Pizza Cook

Begger

First, let me say that I LOVE the guy who says 'no pictures or it never happened!'    What a crackup.

First, some remarks about WHY I tried this experiment.

Heat moves 3 different ways.
Condution is when 2 things are in contact.  One contains more heat than the other.   Heat tends to equalize across the difference.
Convection is heat transfer thru air.   Open your EGG and that blast of hot air is convection at work
RADIATION is perhaps the least understood.   This is heat transfer even thru a perfect vacuum via (typically) Infrared radiation.   Step out into the sun and you can FEEL the heat on your skin.  Of course, the sun also radiates LOTS of other stuff, too, like UV which is harmful when taken to excess.   

So, I was concerned when I'd burn a pizza crust on the bottom.  WHY?   I theorized that the plate setter was getting REAL hot and becoming transparent to InfraRed.   I've seen this happen with Quartz when I worked in the semiconductor industry.  Silicon wafers DO become transparent to IR at high temps.

So?   the cure, for THIS test?  I bought some ceramic pieces to be used as spacers between my plate setter and a 'large' pizza stone.  See picture.
 This prevents direct conduction and minimizes convection.    My crust was PERFECT


And speaking of crust?   I made it in my bread machine.   The 2lb. recipe was perfect for this 20"er.   And it is but simple being ONLY Flour / Water / Salt / OLIVE OIL and yeast.  Machine takes 90 minutes and I left it overnite in the fridge where it rose yet MORE.  

And finally, a close-up of the ceramic piece.   They were 1.03$ per at the local home despot.
They are 'quarter round' and therefore touch only in small amounts.

BTW, the pizza was terrific and even BETTER the next day for lunch.   You  can't beat the local market for Italian Sausage.   I held some back for some Spaghetti in a week or so.

Begger

OH!   What I FAILED to show was the actual cooking surface was an XL stone on top of the grill grate.   

stv8r

Yumm!  Pizza looks good!