Encouraged, discouraged, and everything in between

pitrpan · August 2010

Well, I've written in a thread last week that Friday nights is pizza night at my house.
As such, I'm fairly confident in making these, and am always happy with the results of my (humble) cheese pizza.

I am a big fan of wood fire pizza.
Accordingly, I knew this time, by cooking my pizzas on the BGE, I'd blow everyone's minds off.

The first pizza was my traditional 'cheese' pizza. Something to get us started.
I'm guessing I either didn't wait long enough for the stone to heat up, or didn't leave the pizza long enough in the egg. When I took it out, the dough was pasty white and sloppy.

I thought I'd leave the next one in a bit longer.

This was a mixture of mozzarella, gorgonzola, and dutch edam.
I left it (literally) for a minute longer than the previous.
It came out rather charcoaled.

I decided that it was the fact that the stone wasn't hot enough originally, which made my first pizza such a disaster.

By the third pizza I started getting creative.
I read that someone here made a fig pizza last week.
Well, being the middle of winter it's hard to find figs, but not to be outdone, I "created" a pear, gorgonzola, walnut and thyme pizza.
This was, by the time it came out, the best one so far.
Not only was the flavor amazing (if I may say so myself), but the texture of the dough was perfectly crispy, so it would hold its own weight but so soft on top..

So that was it..
That was the peak of the mountain.
Basically downhill on all pizzas prior to this one, and downhill on all pizzas after it also.

I burned most of the pizzas, most of my fingers, and the bge gasket toward the back of the egg.

Oh, and I also added a chunk of hickory.
Why?
I don't know why....
I guess I like the taste of smoked wood that you get from a wood-fire pizza.

It would seem as if though hickory is a little too strong.

No idea what to do now..

I read that it wouldn't matter as to whether I cook with a gasket or not; still, I'm going to try to look for one/order one from a supplier and hope they ship internationally.

My sister is visiting next weekend..
I told her I'd be making salmon....

I've not given up on the egg yet, but I'm certainly not finding it as easy as the man on the DVD is..

Groundhog66 · August 2010

Pizzas are more difficult than salmon, believe me....lol. See my thread next to yours, pizza was a pain in my A$$ today too. Do not give up yet, better days are coming. Plank your salmon, you can't mess that up.

BBQMaven · August 2010

Glad you had some good ones!
How did you have the Egg set up for the cook? Indirect? pizza stone? air space? cook temp?

[Deleted User] · August 2010

All cooks have a number of variables, pizza is no exception. As GG noted, you haven't told us anything about your setup so it's hard to comment.

The way I usually cook pizza is this:
1- Make sure the lump charcoal is piled up to the top of the firebox or higher and light the fire. If using firestarters, light it in 3 places. let it burn with the dome open and bottom vent wide open until your firestarters are burned up.

2- once the starters are burned up and the fire is going on it's own, take out the grid and put in the platesetter, legs down, then (3) 1/2"-3/4" spacers on top of that and set the pizza stone on the spacers. Close the dome and keep an eye on the temp. I always cook pizza with no daisy on the dome. It's easier to peek in there with a flashlight.

3- wait at least 15 minutes for the stone to get heated up. From start of fire to placing the first pizza on the stone could be 30 minutes, but should be at least 20. There shouldn't be smoke coming from the egg when you put your food on. Only wispy blue smoke or none at all.

4- cook the pizza as you normally would re: temps and time, parchment vs cornmeal, etc.

I don't think you need to add smoke. try your pizzas without first, to see how they taste. then if you'd like some smoke, oak or maple would be safe - I don't use hickory on anything but pork.

Firetruck · August 2010

:laugh: Hang in there pitrpan, you'll eventually get em the way you like em. I stink at pizza and I'm still trying to get them right. Mine now are at least edible. Sometimes they are outta site.

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker · August 2010

sounds like the pizza stone was BOTH your heat barrier and the surface on which you cooked the pizza.

i think some manage ok with this, but i would do it differently.

i would want a barrier from the direct heat between the fire and the pizza stone. remember, the dome thermometer may say "700", but the direct heat is more like a thousand pus, say 1200-1500 or more.

which means your first pie sat on a cold pizza stone, and the dough was undercooked. by the time the second pie went on, the fire had blasted the stone with radiant heat enough to get the thing ridiculously hot.

a classic set-up is to use a platesetter, legs up, then the grid with the pizza stone on it.

you can also do the platesetter legs down, with the pizza stone on top of that but resting on spacers (small rocks, plumbing elbows, foil balls, etc.).

that little airspace will isolate the stone from the fire, with the barrier below taking the direct heat.

otherwise the stone just gets way too hot

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker · August 2010

bertucci fires their ovens with oak. i always toss a few oak twigs (that's about the max), and it gives a little extra rustic hit to the pizza.

BBQMaven · August 2010

Listern to St!ke... he's right
see this post for temp differences
http://www.eggheadforum.com/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&func=view&id=945833&catid=1

Jolly Bill Barker · August 2010

Wow, your post reads just like my first try only I was just trying to do a sausage and mushroom pizza.

Killed the first three and finally had to get a frozen pizza out and put it in the oven. That was total defeat.

The first mistake I made is I used to pour my lump into the fire bowl right out of the bag... big chunks, medium, small, dust, and whatever else. This didn't help things at all. Now I only use large and medium chunks with pizza.

I read on here about bouncing the heat off the dome. This helps a lot. So now I use the plate setter legs down, four foil balls a little bigger then golf balls, pizza stone on top.

This gets the pizza up with air under it and higher up in the dome to get that bouncing heat.

I go to 500 on my dome temp.

2Fategghead · August 2010

tach18k · August 2010

Exactly like 2Fategghead pictures, but once the Egg is lit, put everything in and bring to 550, I generally do not go over 525 dome when doing pizza's. I'll do one and close the bottom vent, once I know where I stand, then I open the bottom vent again wait for the temp to get to 525 and do the next pizza, and repeat, I dont like the Egg rolling around at 500 plus in between pizza's if there is a lull, I want to eat first. It is a rough road at first, I also tried first using parchment paper for the first 5 minutes, and slide the pizza off of that onto the pizza stone. A lot has to do with the gough also, you need to find a good dough for yourself.

2Fategghead · August 2010

Pitrpan, Just a thought. Check the calibration of your dome thermometer. Consider putting you dome thermometer in boiling water and check what the thermometer has for a temperature while holding it off the bottom and sides. Tim

pitrpan · August 2010

Wow!
What an overwhelming montage of replies!
Thank you all for your helpful tips and suggestions.
A bit of what I did:

I filled with lump charcoal (bge brand again!!).
No fire-starters, just a bit of rolled-up newspaper strategically placed, and lit in two or three places.

Plate setter, legs UP, grill, pizza stone on grill.

No daisy wheel, bottom vent fully open.

Temperature stabilized at around 620 degrees (which I figured would have been too high), but thought that perhaps the temperature was okay, but I was leaving the pizzas in there too long.

I suppose practice will (eventually) make perfect.
Or.. If not perfect, at least passable.

Encouraged, discouraged, and everything in between

Comments

Categories