Making pizza on the WSM.

[Arun L.]

I would so your not sinking any more money in to a peel. Just have them cut half off each side so the handle stays centered. Rounded corner isn't needed. Its just for looks and to keep the corner from being a sharp point.

I went to that metal shop yesterday (after calling ahead to ask what a good time would be).

They put the peel in their machine. 1/2" was just the minimum they could shave off, so I was lucky. They trimmed 1/2 an inch on each side.

It looks great!

Their whole process was quick and smooth, they honored the estimate and no issues there.

I went back home and tested it on my Kettle Pizza setup with the stone, and the test setup looks great, the peel can go inside now.

 

[JBooker]

Now you just have to get good at sliding a pizza off it with out unloading all the toppings on to a 700 deg stone.

 

[Arun L.]

I attempted to make my first pizza using the Kettle Pizza on Sunday.

Pics:

http://imgur.com/a/aIS5C/layout/grid

I had a lot of problems.

1) Starting the fire:

This is the 2nd time I've used my WSM grill. The first was for a smoked turkey on August.

I did have some problems with starting the fire in the chimney starter then too. At that time, I used lighter fluid. I later learned it's not good to use it because of the additives.

But the problem even then was that the fire would quickly die within a min or two in the chimney starter. It took me several tries of the fire dying before I could get it to stay.

My solution at the time was to squirt lighter fluid during one of the times it was dying.

I even did that once during the cook when the flame looked small, and the temperature falling below the threshold. I didn't have to do it anymore, as the Flame Boss regulated it the way I wanted to for hte most part.

THIS time, I used the chimney starter again. My method was to cover a paper towel soaked in cooking oil, on top of the charcoal.

There was no wind.

I'm using a Bic matchstick lighter.

The fire (even the one in the picture) would only stay while it was burning the paper towel. It would die quickly after it was done in the paper towel.

I repeated the process 6 - 7 times using the paper towel method, until finally the fire in the chimney starter stayed.

My chimney starter was full with charcoal btw.

Why am I having so much trouble maintaining the fire?

Once the charcoals were white, I put them into the charcoal rack of the WSM. However, during the transfer, the fire died right away again.

I added 3 hickory woods, and did the paper towel method again. Again, I had problems with the fire only lasting a little beyond the burning of the paper towel.

After a few attempts, finally the fire stayed.

But again, why can't the fire persist? This is before even putting the steel in the oven, as I wanted the fire be steady for a bit.

I then put the steel into the oven.

I then put the lid on, but as soon as I did that, the fire reduced. I then decided I didn't want to put the lid on top, as that was probably supressing too much oxygen.

2) Getting the steel hotter.

Within a few minutes, one part of the steel hovered between 450 - 500.

The left side was at about 390.

10-15 mins later, the middle had warned up to about 350.

The front side was cooler, but oh well.

While I did pre-heat it for 35 mins, the temperature never really changed beyond what it already was at during the 10 minute portion. Whatever the temperatures were on differnent portions of the steel at about 10 mins, was what it was later on at about 35 mins.

I've read though that people get theirs to 500, 600, even 700 degrees. How can I get mine to at least 500?

Again, it's probably related to # 1, with keeping a good and LARGE fire.

3) Sliding the pizza from the pizza peel.

While it was preheating, I dusted my peel with cornmeal.

I then put the dough on, and started rolling it.

I noticed it was sticking to the peel.

I took the dough off, and heavily dusted the peel.

Then, the edges slide around fine, but the center was still a little too sticky.

I can see now why it would be helpful to have a second peel to push the pizza onto the stone with.

Since I wasn't going to have a lid on my Kettle Pizza, I decided that I would sauce the pizza on the peel, but put the toppings after I had put the pizza onto the stone.

I used a small cutting board with a skinny end to push the pizza onto the stone. It wasn't too bad. Shape mostly stayed. I could use this as a workaround.

Putting the toppings on as the pizza was on the stone was fine.

# 3 has a workable solution until maybe I get a second peel.

4) Maintaining the fire once cooking.

Within 1 - 2 minutes after putting the pizza on the stone, the fire died.

I then proceeded to take the stone off the Kettle Pizza.

I tried putting the stone onto a rack from my gas grill, but quickly saw it wouldn't support the weight. I then tried putting it on a bench, but as soon as I put the stone on it, the wood started sizzling. Not good.

So I took it off.

I thought about putting it on the paving stone, but the paving stone had ashes and I didn't want to put the pizza stone onto the paving stone.

So I put it on the patio ground.

I then proceeded to start the fire directly on the Kettle Pizza again, going through several more rounds of paper towel on charcoal, with the fire dying as usual.

I added 3-4 new wood pieces, and this time the fire seemed to stay better.

I then had a problem. I couldn't lift the pizza stone off the ground. It was too hot to touch, and when wearing silicone tipped oven mitts, it was too hard to grip.

I tried a few methods to lift the stone (trying to get various objects underneath), but none of them worked.

35-40 minutes later, I was able to use a normal crack on the patio to have the pizza peel get a tiny bit under the stone, and then have the pizza stone slide onto the peel.

I then put the pizza stone onto the paving stone, and did the usual struggles with starting the fire.

Once it was started, I put the pizza stone back on the Kettle Pizza. The pizza was still on there.

I didn't want to take it off anymore and deal with another challenge.

After a few minutes, the temperature was similar as to what it was the first time the pizza stone was pre-heated.

But since it was only at about 400 degrees (and not the 500 some parts of the stone was the first time), I thought I had to cook it longer.

I thought maybe 20 minutes, so I did.

Afterwards, I felt around. The part of the pizza that was on the cooler side of the steel was still a little raw. But, since I didn't have the lid on the Kettle Pizza, it was easy to rotate the pizza around.

I rotated the less cooked portion to the hotter side of the steel.

Rotating the pizza doesn't seem like a big deal to me, and something I can do in the future. Chefs using pizza ovens in restaurants rotate their pizza so that all portions of the pizza spend some time with the side closest to the fire.

I then thought 15 mins with the lesser cooked side.

Afterwards, I felt around, and it felt done.

So I took the pizza off.

The last pic is of the bottom of the crust.

It was too crispy, but whatever, at least the sauce and toppings tasted good.

I took a pic of the remaining charcoal after the cook, so you can get a sense of how much charcoal I'd used during this process, and advise on the amount.

I had thought about using the Flame Boss during the cook, but because there was the threat of rain, I didn't want to use it. I am under a covered canopy, but I don't want to plug anything in if it might rain.

This is more motivation though to get the external battery for the Flame Boss, so I won't need an electrical outlet. I think if I were to use it, it would have been easier to maintain a temperature, and possibly get a higher temperature too.

So # 1, 2, and 4 are all related.

All of this ended up being a 3+ hour process, from the time I first tried starting the fire in the chimney until I took the pizza off.

FYI, it ended up starting to rain 10 minutes after I took the pizza off. I guess I was lucky that there wasn't any wind during this entire process.

5) If I can't get the temperature up next time, and the steel temperature stays at about 400 degrees, how many minutes should I cook each 1/2 of the pizza? This is if only half of the steel is hotter than the other half.

6) While I had used my silicone tipped reliable oven mitts, they did seem to have some trouble near the flame. I have never had any issue with them with any indoor kitchen cook.

Are there any oven gloves that are recommended? I mention glove as opposed to a mitt because a glove would make it easier to hold some things such as the pizza steel.

Here's a flame retardant glove I found. They are made of leather. Is that preferred to silicone? Why?

https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B01LB32J4Y/tvwb-20

Here's silicone mitts with a rating up to 446 degrees.

https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B013H2MG4U/tvwb-20

Doing this pizza has been a wish of mine since I initially started researching things in July.


Part of my desire to do it on a grill was to see if using smoke wood would have an impact on the flavor to me. Part of it was for the fun of it.

However, there were so many things wrong with the process this time that I can't use much of it as a baseline to judge taste with.


I hope sometime in the future to get to where starting a fire and having it be ready for cooking is about as easy and about the same amount of time as preheating an oven to a high temperature.

But right now, I seem far away.

 

[JBooker]

1) Starting the fire:

This is the 2nd time I've used my WSM grill. The first was for a smoked turkey on August.

I did have some problems with starting the fire in the chimney starter then too. At that time, I used lighter fluid. I later learned it's not good to use it because of the additives.

But the problem even then was that the fire would quickly die within a min or two in the chimney starter. It took me several tries of the fire dying before I could get it to stay.

My solution at the time was to squirt lighter fluid during one of the times it was dying.

I even did that once during the cook when the flame looked small, and the temperature falling below the threshold. I didn't have to do it anymore, as the Flame Boss regulated it the way I wanted to for hte most part.

THIS time, I used the chimney starter again. My method was to cover a paper towel soaked in cooking oil, on top of the charcoal.

There was no wind.

I'm using a Bic matchstick lighter.

The fire (even the one in the picture) would only stay while it was burning the paper towel. It would die quickly after it was done in the paper towel.

I repeated the process 6 - 7 times using the paper towel method, until finally the fire in the chimney starter stayed.

My chimney starter was full with charcoal btw.

Why am I having so much trouble maintaining the fire?

Once the charcoals were white, I put them into the charcoal rack of the WSM. However, during the transfer, the fire died right away again.

I added 3 hickory woods, and did the paper towel method again. Again, I had problems with the fire only lasting a little beyond the burning of the paper towel.

After a few attempts, finally the fire stayed.

But again, why can't the fire persist? This is before even putting the steel in the oven, as I wanted the fire be steady for a bit.

I then put the steel into the oven.

I then put the lid on, but as soon as I did that, the fire reduced. I then decided I didn't want to put the lid on top, as that was probably supressing too much oxygen.

You need to start your chimney from the bottom up. Heat rises so its best to start the fire from the bottom of the pile. My normal fire starter is a paper towel that has cooking oil on it, or bacon grease. Wad it up in to a ball and put it under your chimney. Chimney starts a little slow at first but as coals light and heat builds it progresses faster. As long as you can hear it crackling and its smoking its still lighting. You can tell when the coal is about ready to be dumped out when the smoke disappears and your getting nice blue flames out the top. Lighting coal in a chimney from the top down wouldn't be very successful if at all. You use the charcoal as a bed of coal. When cooking pizzas at high heat your really using wood as the fuel. The coals just help light and burn the wood. Ill go though 1/2 a bag of wood chunks when cooking 4 pizzas. You don't add it all at once. Just keep feeding the fire to keep the flames up.

 

[JBooker]

2) Getting the steel hotter.

Within a few minutes, one part of the steel hovered between 450 - 500.

The left side was at about 390.

10-15 mins later, the middle had warned up to about 350.

The front side was cooler, but oh well.

While I did pre-heat it for 35 mins, the temperature never really changed beyond what it already was at during the 10 minute portion. Whatever the temperatures were on differnent portions of the steel at about 10 mins, was what it was later on at about 35 mins.

I've read though that people get theirs to 500, 600, even 700 degrees. How can I get mine to at least 500?

Again, it's probably related to # 1, with keeping a good and LARGE fire.

Yes you need a good bed of coal to help maintain the temps as the flame rises and dies. Id imagine part of the issue is the coals getting enough air. The WSM is a smoker so its designed to cook long and slow. Where the Weber kettle is a grill so it has larger vents in the bottom for more air flow and higher temps. I use a stone and let it warm up for about an hr minimum. I do this when I cook on the pizza kettle or in my oven. I get my stone on the grill up to 750 and can get the stone up to 600 in my oven.

 

[JBooker]

3) Sliding the pizza from the pizza peel.

While it was preheating, I dusted my peel with cornmeal.

I then put the dough on, and started rolling it.

I noticed it was sticking to the peel.

I took the dough off, and heavily dusted the peel.

Then, the edges slide around fine, but the center was still a little too sticky.

I can see now why it would be helpful to have a second peel to push the pizza onto the stone with.

Since I wasn't going to have a lid on my Kettle Pizza, I decided that I would sauce the pizza on the peel, but put the toppings after I had put the pizza onto the stone.

I used a small cutting board with a skinny end to push the pizza onto the stone. It wasn't too bad. Shape mostly stayed. I could use this as a workaround.

Putting the toppings on as the pizza was on the stone was fine.

# 3 has a workable solution until maybe I get a second peel.

Haha yea it takes practice. Don't be afraid to use more flower when stretching your dough out. Use the same type of flower as you use to make the crust. You don't want to add more flower to the point your changing the dough but you want to create a dry floured surface on the crust. That way there isn't moisture to cause it to stick to the peel. Also don't stretch it out on the peel. You want to do all that work on the floured counter then transfer the stretched crust to the peel. That way your not pressing moisture out of the crust and on to the peel. Put the crust on the peel, sauce and top it and hurry up and slide it on the stone / steel. The longer the crust sits on the peel the more of a chance it will stick. The key is to move quick.

 

[JBooker]

4) Maintaining the fire once cooking.

Within 1 - 2 minutes after putting the pizza on the stone, the fire died.

I then proceeded to take the stone off the Kettle Pizza.

I tried putting the stone onto a rack from my gas grill, but quickly saw it wouldn't support the weight. I then tried putting it on a bench, but as soon as I put the stone on it, the wood started sizzling. Not good.

So I took it off.

I thought about putting it on the paving stone, but the paving stone had ashes and I didn't want to put the pizza stone onto the paving stone.

So I put it on the patio ground.

I then proceeded to start the fire directly on the Kettle Pizza again, going through several more rounds of paper towel on charcoal, with the fire dying as usual.

I added 3-4 new wood pieces, and this time the fire seemed to stay better.

I then had a problem. I couldn't lift the pizza stone off the ground. It was too hot to touch, and when wearing silicone tipped oven mitts, it was too hard to grip.

I tried a few methods to lift the stone (trying to get various objects underneath), but none of them worked.

35-40 minutes later, I was able to use a normal crack on the patio to have the pizza peel get a tiny bit under the stone, and then have the pizza stone slide onto the peel.

I then put the pizza stone onto the paving stone, and did the usual struggles with starting the fire.

Once it was started, I put the pizza stone back on the Kettle Pizza. The pizza was still on there.

I didn't want to take it off anymore and deal with another challenge.

After a few minutes, the temperature was similar as to what it was the first time the pizza stone was pre-heated.

But since it was only at about 400 degrees (and not the 500 some parts of the stone was the first time), I thought I had to cook it longer.

I thought maybe 20 minutes, so I did.

Afterwards, I felt around. The part of the pizza that was on the cooler side of the steel was still a little raw. But, since I didn't have the lid on the Kettle Pizza, it was easy to rotate the pizza around.

I rotated the less cooked portion to the hotter side of the steel.

Rotating the pizza doesn't seem like a big deal to me, and something I can do in the future. Chefs using pizza ovens in restaurants rotate their pizza so that all portions of the pizza spend some time with the side closest to the fire.

I then thought 15 mins with the lesser cooked side.

Afterwards, I felt around, and it felt done.

So I took the pizza off.

The last pic is of the bottom of the crust.

It was too crispy, but whatever, at least the sauce and toppings tasted good.

I took a pic of the remaining charcoal after the cook, so you can get a sense of how much charcoal I'd used during this process, and advise on the amount.

I had thought about using the Flame Boss during the cook, but because there was the threat of rain, I didn't want to use it. I am under a covered canopy, but I don't want to plug anything in if it might rain.

This is more motivation though to get the external battery for the Flame Boss, so I won't need an electrical outlet. I think if I were to use it, it would have been easier to maintain a temperature, and possibly get a higher temperature too.

So # 1, 2, and 4 are all related.

All of this ended up being a 3+ hour process, from the time I first tried starting the fire in the chimney until I took the pizza off.

FYI, it ended up starting to rain 10 minutes after I took the pizza off. I guess I was lucky that there wasn't any wind during this entire process.

You could try a stoker, it would force feed the fire air. since the WSM isn't setup with as large of intake air vents. Once you take the steel off its going to loose heat, and it looses it faster than a stone. Id say your cooking problem kind of all goes back to getting a good bed of coals going. The texture of the pizza is all determined on the cooking temp, and the water content of the crust. The higher the heat, the less water you need because the pizza isn't cooked at long so there is time for water to evaporate. If you use a lower temp you need more water because it spends more time in the oven.

 

[JBooker]

5) If I can't get the temperature up next time, and the steel temperature stays at about 400 degrees, how many minutes should I cook each 1/2 of the pizza? This is if only half of the steel is hotter than the other half.

I would start spreading the coals out a little more to get an even steel temp. Put a little more heat source under the cooking surface instead of piling it on the back side. As for how long I couldn't tell ya. You just going to have to go by how it looks. If your not using anything to trap the heat on the top side then the bottom will probably be done, and the top wont look like it.

 

[JBooker]

6) While I had used my silicone tipped reliable oven mitts, they did seem to have some trouble near the flame. I have never had any issue with them with any indoor kitchen cook.

Are there any oven gloves that are recommended? I mention glove as opposed to a mitt because a glove would make it easier to hold some things such as the pizza steel.

Here's a flame retardant glove I found. They are made of leather. Is that preferred to silicone? Why?

https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B01LB32J4Y/tvwb-20

Here's silicone mitts with a rating up to 446 degrees.

https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B013H2MG4U/tvwb-20

Doing this pizza has been a wish of mine since I initially started researching things in July.


Part of my desire to do it on a grill was to see if using smoke wood would have an impact on the flavor to me. Part of it was for the fun of it.

However, there were so many things wrong with the process this time that I can't use much of it as a baseline to judge taste with.


I hope sometime in the future to get to where starting a fire and having it be ready for cooking is about as easy and about the same amount of time as preheating an oven to a high temperature.

But right now, I seem far away.

I use a good pair of welding gloves. How much are you would you want to spend. Miller makes a welding glove that has silicone pads sewn on the back side of the hands. They They are like $45 on amazon. I don't directly handle the hot cooking surface but its nice to have to incase you need to.
https://www.millerwelds.com/safety/gloves/mig-stick-gloves-m00467

Don't get discouraged it is gets easier with practice. You might consider trying to get your recipe and cooking technique down using the oven in your house. That way you take out the Pizza Kettle setup out of the picture. Once your good at doing it in the oven then move on to doing it on the grill.

 

[Arun L.]

You need to start your chimney from the bottom up. Heat rises so its best to start the fire from the bottom of the pile. My normal fire starter is a paper towel that has cooking oil on it, or bacon grease. Wad it up in to a ball and put it under your chimney. Chimney starts a little slow at first but as coals light and heat builds it progresses faster. As long as you can hear it crackling and its smoking its still lighting. You can tell when the coal is about ready to be dumped out when the smoke disappears and your getting nice blue flames out the top. Lighting coal in a chimney from the top down wouldn't be very successful if at all. You use the charcoal as a bed of coal. When cooking pizzas at high heat your really using wood as the fuel. The coals just help light and burn the wood. Ill go though 1/2 a bag of wood chunks when cooking 4 pizzas. You don't add it all at once. Just keep feeding the fire to keep the flames up.

Thank you.

So I should add some coals in the chimney, light it, then as it builds, add more coal?

Then once I get to a full chimney, I dump it into the Kettle Pizza, and then add wood?

 

[Arun L.]

Haha yea it takes practice. Don't be afraid to use more flower when stretching your dough out. Use the same type of flower as you use to make the crust. You don't want to add more flower to the point your changing the dough but you want to create a dry floured surface on the crust. That way there isn't moisture to cause it to stick to the peel. Also don't stretch it out on the peel. You want to do all that work on the floured counter then transfer the stretched crust to the peel. That way your not pressing moisture out of the crust and on to the peel. Put the crust on the peel, sauce and top it and hurry up and slide it on the stone / steel. The longer the crust sits on the peel the more of a chance it will stick. The key is to move quick.

Thank you.

 

[Arun L.]

You could try a stoker, it would force feed the fire air. since the WSM isn't setup with as large of intake air vents. Once you take the steel off its going to loose heat, and it looses it faster than a stone. Id say your cooking problem kind of all goes back to getting a good bed of coals going. The texture of the pizza is all determined on the cooking temp, and the water content of the crust. The higher the heat, the less water you need because the pizza isn't cooked at long so there is time for water to evaporate. If you use a lower temp you need more water because it spends more time in the oven.

Thank you.

Since I do have the Kettle Pizza on the WSM, and you said the air vents are smaller than a regular Webber Kettle, I'll use the Flame Boss then to force feed more air.

And I'll prioritize getting the external battery for the Flame Boss so I won't need to plug it into an outlet.

As I said, I'm under a canopy but I still don't want to take a chance of running a power cord to the outlet, as there's a small area near the outlet that's not covered by the rain.

 

[Arun L.]

I would start spreading the coals out a little more to get an even steel temp. Put a little more heat source under the cooking surface instead of piling it on the back side. As for how long I couldn't tell ya. You just going to have to go by how it looks. If your not using anything to trap the heat on the top side then the bottom will probably be done, and the top wont look like it.

If I have a better fire, AND use the Flame Boss to control the heat, then do you think putting on the lid will trap the head from the top side properly?

I had pre-cooked by toppings this time so I didn't need the top to be too cooked. I also pre-cooked my toppings because I wasn't sure how well my heat setup would be during my first attempt.

 

[Arun L.]

Haha yea it takes practice. Don't be afraid to use more flower when stretching your dough out. Use the same type of flower as you use to make the crust. You don't want to add more flower to the point your changing the dough but you want to create a dry floured surface on the crust. That way there isn't moisture to cause it to stick to the peel. Also don't stretch it out on the peel. You want to do all that work on the floured counter then transfer the stretched crust to the peel. That way your not pressing moisture out of the crust and on to the peel. Put the crust on the peel, sauce and top it and hurry up and slide it on the stone / steel. The longer the crust sits on the peel the more of a chance it will stick. The key is to move quick.

Just so I understand.

Why does rolling the dough on a floured counter not cause the same issue as rolling it onto a dusted peel?

Regardless of where it is being rolled, doesn't the moisture still get pressed (even if it's on a counter)?

Does rolling it onto a counter just make it easier to slide the pizza onto a peel?

 

[Arun L.]

Should I get new gloves, since the silicone tipped oven mitts seemed to have trouble near the flame?


Do you think I need new gloves? Or as long as I don't handle the steel when hot (and I shouldn't be if the fire is burning well), then I don't need new gloves?


I prefer gloves to mitts since it's easier to hold things with gloves. So while my current ones are mitts, I want to look for gloves.


If I get new ones, which of these do you recommend?


1) Flame Retardant glove, made with leather:

https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B01LB32J4Y/tvwb-20


2) Silicone mitts, rating up to 446 degrees:

https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B013H2MG4U/tvwb-20


3) Two sided silicone gloves, rating up to 662 degrees:

https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B01N2RNCQN/tvwb-20

 

[Arun L.]

I attempted to make my first pizza using the Kettle Pizza on Sunday.

Pics:

http://imgur.com/a/aIS5C/layout/grid

@JBooker, visually, other than the fire not being proper (in the chimney and on the grill), you don't see any issues with the setup, right?

 

[Arun L.]

You need to start your chimney from the bottom up. Heat rises so its best to start the fire from the bottom of the pile. My normal fire starter is a paper towel that has cooking oil on it, or bacon grease. Wad it up in to a ball and put it under your chimney. Chimney starts a little slow at first but as coals light and heat builds it progresses faster. As long as you can hear it crackling and its smoking its still lighting. You can tell when the coal is about ready to be dumped out when the smoke disappears and your getting nice blue flames out the top. Lighting coal in a chimney from the top down wouldn't be very successful if at all. You use the charcoal as a bed of coal. When cooking pizzas at high heat your really using wood as the fuel. The coals just help light and burn the wood. Ill go though 1/2 a bag of wood chunks when cooking 4 pizzas. You don't add it all at once. Just keep feeding the fire to keep the flames up.

How do I keep feeding the fire once my stone is in, without having to handle/move the stone?

Also, why was I also having trouble with the fire when I was trying to light it directly from the Kettle Pizza (after I had dumped the lit goals from the chimney and the fire went out during the transfer)?

Even when trying to light it directly on the charcoal rack under the Kettle Pizza, the fire would only be lit most of the time when it was burning oil soaked paper towels. It wouldn't keep burning the other charcoal.

Did I not have enough charcoal or wood in between? Take a look at the pic of my setup again. (I think I only took a pic of the spent charcoal, but maybe that will help).

Yes, I'll use the Flame Boss in the future, but not having the fire go for more than a few minutes when lit directly on the charcoal rack seems like I was still far off from a successful fire.

 

[JBooker]

Putting the lid on will help keep some heat on the top side but it probably wont be enough. You need a flat roof on the top of the kettle pizza, not a dome. The flat roof makes for a low ceiling in the cooking chamber which holds more heat closer to the top side.

As for working the dough on the counter vs peel, yes it does the same thing but you keep dusting the crust with flour so it doesn't get a wet surface and stick. You don't really have that option doing it on a peel, and if you do it that way on the peel you still have to remove the crust to get rid of excess flour. Other wise it will be trapped between the crust and cooking surface and burn.

With your setup using a regular cooking grate to support your steel you do have to remove it to stoke the fire. I use it on the 22" setup and use the pro grate. It simply holds the stone and has openings all around the cooking surface.

Your setup should work. It would be better if you could eventually move to a 22" kettle though. It would give you more room to completely get your steel in side the kettle pizza. It would also allow for more area around the steel for air / heat to vent up and out. The more your cooking surface covers up the coals the more they are going to struggle to burn because they will suffocate. Also it will trap more heat under the cooking surface and cause it to run hot. Wich is fine but if your not getting heat on the top side of the pizza the bottom burns while the top doesn't cook. The ideal goal is to end up with just as much heat on the top side as the cooking surface. That way it cooks even.


When I light my KP I use the small weber chimney. I fill it clear up then start the oil soaked paper towel on fire underneath it. Once the coals are all 100% ashed over and burning hot I dump them out. I then dump a full size chimney of unlit coal on top of the lit ones. Assemble the KP and allow for about 1 hr for the coal to light and the KP to come up to temperature.

 

[JBooker]

Should I get new gloves, since the silicone tipped oven mitts seemed to have trouble near the flame?


Do you think I need new gloves? Or as long as I don't handle the steel when hot (and I shouldn't be if the fire is burning well), then I don't need new gloves?


I prefer gloves to mitts since it's easier to hold things with gloves. So while my current ones are mitts, I want to look for gloves.


If I get new ones, which of these do you recommend?


1) Flame Retardant glove, made with leather:

https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B01LB32J4Y/tvwb-20


2) Silicone mitts, rating up to 446 degrees:

https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B013H2MG4U/tvwb-20


3) Two sided silicone gloves, rating up to 662 degrees:

https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B01N2RNCQN/tvwb-20

I prefer the leather gloves. You might check out your local farm / tool supply houses. They usually carry welding gloves. That way you can try them on before you buy them, and you can also get a feel for how heavy they are.

 

[Arun L.]

Putting the lid on will help keep some heat on the top side but it probably wont be enough. You need a flat roof on the top of the kettle pizza, not a dome. The flat roof makes for a low ceiling in the cooking chamber which holds more heat closer to the top side.

As for working the dough on the counter vs peel, yes it does the same thing but you keep dusting the crust with flour so it doesn't get a wet surface and stick. You don't really have that option doing it on a peel, and if you do it that way on the peel you still have to remove the crust to get rid of excess flour. Other wise it will be trapped between the crust and cooking surface and burn.

With your setup using a regular cooking grate to support your steel you do have to remove it to stoke the fire. I use it on the 22" setup and use the pro grate. It simply holds the stone and has openings all around the cooking surface.

Your setup should work. It would be better if you could eventually move to a 22" kettle though. It would give you more room to completely get your steel in side the kettle pizza. It would also allow for more area around the steel for air / heat to vent up and out. The more your cooking surface covers up the coals the more they are going to struggle to burn because they will suffocate. Also it will trap more heat under the cooking surface and cause it to run hot. Wich is fine but if your not getting heat on the top side of the pizza the bottom burns while the top doesn't cook. The ideal goal is to end up with just as much heat on the top side as the cooking surface. That way it cooks even.


When I light my KP I use the small weber chimney. I fill it clear up then start the oil soaked paper towel on fire underneath it. Once the coals are all 100% ashed over and burning hot I dump them out. I then dump a full size chimney of unlit coal on top of the lit ones. Assemble the KP and allow for about 1 hr for the coal to light and the KP to come up to temperature.

I know. It's hard to buy another kettle, when I just bought the 18" one in July, and have now only used it twice.

I can't get a new one so soon, it will be a few years with this one.

I'm also not good at selling things, nor do I want to take the loss at what selling the 18" would cost.

If I had known that I would get a Kettle Pizza to use with the WSM when I was considering what kind of grill to buy, then I would have gone with the 22". But I didn't even know about the Kettle Pizza, nor did I know that I would need something extra in order for a setup to make pizza on the WSM.

How do do you start the oiled soaked paper towel fire underneath the chimney, if you've already filled up the chimney?