The Maiden Voyage

The Cen-Tex Smoker

caliking said:

that looks  phenomenal, especially given the size of it. 

Since it it burns wood too, what about throwing a stick or two in there just for flavor? Don’t know if it would make a noticeable difference, but there’s only one way to find out. 

The stick burner box is a different setup that the gas burner. You can’t do both at the same time. 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

The burners load in from the bottom. You would. Have to take out the gas box and put in the wood box

You can see the wood burner in the foreground of this pic and the gas burner is attached to the rig. You swap them out according to what you want to use. I’ll try the wood burner today and report back. Im thinking this is going to be a gas rig for the most part. From what I’ve read, the cooks are so fast you don’t get that wood flavor like you would on a bge or wfo

im excited to find out though. 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Better pic of the gas burner attached. 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Woodchunk said:

Like the looks of that. What else do you plan on cooking? Can you control the temp with wood like you can the gas?

I plan to do some cast iron cooks in there for sure. And some naan. 

You can Only control the temp with wood by controlling how much wood you use. There is no dial like there is with the gas burner. I plan on playing around with that today. I need to split some kindling sized pieces first. That will require some drinks. It’s early...kind of. 

tml1230

outstanding post, great information , great pizzas ....and crap, now i gotta have one.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

bgebrent said:

Very nice!  Beautiful pies. Couldn’t see the tree

This took me a while but I finally got it. 

SoCal_Griller

Great Info!  Thanks for the review.  My wife is going to ban me from this board.  

Woodchunk

Nice, looking forward to the wood report

caliking

Naans should turn out well on this rig. 

I tried naan on a BS pizza oven , and launching the naan was cumbersome. Ended up rolling them out on parchment and sliding them in. Let me know if you come up with a better solution. 

20stone

caliking said:

Naans should turn out well on this rig. 

I tried naan on a BS pizza oven , and launching the naan was cumbersome. Ended up rolling them out on parchment and sliding them in. Let me know if you come up with a better solution. 

With @TFJ's Kalisi hands, I expect @The Cen-Tex Smoker will step aside and let her just toss them in.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

20stone said:

caliking said:

Naans should turn out well on this rig. 

I tried naan on a BS pizza oven , and launching the naan was cumbersome. Ended up rolling them out on parchment and sliding them in. Let me know if you come up with a better solution. 

With @TFJ's Kalisi hands, I expect @The Cen-Tex Smoker will step aside and let her just toss them in.

She is the mother of dragons. 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

caliking said:

Naans should turn out well on this rig. 

I tried naan on a BS pizza oven , and launching the naan was cumbersome. Ended up rolling them out on parchment and sliding them in. Let me know if you come up with a better solution. 

Rereading the relentless naan thread now. 

20stone

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Rereading the relentless naan thread now. 

Like the Godfather movies, the sequel is better:
http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1205398/the-relentless-naan-thread-part-2-also-long-but-i-think-i-nailed-it/p1

The guy that wrote it is a bit of a $%^ but seems to know what he's talking about.

Holla if you need some starter.

caliking

Don’t pull a Jones and read the wrong one. 

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1205398/the-relentless-naan-thread-part-2-also-long-but-i-think-i-nailed-it

The Cen-Tex Smoker

caliking said:

Don’t pull a Jones and read the wrong one. 

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1205398/the-relentless-naan-thread-part-2-also-long-but-i-think-i-nailed-it

Thank you! 

caliking

I was not quick enough on the draw, but yes the second version of the relentless naan was much better. 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Couple more pies. Getting a little better each time. Not 100% there yet and we are using “quick dough” but sure is a fun cook. The first pie stuck to the peel and I dumped it On the the stone  half face down. The whole thing caught on fire and looked like travis’ egg when he had the grease fire. It burned off in about 4 min, I scraped the stone with the peel and finally got some work done. 



 

SciAggie

It looks like it cooks very well. 

bgebrent

Nice!  Did you encounter any Sirens?

The Cen-Tex Smoker

SciAggie said:

It looks like it cooks very well. 

It does. I have a lot to learn but it’s very forgiving

caliking

That alien contraption is a party waiting to happen.

The pie in the first pic above is my fav. Pesto?

bluebird66

Great work!

Jeremiah

If it's primarily a gas oven, any idea how it compares to the blackstone oven? This thing is like twice the price of the blackstone correct?

JohnInCarolina

Jeremiah said:

If it's primarily a gas oven, any idea how it compares to the blackstone oven? This thing is like twice the price of the blackstone correct?

Kenji had a video review of a bunch of these from different manufacturers, including this one and the Blackstone.  It was actually the first thing I’ve seen that made me question the BS.  Worth tracking down.  

Jeremiah

Been googling. Found this: http://www.seriouseats.com/2017/05/best-backyard-pizza-ovens-review.html
I didn't realize just how different they are, can see now the draw to the roccbox. 

DMW

Jeremiah said:

Been googling. Found this: http://www.seriouseats.com/2017/05/best-backyard-pizza-ovens-review.html
I didn't realize just how different they are, can see now the draw to the roccbox. 

I have the Blackstone oven. I'm. Not. Clicking. That. Link.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

JohnInCarolina said:

Jeremiah said:

If it's primarily a gas oven, any idea how it compares to the blackstone oven? This thing is like twice the price of the blackstone correct?

Kenji had a video review of a bunch of these from different manufacturers, including this one and the Blackstone.  It was actually the first thing I’ve seen that made me question the BS.  Worth tracking down.  

That’s what got me to make the jump. This also has a wood burner but I haven’t fired that up yet. I’m going to for sure. 

JohnInCarolina

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

JohnInCarolina said:

Jeremiah said:

If it's primarily a gas oven, any idea how it compares to the blackstone oven? This thing is like twice the price of the blackstone correct?

Kenji had a video review of a bunch of these from different manufacturers, including this one and the Blackstone.  It was actually the first thing I’ve seen that made me question the BS.  Worth tracking down.  

That’s what got me to make the jump. This also has a wood burner but I haven’t fired that up yet. I’m going to for sure. 

If you’re up for it I can help you with that in a couple of weeks here.  I can tell you where the wood goes.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

caliking said:

That alien contraption is a party waiting to happen.

The pie in the first pic above is my fav. Pesto?

Buffalo Mozzarella and pesto

It is a party waiting to happen. I cranked out 5 pies in 15 minutes total. It takes about 30 min to heat up when it’s this cold out (it was in the 30’s when I cooked these) but it holds temp like a champ. I had to turn it down between pies so I didn’t overheat the stone. 

northGAcock

Very nice! Very nice........very nice.