the med

on the mini

also on the mini I did not have a stone. just heavy duty foil under a pizza perforated disk

JohnB · July 2009

a few thoughts:

calibrate your thermometer. stick it in boiling water and adjust the nut on the back so the dial reads 212.

build your lump like you would for low and slow: completely clean out the egg; put large pieces on the bottom, next med. then small. fill to the top of the fire box.

I put my PS legs up, then cooking grid, then spacers, then stone. I like to get the stone above gasket level to prevent them from charring.

bottom vent completely open with the daisy wheel off

Also, make sure the firebox opening lines up with the bottom vent.

Finally, let it preheat at the desired temp for about 20 minutes to get the egg, stone, etc... to a stabilized temp.

Pizza Failures .. Pics Added

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