First Pizza.........best ever on Egg, but........

Unknown

I did my first Pizza tonight.......got the BGE going, put on the setter and heated the stone for 5 minutes, to about 525*.......put on the pizza and waited about 8 minutes then checked. Pizza looked great (smiling), just not ready to take off yet.....cheese not quite melted, needed more time. 2 minutes later, really looking good, but cheese not browning, so two more minutes. About 13 minutes total, it looked awesome and I took it off. Cheese was just starting to brown, pepperoni and 'shrooms looked good, big smile on my face as I brought it in, then.........what's that smell?? Bottom of pizza was char....almost total char.....to the point I made other arrangements for the family for dinner......I had to at least sample the pizza.....[p]It was very tasty in the middle, but too much char for me to eat the "outer limits".......next "test" I will make sure my "family backup" is done first!![p]I did come to one conclusion......a bad pizza on Da' Egg is better than an ordered pizza!!![p]

GaDawg

Tom D.,
Your thermometer must be off. 13 minutes for a pizza is
too long and the fact that the cheese didn't melt leads me too believe that you were too cool. 525 can cook a good pizza, 575-625 is much better IMHO ( more brick oven-esque). If you used the setter and the stone, you had
sufficient mass. Also, preheat the ceramics for more like
20 minutes instead of 5. Boil water and check your thermo.
Chuck

Puj

Tom D.,[p]As GaDawg posted, preheat your ceramics longer; 30 to 40 minutes, and get the internal temp higher. Pizza will be cooked throughout and the toppings will be done. Keep at it. Pizza is special in the Egg.[p]Puj

Unknown

Puj,[p]It was okay tonight.....he he.....only okay....but I will keep at it......wrote down what I did and how I did it, so I will keep learning!! Thanks for the reply.....will print out and keep it in my notes![p]

Unknown

GaDawg,[p]Boil water and check thermo? [p]Expand on that at my email and I'll print out and keep the notes for the next try. I have noteds on what I did and will learn from this.....Thanks a lot for the advice.....love this forum!![p]Okay....I get the boil water thing now.....will do tomorrow, but everything else I cook is great using this thermo........see what happens! I believe a Mini is on the way!!

Tim M

GaDawg,[p]If the crust burnt when the stone was preheated for 5 min -- don't you think it would be even hotter when preheated for 20???? Why would that not then make it burn more??[p]Tim

Tim M

Tom D.,[p]My first pie was not my best either but it gets better and easier when you figure out what works for you. It's good your keeping notes. I am sorry, but I can't agree that preheating your stone more will solve your problem, I don't think it will. I would suggest more dome temp, that is what cooks the toppings and the ceramic below bakes the crust with its heat. [p]You sound like you placed the cheese on top, or you were judging the doneness by the looks of the toppings. This is OK but you need the higher dome temps to cook the toppings faster. I also put the sauce and cheese on first and meat on last so they get the heat and cook better. I usually open the dome and peek at the crust (dome just slightly open to do this) like the pizza resturants do to check for burning crust.[p]Over moist dough can also cause problems, so I have read here, but I have had not problems with that so I can't comment. Better luck on the next one.

GaDawg

Tim M,
I think the burned crust was from too much time, not too much temperature. For instance, I have torched several
pizzas when I got above 625, but the toppings were well cooked and the crust was burned. Since his crust burned and his toppings were undercooked, I think the problem was a cool setup and a long cook. Of course, I could be completely wrong.
Chuck

Tim M

GaDawg,[p]I totally agree with your assesment of the problem, I just didn't see where a longer preheat of the stone would help. I guess we do agree. Pizzas do take a balance of heat from below and dome heat to cook the toppings and it depands on how much you like to add toppings.[p]Tim

sdbelt

Tom D.,[p]I've only done 8 pizzas in my BGE, but before that had done quite a few in the oven. Here's what I've found:[p]Certain cheddar cheeses don't like to melt easily. So when if you were using a heavier cheese that can be visually confusing.[p]Certainly use your peel to check for doneness.[p]I've found a dome temp of 650 to be my perfect temp. For me, 600 burns my toppings before the crust is done, and 700 burns my crust before the cheese is melted. 650 yiels me perfect "crispy" crust in a very few number of minutes.[p]I do use a thin crust recipe, so all of this is skewed toward that. I have no experience with thicker crust recipes, so if that was your case, you can pretty much ignore everything I wrote, except about the cheese. <grin>[p]--sdb