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Stupid Pizza and Gasket Question

Philicious
Philicious Posts: 346
edited July 2012 in EggHead Forum
I have never cooked a pizza on my egg but plan on doing so soon.  In lurking about, it seems that many have some trouble with destroying their gasket during the pizza cooking process.  Why?
Born and raised in NOLA. Now live in East TN.

Comments

  • yellowdogbbq
    yellowdogbbq Posts: 389
    The theory is that the stone causes excessive heat onto the gasket because it is at that level when placed on top of the plate setter.  The mother ship recommends placing the plate setter in feet up, then grid, then stone instead of feet down then stone.  I don't think this makes much of a difference.  Your gasket will be fine or get fried regardless.  Surprisingly my gasket is still alive despite high heat cooks, others say theirs are fried the first time?  I've even lapped my thermometer to 200 plus degrees.
  • Zick
    Zick Posts: 190
    It will burn...guaranteed.  May not be the first time but it will fry.  They build it with a cheap felt gasket and you will ultimately replace it with a high temp gasket.  Almost every Egger has to do it relatively shortly after doing high temp cooks like pizza.  Mine was cooked first time.  Don't worry about it,  It will cost you $35 and it is relatively easy to replace.  Go make some pizza!
    When was the last time you did something for the first time? - Zick Boulder, CO
  • CajunEdge
    CajunEdge Posts: 3
    edited July 2012

    I've had my BGE about two months...been gasket-less for over a month.

     

    Broke it in with a few chicken and fish cooks keeping it under 400 degrees.  Did steak on the fifth cook where I got the grill well over the 800 degree mark on the thermometer for a few minutes for the sear.  No problem with the gasket.

     

    Cooked pizzas on it for about the 8th cook.  Temp got up to 750 degrees with my goal of keeping it about 650 degrees for the cook.  After about a half hour in the 650-750 range the gasket was coming off.  I used a wire brush and 95% of it came off with no problem.  The inside of the egg was bone white again, though! 

     

    I might replace it one day, but so far I don't see the need.  No problem getting temp up to 800 degrees for a steak sear.  Everything still tastes great.  Sometimes a little smoke comes out of the side, but not much. At this point I don't think I'll replace unless someone can tell me it will make the food taste better (am I missing out on some kind of moisture retention without the gasket?).  I wouldn't be surprised if my charcoal takes a little longer to go out, but nothing that I've really noticed.

     

  • Spreen
    Spreen Posts: 3

    I am a newbie, but have found a lot of helpful info here, thanks all.

    I have cooked pizza twice at 500 and have noticed the gasket burning.  Zick mentioned replacing with a high temp gasket, is that the "High Performance" gaske they sell at the EGG site?  The picture looks just like the felt gasket the egg came with.

    I'm familiar with ceramic fiber gaskets they use on very high temp boilers and such and thought i would try to find some, not sure about an adhesive though.  Any thoughts?

  • Duganboy
    Duganboy Posts: 1,118
    @Spreen the Rutland gasket is the one that I used when I replaced my original.  You only put it on the base because of the thickness.
  • jfarley
    jfarley Posts: 145

    Here's my posting from Sunday when I did my first pizzas. I placed the pizza stone on three bricks on top of the grate with the plate setter legs up. I actually spread the bricks further out than the picture shows, towards the edge of the stone. This was based on other's recommendation's on getting it as high in the dome a possible. The pizzas came out great at 600 degrees. Top cooked and cust right. The gasket did fry as predicted. Don't let the gasket failure keep you from doing this. Perhaps BGE will replace gratis? I'll give that a try.

    http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/comment/1215165#Comment_1215165

    LBGE - July 2012
    Valencia, CA
  • ChokeOnSmoke
    ChokeOnSmoke Posts: 1,942
    edited August 2012

     not sure about an adhesive though.  Any thoughts?

    Use Permatex Ultra Copper (from Auto Supply store) with your Rutland gasket.  You can get both for under $20.00 and it will be the last gasket you ever put on your egg.

    Packerland, Wisconsin

  • Spreen
    Spreen Posts: 3
    @Spreen the Rutland gasket is the one that I used when I replaced my original.  You only put it on the base because of the thickness.

     not sure about an adhesive though.  Any thoughts?

    Use Permatex Ultra Copper (from Auto Supply store) with your Rutland gasket.  You can get both for under $20.00 and it will be the last gasket you ever put on your egg.

    Thanks for the info, looks like I have my next egg project all lined up.
  • misu
    misu Posts: 213
    why are we destroying the gasket when making pizza?  because it's worth it :)