Spring Chicken, frozen pizza help please

BarbieQ

Spring Chicken, I remember you posting about your success with DiGiorno frozen pizzas. I anticipate a very lazy day tomorrow and may work up the energy to egg a frozen pizza. What is your method, etc?[p]Thanks!
BarbieQ

Spring Chicken

<p />BarbieQ,[p]Since my wife put me back on a pizza-free diet I haven't cooked any, but its simple enough. Forget about the directions on the box because they don't apply to cooking on the Egg.[p]Its best if you have a plate setter (legs turned down) and a good pizza stone (preferably broken in good). The rest is easy.[p]Get your Egg up to 550° to 600° leaving the stone on the Egg to heat up. No need for smoking wood. You will like the unique flavor of the lump. [p]I take the pizza out of the frig shortly after starting the fire and let it sit while the temp climbs. That probably won't be but about 15 minutes at the most. I take the pizza from its bag somewhere along then. (Be sure to take the cardboard bottom off) This is when I transfer it to my peel. No flour or meal needed on either, but you do need a fairly dry peel, or something that resembles one, or something that is reasonably flat. Heck, just use the cardboard bottom if you have to.[p]I'm usually a bit impatient here (depending on how many beers) and end up putting the pizza on while the Egg is still coming up to temperature, maybe at about 500°. I first wipe the stone down with a dry paper towel and gently slid the pizza off right in the middle of the stone.[p]The first pizza will likely take about 12 to 14 minutes at an average of 550° to 600°so you will need to turn it one half turn at about 6 or 7 minutes to keep an even cook of the crust and toppings. I tend to keep the top vent closed a bit because it traps and evenly distributes the heat. An open top vent seems to make the heat follow the sides and out the top leaving a fairly big area of cooler air right over the center of the pizza. Took me a while to figure that out.[p]When it looks done, it is. Take it off right then or it will be over cooked. Just pull it back on the peel real gentle like, slice and serve while hot. The applause will soon be forthcoming. Have another beer... You deserve it.[p]Like I said, Its pretty simple.[p]Good luck with yours tomorrow.[p]Spring Chicken
Spring Texas USA

BarbieQ

Spring Chicken,[p]Thank you for the advice! Sounds very similar to the way we have done homemade pizza on the egg, only without all the prep. We'll give it a go this afternoon.[p]Thanks!
Barb

WooDoggies

Hey there Spring Chicken,[p]You are touching on something I have wondered about but have done no tests to get hard data.
Some folks like to cook with the daisy off or wide open and just control temp with the bottom vent. By doing so I have thought the heat that would normally circulate back down onto the food (with daisy partially closed) would be more apt to escape out the top and make the convection properties of the domed ceramic less efficient.... but by how much? Have you measured the temp difference of the 'cooler air' pocket as your pizza cooks have evolved? [p]So, good point you make about cooking with the top vent closed down a bit.... especially using a setter, pizza stone or drip pan where the heat currents are forced to ride the wall and want to head straight out the top.
I believe creating that circulating 'heat eddy' is a very important part of utilizing the domed ceramic and getting an even cook... especially in longer, slower cooks than with the faster, hotter cooks.[p]Thanks for your frozen pizza technique.... I have printed it out. Beers![p]WD
[p]

The Naked Whiz

BarbieQ,
Make sure you are careful not to let the stone get too hot if you are going to cook using these directions. If you preheat the stone to these temperatures, you WILL burn the crust. I baked about 10 DiGiorno pies, playing around and unfortunately having to consume vast quantities of pizza in the process :-), and cooking at these temperatures on a stone that is allowed to come up to temperature always resulted in a burned crust. This method will probably work for 1 or 2 pies, but what I was after was a stable environment for cooking multiple pies for a party. I pretty much followed the directions on the box: leave the pie frozen, use 450 degrees and cook for the length of time on the box, and got great results also. So, don't be afraid to experiment. You can always eat your mistakes.[p]TNW
[ul][li]The Naked Whiz's Recipe Page[/ul]

Shelby

Spring Chicken,
She still has you on that no real food diet? Gotta be killing you!

Spring Chicken

WooDoggies,
Hey WooDoggies. I suppose you're out by the cement pond enjoying the fruits of your labor. Good... Im thinking about blowing mine up and doing the same thing. Washing down the day's dust with a goodly margarita right now.[p]When I first got my Egg I had no idea what it was or how to use it. I just sorta figured it out as I went. At least until I ran across the BGE Forum. From that moment on it was a "learning" process instead of a "guessing" process.[p]Early on I discovered what I thought was a basic requirement of the Egg - that the controls were to be used according to the cook. All I had for a top vent cover was the ceramic snuffer so I quickely figured out how to control heat and smoke by tilting the cap at verious angles while opening the bottom vent ever so slightly for each degree I was trying to achieve. [p]Somewhere along the line I got to thinking (a very dangerous thing for someone like me) that a heat draft of a fire, no matter where it is, tends to create a "river" of heat-flow from intake to outblow (my word). If you place an obsticle in the path of the river the river simply goes around it, thereby creating an eddy or sorts. The eddy is not actually moving forward and in some cases restricts the surrounding current from entering. That prompted me to calculate (wild ass guess) that the same thing happens in an Egg. I think I am correct but I've been wrong before (I'm a Democrat so sue me). Like you, I wonder if anyone ever did a study on the subject.[p]Have a good tomorrow.[p]Spring Chicken
Spring Texas USA