Best choice for making pizza? Regular kettle or ranch kettle?


 

Tomas Bjornerback

TVWBB Member
Hi,

Yesterday we made a dozen pizzas as part of the Easter celebration.
I chose between my regular 57 cm kettle and the 1 m Ranch kettle for the pizza stone (made for 57 cm kettles). I took the regular 57 cm kettle, thinking that the ranch:er could not easily maintain the high temperature involved.

I had to really struggle to keep the temperature above 240°C, peaking at 270 from time to time. I guess I should have had at least 300°C?

They took about 8-12 minutes to finish and turned out pretty good, but no brownness on the crust.

What's the "ideal" temperature to make pizza on the pizza stone?

Have anyone tried it on the ranch kettle and what, if any, wisdom can be learnt from that?

Would it be possible to either have four regular pizza stones, or custom order a big single one and get some tempo in the pizza manufacturing?

Best wishes of a happy easter,
Tomas
 
I had recent success on my 22" kettle:

http://tvwbb.com/eve/forums/a/...80069052/m/892106805

Too hot can be a problem too. There is a temp zone where the pie cooks properly ( browns) in a reasonable amount of time. I didn't get a temp because all my bimetal therms peg at 400* and I didn't want to get one messed up by going past their limit.

My problem was getting the top of the pie cooked, which I learned, requires reflected heat from above.

sorry I can help with the rancher.
 
Thanks for the tips!

You've got a really nice setup going there!

How do you get the top stone hot enough? Just heat it 10-15 minutes in the kettle with the other stone before starting?
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">How do you get the top stone hot enough? Just heat it 10-15 minutes in the kettle with the other stone before starting? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

no, the whole thing preheats as it. the set up was off center and all the coals were banked away from it. No part of it was directly heated. I had to spin the pie at the halfway point because the edge closer to the coals browned faster.

With more grate area of the rancher, you could have more separation between the fire and the stones, and wouldn't have to worry about uneven cooking, if you could get it hot enough.
 
I'd just like to chime in for a moment to say that Tomas, it cheers my heart to know that there's a guy in Sweden making pizzas on his Weber for Easter dinner. Cheers!
 
Thanks!

I'll post a few pictures I took.

First pizza, 2 min into the cook:

Pizzastone.jpg


More coals needed. The rancher had to help me out. The kettle is cooking pizza #6 out of 12.
morecoals.jpg
 

 

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