Bought a BGE pizza stone - temp question

twlangan

Stopped in to the BGE dealer and picked up a pizza stone today. Never used a stone before - either on the Egg or in the oven. The paperwork that came with it says to follow the directions with the pizza or dough (store bought), or the recipe. Most are around 400 deg. However, I have seen many threads on here where you folks are baking pizzas at 600 - 700 deg. What is your reasoning for this? Just curious if there is some advantage to running those high temps.

Adamd

Being in the restaurant repair industry I would recommend you raise the temp of the stone the first few times slowly.

I replace the big stones in the pizza deck ovens and you have to really dry them out via just the pilot heat, then 200 for an hour, 300 for a hour and so on.

Not saying this is true with the bge pizza stone because it is very thin, but I tried to dry out any moisture in my stone and kind of season it so it can handle the high heat without cracking. So far it is still like new condition. If there is a lot of moisture like you were to wash the stone with water then throw it on a super hot egg could cause it to crack or explode. Like throwing a rock in a fire and you get the "pop".

Anyways you need to get a high heat you like. Some people like 500 and some seem to like it as 700+. I seem to have the most success around 500. Making pizza is an art that you most likely will not master your first time.

twlangan

Thanks for the advice Adamd. I worked in our company die cast foundry for several years and we had to bring new aluminum crucibles up to operating temp slowly too. Seems that if we rushed the process (and we did a few times to get back into production quicker), those crucibles would not last nearly as long - so your advice makes perfect sense.

I look forward to trying it out. I think I will stick with lower temps at first and maybe bring them up on future pizzas to see what the results are. I'd rather eat a soggy, soft crust than a black one.  

Adamd

Well I hope you have more then just a pizza stone... You need at least the plate setter and the stone. My set up is plate setter legs up, grate then the pizza stone on top. If you just use the pizza stone you will burn your pizza every time without a doubt.

I am not a expert and many people on this forum are, and they will explain their set up, but everyone can agree that just the pizza stone will not do unless you like black crust.

twlangan

Oh yes - I have the plate setter. I bought that with the Egg about a month ago. Your setup is exactly how I intended to set mine up too. The paperwork that came with the stone shows a picture of the plate setter, legs down, and the pizza stone sitting right on the plate setter (no grate). I don't like that setup - I think it would direct too much heat at the stock gasket that I have managed to keep from toasting so far.

Adamd

Well it seems to be a common topic on this forum that putting the plate setter legs down and then the pizza stone sitting on top of it so you are making like 1 full inch or larger not really sure off the top of my head of ceramic does not yield good results. You need an air gap or the stones just get too hot and burns the bottom of the pizza before the top is done.

As for not toasting the gasket you just need to keep the temps under "super hot" and you should be ok. 

RichardBronosky

It's so funny to me that BGE shows that in their literature. When I called about my gasket, they told me never use the plate setter legs up. Makes me feel bad about how harsh I've been replying on the topic.

cortguitarman

I own a BGE stone. I have been doing high temp pizzas from the start with no issue. I've found that store bought dough has too much sugar and burns every time at high temps. I make my own dough and have great results. I use the plate setter with legs down. I place plumbing tees on the plate setter to raise the stone.

To answer your question about why they are cooked at high temps, it gets done fast and creates a crispy crust. Very good. I cook my pies at 600. I turn them every 2 minutes with my pizza peel. Thy usually take about 8 minutes.