Pizza without a scorched bottom

Powak

Made my first pizzas on the egg tonight using fresh dough from a local pizzeria.
First one was a margarita pizza and the recipe called for 450 degrees. Almost out of coal in the fire box my temps stayed about 425 but the pie came out great in 25 minutes. Loaded up more coal and got the egg up to 650 for the next pie. In 6 minutes the pie came out looking awesome but the bottom was mega scorched. Is 500-550 more suitable for regular pies?

DMW

Check the dough ingredients. If it has sugar and/or oil, keep temps in the 450* range.

Doc_Eggerton

Common error is cooking too hot for the dough.  I use grocery store dough that calls for 400 degrees, and that is where I hold it.  Also, every couple of minutes shift and rotate the pie to avoid hot spots.

RRP

Powak said:

Made my first pizzas on the egg tonight using fresh dough from a local pizzeria.
First one was a margarita pizza and the recipe called for 450 degrees. Almost out of coal in the fire box my temps stayed about 425 but the pie came out great in 25 minutes. Loaded up more coal and got the egg up to 650 for the next pie. In 6 minutes the pie came out looking awesome but the bottom was mega scorched. Is 500-550 more suitable for regular pies?

What was your set up? plate setter + a pizza stone I hope. Spacers between? Have you checked the calibration of your dome thermometer? I mean for a recipe that called for 450, but you baked it at 425 is close enough, but for 25 minutes? It should have be burnt to a crisp in 25 minutes. Then you say 650 and it was scorched in 6 minutes. Those swings just seem odd enough to me. But hey - we've all been there but the learning curve is short and success is so sweet!

Powak

I was using the plate setter, legs up, grate on top of the legs with the pizza stone sitting on that. The pies I made were relatively thick. The reason the first one too so long was because My coal started running low by the time I put the pie on and my temps started to drop and never got back up to 450. I made the second pie about 20 minutes later after i had loaded the firebox up with more coal. That's how I got the temps up so high.

Powak

I've made pizzas with this same dough in our kitchen oven before at 500 degrees and they've come out super. I may just try 500 on the egg next time.

gmbbs

I like to get the stone high up into the dome, so the top of the pie gets the radiant heat from the dome. I also keep a mesh pizza screen( get at restaurant supply store or Amazon for a couple bucks) handy, so if the bottom is cooking too fast, you slip the screen under the pie to give the top time to catch up.  YMMV. 

onedbguru

I sometimes will use the Reynolds foil/parchment (foil side down) cooking at 600-650 (preheated for at least 45-60 min).  I pull the foil after 2-3 minutes and it finishes in typically less than a total of 5 minutes without charring the bottom and perfectly crisp pepperoni/onions/mushrooms/gr peppers.

XL - PLS(LU)+grate+firebricks+PS