MM is a crappy pizza cooker

Lit

@eggzellent I just cut the medium stone down so it's small diameter than the platesetter so that it's truly indirect. Use some of the pieces I cut off to raise the stone to get more separation from the platesetter. Probably gonna try it out tomorrow. The ceramics are soft if you have a wet saw it took me under 5 minutes to do this.

Eggzellent

I like it. While understanding the less direct heat concept; cooking that high in the dome with a circular stone/so little room around it for air flow seems 'solved' as well.
I suppose now there are three basic questions when cooking indirect that high up in the dome or even higher when possible. Which is better?:
The above.
10" round stone down low/woo/'x' diameter round stone up 'x' high in the dome.
Pacesetter (legs up or down) and 'x' diameter round stone up 'x' high in the dome.

All 3 and previous variations pictured up here might work..yet I've got to believe that one or two work markedly better than the others in more delicate cooks. I'd like to see (next) a 'x' diameter round stone jammed up just as far in the dome as it can reasonably go (with the placesetter) vs a 10" stone/woo combination (below) using a round or squared off upper stone just as high.

SmokeyPitt

Just I thought...can you put the stone in the woo or is it too big?  If you could put the stone in and use it as the indirect piece, then grate, then plate setter stubby legs down and cook the pizza on the plate setter. 

Zippylip

Eggzellent said:

yet I don't believe that many believe the cooking physics are any different than from any other BGE (which I would disagree with). 

I tend to disagree as well.  My comments above were all related to a mini & my experience with it for a number of years before selling it, I've never cooked on a MM but can't believe it's all that different.  The primary issue I had with the mini is the distance between the burning lump & the food which while beneficial for searing is detrimental nearly all other times; the other issue i had was that given it's super small size, there just wasn't any (reasonable) way to solve the primary problem, I experimented with stones & setters & foil & whatever else i had but the more hardware you put in there to try & create an indirect environment the less room you have for the food (in a cooker that is already extremely limited right out of the box).  In my case I resolved the issue with a $29 smoky joe, it gave me all the benefits of the mini with none of the hassles, it's able to accomplish true direct to true indirect cooking with zero reconfiguration, just slide the food from over the coal to over empty space & close the lid...

Legume

Fwiw @Lit I have noticed a difference cooking pizza in my XL when I switched from the platesetter (big shadow) to a woo and stone (smaller shadow) from CGS.  I've burned pizza crusts with the new setup where I didn't before and have dialed back temps.  Still fiddling with it to find the best config, but I've noticed the difference on more than just pizza.

Eggzellent

Zippylip said:

Eggzellent said:

yet I don't believe that many believe the cooking physics are any different than from any other BGE (which I would disagree with). 

I tend to disagree as well.  My comments above were all related to a mini & my experience with it for a number of years before selling it, I've never cooked on a MM but can't believe it's all that different.  The primary issue I had with the mini is the distance between the burning lump & the food which while beneficial for searing is detrimental nearly all other times; the other issue i had was that given it's super small size, there just wasn't any (reasonable) way to solve the primary problem, I experimented with stones & setters & foil & whatever else i had but the more hardware you put in there to try & create an indirect environment the less room you have for the food (in a cooker that is already extremely limited right out of the box).

I'm more in the "I just like it and will die trying to perfect how I cook on it" camp yet I also see your point with the $29 Smokey Joe. If this 10+ pound butt I just put in ends up anywhere near decent I will have to argue (though) indirect, the amount of food or how far up one can cook in the dome on the MM.