Newbie pizza question

CheeseheadIllinois

I'm having some newbie challenges getting a crisp pizza crust. Do you preheat your Egg to 500 and then put the placesetter on? Or do you preheat with the place setter in? Is the place setter legs down or legs up? Do you even use one? Same question with the pizza stone. Preheat with the stone or add the stone when you cook your pizza? Thanks.

Doc_Eggerton

You want ceramics, like a platesetter or pizza stone to heat and the lump lights up, or you risk cracking it.  You can take a hot plate setter out if you need to, but make sure you have a safe dry place put it, but putting a cold one on the flame risks cracking.

There are lots of set ups people use.  I do platesetter feet up, grid, and stone resting one the grid.

Doc_Eggerton

...You want ceramics, like a platesetter or pizza stone to heat AS the lump lights up.......

XLBalco

welcome!  where in IL are you?

i fired the egg up yesterday and get the egg going good and threw the platesetter and stone on there together.  i let that come up to temp for a while and then threw the pizza on.  so yes i preheated both.

i did go with the legs down though and put the stone on the PS but also used the little egg feet to elevate the stone.  you could use the grid as the lift as well.

FingerLicker

I use the same configuration as Doc and preheat it all together, and I have tried a range of temperatures from 500 to 700. I like 650 the best, seems to do the best job of crisping the crust. At 600 and under I get not-so-crisp crust and it comes out similar to pizza done in a conventional oven. And at 700 the cheese topping sometimes gets too dark too quickly while the crust isn't quite there yet. So I do 650 for about 5 minutes, and with the top hole open i.e. leave off the cast iron thingy so I can peek in the top (a flashlight helps) to check the cheese without opening the egg.

If you're making your own crust, it also helps to keep it thin. My wife's crusts turn out the best (crispy) when they're on the thin side.

tgkleman

I had the same problem you have, and I finally realized that I wasn't letting the stone come to temperature.  My method now is:

Plate setter, legs up, with the stone on top of the grill grate.  I get the egg to around 500 - 550, (with all of the ceramics in place) and let the stone come to temperature for at least 30 - 45 minutes - (30 - 45 minutes after the egg is at 500 +)

I have been using Publix pizza dough, which is great.  With this setup, I have been getting very good results:
Thin, crispy crust, perfect level of "doneness" on cheese and toppings.

It took several times before I figured it out.  Don't worry, you will get there.

Alligator

After I light the coal I put the platesetter an pizza stone in to preheat.  I let it heat up for about 45-60 minutes.  

I did pizza a week ago and pizza this weekend.  Once with platesetter legs up and platesetter legs down.  I prefer the legs down method.  Also I put some spacers between the platesetter and the pizza stone. (some clay bricks about 1" thick)

Legs up = top not done enough

Legs down = cooked just right

Temperature was about 700 degrees for the first pie and 600-650 for the second pie.

Used king arthur bread flower to make the dough. (couldn't find caputo 00)

CheeseheadIllinois

This forum is outstanding.  Thanks everyone!