Pizza suggestions and set up

chuckwoo

I'm going for my first pizza this weekend.  I have the BGE XL and bought the woo2/adjustable rig combo from the ceramicgrillstore.com so I can put my 17" stone high up in the dome.  I was told that I do not need a placesetter or a indirect cooking stone if the pizza stone is high up in the dome as it will be far enough away from the direct heat source.  Anyone agree/disagree?  I was also told parchment paper between the dough and stone is a must - I'm probably clueless enough to have gone without that on first try if I hadn't been warned

TexanOfTheNorth

Not sure about the lack of a platesetter... even high in the dome, could still be a lot of direct heat hitting the stone.

Many people do use parchment paper but, is it a must; not really. An alternative is to throw a thin layer of cornmeal on the stone.

THEBuckeye

Parchment is not a "must". Dusting the peel with corn meal works just fine. 

IMO, you do need to deflect the heat, one way or another.

I buy my dough from a local pizzeria. Lately, I've bought sauce, cheese and Margarita brand stick pepperoni from the 48th Street Market (as featured in the BGE Pizza Video). It's in Dunwoody, Georgia, a northern Atlanta suburb. 

I cook mine between 450 and 500, indirect with platesetter, grate on platesetter and stone on great. Cook for 7-10 minutes with a couple "sanity check" looks. 

Good luck and have fun! 

THEBuckeye

Parchment is not a "must". Dusting the peel with corn meal works just fine. 

IMO, you do need to deflect the heat, one way or another.

I buy my dough from a local pizzeria. Lately, I've bought sauce, cheese and Margarita brand stick pepperoni from the 48th Street Market (as featured in the BGE Pizza Video). It's in Dunwoody, Georgia, a northern Atlanta suburb. 

I cook mine between 450 and 500, indirect with platesetter, grate on platesetter and stone on great. Cook for 7-10 minutes with a couple "sanity check" looks. 

Good luck and have fun! 

fishlessman

never tried that particular setup but pay attention to whatever temps they are cooking at with that setup. people are cooking pizzas from 325 dome all the way up to 1200 degrees

theyolksonyou

Parchment isn't a must, but is sure is easy. Just cut it roughly around your pie so it doesn't stick out over the stone and you can pull it out after the dough sets. 

KiterTodd

+1 on parchment not being a hard requirement.   For me, the only benefit is you can spread the dough out ahead of time and let it sit for a while if for instance kids/guests are decorating their own pies and you don't have to worry about it sticking to the surface.  

If you are relatively prompt with your pizza making, as long as you have corn meal on the peel it'll slide off easily onto the stone.  When cooking you can also give it one little jiggle or slide during cooking to make sure it isn't sticking.   For me, the paper is an inconvenience, but I know there are folks who love it.  I also like having a metal peel for removing the pizza, which helps in case I do have a cheese break-through that causes a stick.

I use the legsup platesetter (or stone of the AR) below my pizza stone.  I don't know if it is required I just figured more surfaces to hold heat the better, better heat distribution and to protect my stone from a hot flame, etc.  YMMV

Have fun!

JohnnyTarheel

For me parchment paper way to go. I agree with @KiterTodd it makes it easy to stage multiple pizzas. Cornmeal to me makes a mess you don't need. 

fishlessman

i dont use anything more than the flour thats rubbed into the peel but like was said, you have to work fast or it sticks to the peel. if i was starting out i would start with the parchment because my first few attempts looked more like a messy calzone

Carolina Q

I don't care for parchment. Just a pinch of semolina on the peel is all I need. Shake the peel after adding each ingredient to avoid sticking. 

Literally, just a pinch...

Ladeback69

I don't care for the texture of corn meal or the taste unless it is mixed in something so I use parchment paper.  Either way you need something to keep the pizza from sticking to the peal.  As no plate setter or another source to indirect the heat, I am not sure that will work or not.  I believe the higher in the dome the higher the temp so be careful.  Now you could put the stone that came with your AR on the bottom and another stone at the top to cook on.  That may help with the heat transference.   Also make sure you let the stone get good and hot before you put a pizza on it.  I like mine to be at cooking temp for at least 30 to 45 minutes.  I like 350 to 500 to cook with, but the temp I like the best is 450.  Pizza is done in about 6 to 8 minutes.  Turn it once a 1/4 turn after 3 minutes, then check it after 6 minutes.  Good luck and have fun, I really like pizza on the egg.

Mickey

First: the person you bought your a Woo from is Tom. You are describing just how he cooks pizza. 
Second: I will not cook a pizza w/o Parchment paper. But I pull the parchment after the first 60 seconds. 

Photo Egg

Pizza set up and cooking temp is very dependent on the pizza dough you are using. Some dough is made to cook at lower home oven temps and others are formulated to cook quick at higher temps like in a commercial pizza oven.
Cooking pizza in the XL is great. IMO, if you are going to cook raised on the Adj Rig, you can get by w/o using a indirect stone between your pizza stone and fire if you are cooking around 400 degrees. If you are going for a higher temp cook I would place a solid pizza pan on your top level of your rig as indirect pan then a spacer such as a Wok ring on the pizza pan then your cooking pizza stone. This gives you an air space and stopps your pizza stone from getting to hot compared to the temp in the dome of your Egg. I prefer this set up at any temp for pizzas.
The photo below was before I got my Adj Rig. I have an old stove top burner between the 2 stones but anything will work.
And avoid over loading your pizza with toppings. lol

pescadorzih

I prefer to go legs up on the platesetter as it's easier on the gasket.

Photo Egg

pescadorzih said:

I prefer to go legs up on the platesetter as it's easier on the gasket.

Its hard to tell from the photo but my platesetter is resting on a flip ring, not the fire box.
This raises the platesetter a couple inches above the felt line and jacks the pizza high into the dome so cheese and toppings brown. The gasket does not get the direct blast this way.
No gasket failure so far...lol...there is a pizza on the stone

EGGjlmh

Mickey said:

First: the person you bought your a Woo from is Tom. You are describing just how he cooks pizza. 
Second: I will not cook a pizza w/o Parchment paper. But I pull the parchment after the first 60 seconds. 

I am somewhat new to pizza as well.  When you do this do you also put cornmeal on the stone or not?  TIA

Carolina Q

No cornmeal is needed on the stone, just on the peel. And if you're using parchment, no cornmeal is needed at all.

stemc33

@chuckwoo, many ways to skin a cat. I prefer the parchment paper only because of the launch. Cornmeal and flour work fine also. For me it's the little bit of inertia needed to launch the pie. I've overshot the stone using cornmeal. With the parchment paper, I just gently pull the paper onto the stone, no overshooting. Pull parchment paper after about a minute. 

I've cooked straight on the plate setter. Lots of options/opinions. Just egg with whatcha got until you get whatcha need/want. It's all good. 

KiterTodd

Mmmmm, what temp did you cook those calzones, @stemc33?   They look good.

B&BKnox

I've cooked hundreds of pizza's both raised direct and indirect (raised and felt level)  all can work just fine.  I must admit I like raised direct a lot but on the BGE it for some reason does not work as well as with some other Kamado brands, so with BGE I tend to go raised indirect.

I just like the ease of parchment paper, I call it idiot proof, trim the paper so it is close to the pizza edges, Our pizza peel is a cheap $10 one and we cut our pies on the peel so the peel surface has so much texture no pie would ever slide off this easily without parchment.  I go 500 degrees dome temp and let the stone preheat for 45 minutes minimum.

This link goes into a bit more detail,  Not saying this is the only way but it works very well for me and I have not had a pizza fail yet.

http://www.nibblemethis.com/2015/06/how-to-cook-pizza-on-kamado-grill.html

Good luck

avibug

I don't use parchment or corn meal.  Instead, I got a Super Peel after reading about it on this forum (www.superpeel.com).  Great tool for loading pizza from work space and depositing on Egg without sticking. I use a regular peel to remove the cooked pizza from the Egg.  

dtc

I would suggest getting a infrared thermometer. Getting the stone to a consistent temperature greatly helps the consistency of the fina product. BGE has one these days. I like one with a 6:1 spot. We use a stone temperature of 500, but others will go hotter. We do a very thin crust, so 500 works for us.

Platesetter, with stone on top, no parchment. You can try the platesetter top up or top down. I like top up, but others do top down.