Pizza @ 700 Degrees + Plate Setter Only = Carbon 14

jdholman

First time in a few years since I did pizza on the Egg.  I got the temp on my XLBGE stable at 700 degrees, indirect using with the plate setter inverted.  We made a fresh pizza from pizza dough from Publix and various toppings.

Unlike previous efforts, I opted to not use a pizza stone as the pizza I made was bigger than the pizza stones I had, plus, isn't the plate setter kind of a big pizza stone?

Anyway, I put the pie on and peeked in the chimney (carefully...) consistently avert 30 seconds or so.  I opened the Egg a few times to check the crust, and I noticed some sizzling and charring at the edges.  Lifting the edge of the crust, I saw serious black throughout, and this was after 3 minutes.  Not much I could do at this point.  Closing the Egg, the pie was done after another 45 seconds.  Would you believe 4 minutes total from start to finish?  

The top of the pizza was as good as I have seen anywhere.  Toppings melted and nice color on the exposed crust.  The bottom of the crust was another story.  Completely black.  Ugh.  I ate it anyway and was fortunate that the black crust didn't taste burnt, but it was visually unappealing and the texture was off.  Am I right in assuming that the plate setter is to thin to be an effective heat shield and that more thickness is needed there, wither from a proper pizza stone or a fire brick "platform"?

I will definitely try another pizza soon and I need to get the crust right.

Sea2Ski

My setup from bottom to top is fire, Inverted platesetter, grate, pizza stone on grate, Pizza.  If I do it that way, I have not had a crust burn. When I did it your way, I got a burnt crust every time.

Griffin

Yeah, you need a stone along with the plate setter. It's also best to follow the instructions for cooking the crust that you are using. We don't have a Publix here, but fromwhat I understand that dough is supposed to be cooked at a much lower temp. Somebody else will probably chime in, but if it says 350, cook it at 350. Certain doughs work better at certain temps. If you want a dough for 700, look for a neopolitan type crust. It all depends on the ingredients (and ratio of ingredients) in the dough.

SWVABeanCounter

+1 ON @Sea2Ski's setup

Lit

The problem is the plate setter was direct. Your egg was at 700 and your plate setter was probably 900. You need a stone over the plate setter and find a way to raise it in the dome. Publix pizza dough I preheat the stone at 500 for 30 minutes then put the pizza on and open the vents fully. Pizza takes about 10 minutes.

Carolina Q

Below is a pic of my setup. Platesetter, legs down, terracotta planter feet, mini woo, pizza stone. A couple of bricks would work as spacers too. I did come close to burning the bottom once, but I was at 900°. Caught it in time (bottom done, top not so much) and inserted an 8" stone between the pie and the too hot regular stone.

Agree with Griffin about different temps for different doughs. Grocery store dough, or most from pizza joints are not for high temps. If you buy from a place that has a wood fired oven, go for it. Or make your own dough. 

Here is a bad pic of a great pie. The 900° one. For those of you who think I have never baked a pie on my egg. 

jdholman

Great feedback from all.  I'll need more thermal mass on my setter and/or an air gap between setter and a pizza stone.

I'll give this another try next week.  Thanks for your quick and detailed responses.

Jim

JwgreDeux

Carolina Q said:

Below is a pic of my setup. Platesetter, legs down, terracotta planter feet, mini woo, pizza stone. A couple of bricks would work as spacers too. I did come close to burning the bottom once, but I was at 900°. Caught it in time (bottom done, top not so much) and inserted an 8" stone between the pie and the too hot regular stone.

Agree with Griffin about different temps for different doughs. Grocery store dough, or most from pizza joints are not for high temps. If you buy from a place that has a wood fired oven, go for it. Or make your own dough. 

Here is a bad pic of a great pie. The 900° one. For those of you who think I have never baked a pie on my egg. 

What kind of dough are you using for that pie? Recipe?

Skiddymarker

Know this is an older thread - What is an inverted plate setter? Learn something every day. Legs up or legs down is the only description I've heard. I'm assuming you had yours legs down, and then seem to be wondering why in a 700º dome temp egg and a pie baked directly on the setter the crust seemed to char. As noted above, the setter would be much hotter than the dome temp thermo. 

Turn the setter over, legs up, put your grid on the setter and raise the pie stone more if you want. Cook at 700º and I'll bet your whole pie will come out great, even with store bought crust. 

Only time I've used a setter legs down, cooked on it directly was for bread, dome temp of 350º, even then the bottom cooked to fast. The IR from the lump is transferred too well by the ceramic setter. 

Cookinbob

The first time I did Pizza I had the plate setter legs up, and my stone directly on the grid (pic below).

It worked well, but I did find that the top was not as done as I wanted when the bottom crust was right.  Since then I have raised the stone with 3 flower pots to get what I believe is radiant heat from the inside of the dome for cooking the top a bit faster, results were perfect to my standards.  I use home made crust made with AP flour, and I usually shoot for 450-500 when cooking pizza, am pleased with the results.  I also use parchment paper always.

Botch

I'm gonna disagree with the statement of "different temps for different doughs"....

 

Instead, its "different temps for different thickenesses of the pie!  

Pizzas are a lot like meat, in a way.  A thick Papa Murphy's or a Chicago pie need 425 F and a slower cook.  A Margharita, a very thin, lightly-dressed pizza, needs Hot and Fast (I go about 60 seconds) just like a thin flank steak.  

 

I have not done experiments (yet) on different dough recipes, rolled to the same thickness and tried at different temps; but until I do, I stand by my above statement.  

:-h

Carolina Q

JwgreDeux said:

What kind of dough are you using for that pie? Recipe?

http://www.fornobravo.com/PDF/Using-caputo-tipo00.pdf

Cookinbob

Botch saiPd:

I'm gonna disagree with the statement of "different temps for different doughs".. I have not used it but understand that 00 flour will cook at a much higher temp than regular AP flour

NPHuskerFL

Lit said:

The problem is the plate setter was direct. Your egg was at 700 and your plate setter was probably 900. You need a stone over the plate setter and find a way to raise it in the dome. Publix pizza dough I preheat the stone at 500 for 30 minutes then put the pizza on and open the vents fully. Pizza takes about 10 minutes.

Agreed. Also if you are preparing your own dough keep in mind if you want to make it at higher temps 700F-800F don't use sugar as it will cause excessive browning (burning). Sugar is really to help in crust development for low temps 400F-550F. Publix pizza dough undoubtedly contains plenty of sugar.

pantsypants

NPHuskerFL said:

The problem is the plate setter was direct. Your egg was at 700 and your plate setter was probably 900. You need a stone over the plate setter and find a way to raise it in the dome. Publix pizza dough I preheat the stone at 500 for 30 minutes then put the pizza on and open the vents fully. Pizza takes about 10 minutes.

Agreed. Also if you are preparing your own dough keep in mind if you want to make it at higher temps 700F-800F don't use sugar as it will cause excessive browning (burning). Sugar is really to help in crust development for low temps 400F-550F. Publix pizza dough undoubtedly contains plenty of sugar.

-Good Tip !! thanks

NPHuskerFL

@pantsypants...NP :-)