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True brick oven pizza queston

Hitch
Hitch Posts: 402
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
Ok..I am thinking about trying this setup on my large

Platesetter legs down, grill, pizza stone, pizza, grill extender, another pizza stone. Only cooking one pizza inbetween two stones. Will this change the cook much? I realize this will impair vision of the pizza from above, but peeking on pizza is no big deal.

Thoughts? Experiences?

Comments

  • Spring Chicken
    Spring Chicken Posts: 10,255
    The second pizza stone is overkill in my opinion. But what do I know?

    Spring "One Day Home To The Yellow Brick Oven" Chicken
    Spring Texas USA
  • Ottawa_egger
    Ottawa_egger Posts: 236
    I think the upper pizza stone would have a deleterious effect on your results because I think the pizza benefits from heat bouncing off the dome. I think your best results can be achieved if you can raise your pizza cooking level about 3-4" above the felt level. If you have a second pizza stone you might see some benefit to the bottom of the crust by stacking the two stones to get more mass below the pizza to retain heat.

    I used to use a platesetter legs down with pizza stone sitting on copper elbows (a trick I got off the forum), but sometimes go platesetter legs up, grill, BGE grill extender, and then pizza stone to get the extra height.

    Might have to do a pizza this weekend...
  • Little Steven
    Little Steven Posts: 28,817
    Ottawa_egger,

    "deleterious"

    That's a whole lot of syllables for a Canuck. :ohmy:


    Steve

    Steve 

    Caledon, ON

     

  • Grandpas Grub
    Grandpas Grub Posts: 14,226
    Hitch,

    That is an ideal cooking method. To achieve the somewhat the same affect, as mentioned above, get the cooking surface up into the dome more so the heat in the dome can cook the upper side of the pizza.

    GG
  • Ar-Cee
    Ar-Cee Posts: 105
    Going back to some work displayed on THW's website on the heating curves of the ceramics etc, I try to heat the whole ceramics to 500 for pizza,(not 800 like I guess the brick pizza ovens are) and 400 for breads. I use placesetter with legs down and a bge pizza stone on top of the placesetter with direct contact to create ceramic mass. This is going to sound a bit anal but, then I let everything heat (can take two hours plus to get a balance) till I get a pizza stone/place setter heat (determined by an IR thermometer) inside wall temp and a dome temp close to balanced at my baking temperature as I can. By the time this balance has happened the fire is damped with the daisy wheel and the door and I connect my Guru to maintain the temp. Then I start baking. I guess this is kind of overkill if you are only doing a single pizza, but, I consider that I am truely "firebricking" when I am baking breads, rolls, etc. I use my Guru to maintain equalibrium, but, using the mass of ceramic that is all heated and by minimizing the "open lid" times changing pans or loaves, I find I can bake continuously as many hours after equalibrium as I want with VERY little coal used from that point on. The breads are amazing (especially the French and Italian braided type breads.) I do like fresh brick oven breads and of course the pizzas are amazing. rc
  • Fireball II
    Fireball II Posts: 213
    I did the exact same set up the other day. Both pizza turned out great. Go for it! JD
  • fishlessman
    fishlessman Posts: 32,663
    this gets me closer than any setup that ive found, try different things and make a descision on what works best for the results you want. my setup gives you a hotter dome and a cooler stone which is the whole idea of a true brick oven and works at temps from 800 too well over 1100 degree dome temps. the round bottom spirals the flame up into the dome sweeping the sides and top of the egg and hovers over the pizza. dont use the grate as shown, fill the head with sand, i believe a wok would work great for this, and place the stone into the sand. i like simple pizzas, this is not a setup for thick heavey topped pizzas, think one topping keeping the sauce and cheese light, thin thin crust, just a simple cheese with fresh basil does it for me. heres a pick of a pizza cooked in the 1100 degree range for 54 seconds.
    100_1527.jpg

    100_1530.jpg

    100_1536.jpg

    100_1535.jpg
    fukahwee maine

    you can lead a fish to water but you can not make him drink it
  • Ross in Ventura
    Ross in Ventura Posts: 7,234
    rc,
    This is a very good responce, I like your reasoning.
    Ross
  • guzzijason
    guzzijason Posts: 143
    Fishless - that's exactly the sort of pizza that I love. In the short time I've had the Egg, I haven't been able to make pizza quite the way I want - thanks for the ideas!

    Oh, and while I can't personally offer tips on proper technique yet, I can offer some advice on what *not* to do...

    For my first pizza attempt, I wanted to get the pizza stone up high in the dome, but I went about this in what turned out to be a very bad way: First I put in the cast iron grid, followed by (3) firebricks, placed in such a way that I could put the plate setter on them (legs down). Pizza stone went on top. Yes, it did elevate the stone; however, it took *forever* to get all that mass up to temp, and it never did get very hot at all. Also, all of that weight on the cast iron grid, along with heat, caused the grid to crack (fortunately, nothing serious that will affect it's use).

    My 2nd attempt was better, but still way off from where I want to be. Can't wait to try again! :woohoo:

    __Jason