Plate Setter Legs Up or Down for Pizza?

BGEGP

Should the legs of the plate setter be up or down when doing a pizza?  I've seen it done both ways.

tyenic1

I always do legs down, but most everyone else will tell you legs up to keep your gasket from frying. My gasket fry's regardless and I have better luck with my pizza legs down. Just my .02 cents.

bodski

I do both ways. Here's a legs down setup I did over the weekend that worked well. I set a Grill Dome extender on the plate setter to get the pizza stone up into the dome. The extender's 3 legs line up perfectly with the 3 ps legs.

NibbleMeThis

I prefer legs down and a set of spacers with my pizza stone on top of that so it's not directly sitting on the plate setter.

Alton

I did the legs up with no problems.

reh111

I do legs up with the grill and maybe some spacers under the stone -works well

Duganboy

Some of us swear by legs up and some of us swear by legs down. Mothership says legs up to give your gasket a better chance.

damnedhooligan

Duganboy said:

Some of us swear by legs up and some of us swear by legs down. Mothership says legs up to give your gasket a better chance.

Where did the Mothership state this? On their site or some memo? I haven't come across any news like this from them before.

Z_Eggineer

Instead of just swearing, let's analyze what both get you.  I will start with the basics and people can add/edit:

Legs up: more even cooking, less gasket damage, less crispy crust (could be good for deep dish)

Legs down: higher heat applied to stone and gasket, can get crispier crust (could be good for thin crust), more gasket damage

henapple

Alton said:

I did the legs up with no problems.

Oh I could....but I won't

smokesniffer

NibbleMeThis said:

I prefer legs down and a set of spacers with my pizza stone on top of that so it's not directly sitting on the plate setter.

+1 works real good for me this way.

jgdusc

Any reason to not have the stone sitting on the plate setter? I assuming better air movement is the reason?   Besides the little green feet I have seen any suggestions on substiture spacers?

robnybbq

jgdusc said:

Any reason to not have the stone sitting on the plate setter? I assuming better air movement is the reason?   Besides the little green feet I have seen any suggestions on substiture spacers?

I would think the stone may get too hot.  Basically just cooking the pizza on the plate setter.

Springram

Regarding the safety of the gasket, I think it is very important to use a baking stone no larger than 14".  Anything larger is going to radiate too much heat on the gasket. I use the BGE stone with the legs down on the plate setter and the ceramic feet as spacers.

Eggcelsior

bodski said:

I do both ways. Here's a legs down setup I did over the weekend that worked well. I set a Grill Dome extender on the plate setter to get the pizza stone up into the dome. The extender's 3 legs line up perfectly with the 3 ps legs.

bodski, Is that a medium? I will need to try my grid like that. I bought the same thing to use as a 2nd level but it rubs the dome when on the grid at felt line.

bodski

Eggcelsior said:

bodski said:

I do both ways. Here's a legs down setup I did over the weekend that worked well. I set a Grill Dome extender on the plate setter to get the pizza stone up into the dome. The extender's 3 legs line up perfectly with the 3 ps legs.

bodski, Is that a medium? I will need to try my grid like that. I bought the same thing to use as a 2nd level but it rubs the dome when on the grid at felt line.

@Eggcelsior, it's a large egg and extender. Mine is close to rubbing, but just clears it. 

Eggcelsior

OK. I will need to give mine a try tonight. It just barely catches, so perhaps the absence of the grid will lower it enough to squeak by.

Skiddymarker

Eggcelsior said:

bodski said:

I do both ways. Here's a legs down setup I did over the weekend that worked well. I set a Grill Dome extender on the plate setter to get the pizza stone up into the dome. The extender's 3 legs line up perfectly with the 3 ps legs.

bodski, Is that a medium? I will need to try my grid like that. I bought the same thing to use as a 2nd level but it rubs the dome when on the grid at felt line.

I think it is a large, looks like the setter is sitting in notches on the fire ring - as usual, I am probably wrong. 

I have the medium Grill Dome and it will not sit on the setter - it rubs the dome, dome thermo. 

I have some pieces of fire brick I sit on the fire ring, between the setter legs (legs up). This puts the Grill Dome grid level at about 2" above the felt line. Perfect for my 12.5" stone. 

Eggcelsior

Sounds like a winner. I'll be heading to the fire-brick store soon. 

Eggcelsior

Test: I'll get the fire bricks at Lowes.

EDIT: Hmmm...... It PAA'ed my first 2 trys when I tried to respond about swinging by Lowes. 

jfm0830

I do it legs down, 1/2" plumbing T's for shims and the pizza stone on top of that. I do pizzas at 600 degrees. This does no harm to the high temperature gasket, but quickly burned out the wool gasket that used to come stock on the Eggs.

A BGE dealer around here who is very knowledgeable says he does it with legs up, s/s grill grate on the legs, pizza stone on the s/s grill. I keep telling myself I am going to try that but the pizza is coming out so good the way I do it now, I hate to change anything.

bodski

Eggcelsior said:

OK. I will need to give mine a try tonight. It just barely catches, so perhaps the absence of the grid will lower it enough to squeak by.

I tried to put the extender on the grid above the setter, and it hit the thermometer. So, I had to put it directly on the setter. I also positioned it back as far as I could, which isn't far. I'm guessing it just cleared it.

Solson005

Here is my two methods of both, I like the legs down with the stone on the green feet. I have found this is the best for crust. 

But I like the top when you get the pizza high in the dome so I used my Swing Rack to start the pizzas out on the lower rack and finished it high in the dome. This is platesetter legs up. 

I do pizza parties all the time and my original gasket lasted about a year, my hi-temp nomex one is still going strong so don't worry about your gasket it doesn't go bad with a couple of pizza cooks and bge will send you a new one if it does.  Hope this helps even though its both sides of your question. 

SWVABeanCounter

jfm0830 said:

A BGE dealer around here who is very knowledgeable says he does it with legs up, s/s grill grate on the legs, pizza stone on the s/s grill. I keep telling myself I am going to try that but the pizza is coming out so good the way I do it now, I hate to change anything.

This is how we do it and have had good success.  We like a doughy crust and this seems to work for us.  We always make homemade crust and don't flatten it too thin.

Eggcelsior

Skiddymarker said:

Eggcelsior said:

bodski said:

I do both ways. Here's a legs down setup I did over the weekend that worked well. I set a Grill Dome extender on the plate setter to get the pizza stone up into the dome. The extender's 3 legs line up perfectly with the 3 ps legs.

bodski, Is that a medium? I will need to try my grid like that. I bought the same thing to use as a 2nd level but it rubs the dome when on the grid at felt line.

I think it is a large, looks like the setter is sitting in notches on the fire ring - as usual, I am probably wrong. 

I have the medium Grill Dome and it will not sit on the setter - it rubs the dome, dome thermo. 

I have some pieces of fire brick I sit on the fire ring, between the setter legs (legs up). This puts the Grill Dome grid level at about 2" above the felt line. Perfect for my 12.5" stone. 

Sounds like a winner. I will be off to Lowes soon.

Eggcelsior

Skiddymarker said:

Eggcelsior said:

bodski said:

I do both ways. Here's a legs down setup I did over the weekend that worked well. I set a Grill Dome extender on the plate setter to get the pizza stone up into the dome. The extender's 3 legs line up perfectly with the 3 ps legs.

bodski, Is that a medium? I will need to try my grid like that. I bought the same thing to use as a 2nd level but it rubs the dome when on the grid at felt line.

I think it is a large, looks like the setter is sitting in notches on the fire ring - as usual, I am probably wrong. 

I have the medium Grill Dome and it will not sit on the setter - it rubs the dome, dome thermo. 

I have some pieces of fire brick I sit on the fire ring, between the setter legs (legs up). This puts the Grill Dome grid level at about 2" above the felt line. Perfect for my 12.5" stone. 

PAA re-post: Sounds like a winner. I'll be off to Lowes soon.

YEMTrey

What type of pizza stone are you guys using?  We have a pampered chef stone that we have used in the oven, however I thought I read on here that the Egg will make short work of it.

Are you using the BGE pizza stone, or what else?

Thanks!

SmokinDAWG82

I do legs up grate on that and my BGE pizza stone on that, gonna try to get higher in the dome next time

Chubbs

Sam invented pizza

cortguitarman

robnybbq said:

jgdusc said:

Any reason to not have the stone sitting on the plate setter? I assuming better air movement is the reason?   Besides the little green feet I have seen any suggestions on substiture spacers?

I would think the stone may get too hot.  Basically just cooking the pizza on the plate setter.

I use 1/2" copper plumbing tees on top of my plate setter to move give the stone air space between the plate setter and the stone. Works great. BTW, I cook with legs down. I've done both ways, but my pies always turn out better when the legs are down.

flemster

I have done both legs up and legs down and the pizza stone.  I kept frying my gasket with each legs down attempt.  Having said that I tend to let it get >600F when making pizza, so perhaps that is my issue.  I now do legs up only when I use my new PSWoo2 for the LGE with a home made extension on top of that holding the pizza stone.  I have tried it both with and without the plate setter in, have not decided which I like better. picture shows set up without Platesetter