Newb and the leaning tower of pizza.

Pancakes

Well I roasted my gasket/seal/felt, or whatever you eggsperienced heads call it, on the first cook. I was honestly timid about trying out pizza on the third cook after that troublesome day. I broke her back in with two slow fires ranging from 225-400 for a few hours. Finally after the third beer and a little case of the "it's only a gasket and I can always get another," I got the heat going.

I hit 575 and stabilized between 550 and 525 for about 30 mins and threw the first pie on there. Thin crust, 7 mins later and 550 and it was done. I opened the lid and expected the nomex to be cooking along next to the first pie, but it was still intact and quite secure. We fired off a few more pies at 525-550 range for another hour or so and no disbonded gasket. Oh happy day's!!!

Just wanted to pass this along to all the Newb's that are aspiring to hit high heat but don't want to give up the seal. We were pretty happy with the pizza and have a few tweaking ideas to put in place but all in all they were quite delicious. This just proves there is life after new gaskets, so don't get discouraged Newb's.

loco_engr

Good advice and words of encouragement!

Sooooooooo where are your pics and details of your
"za's? :ermm:

Panhandle Smoker

I put the Nomex to the test a week ago to 750 for about an hour and it held stong.

Pancakes

Still working out the issues with attaching the pics. Out of the three pies the first had the best crust. That was a plain cheese. The temp was lower on the the other two pizzas by about ten degrees. They had to cook a little longer to get the toppings done but the crust was a little stiffer. Once I figure out the attaching thing I will put them in there.