Custom Pizza Kettle

[Gary S]

I looked at the Pizza Kettle accessory, for the money I thought I could do better making up my own. I also saw the video of one made for $20.00 but I did not get away that easy.
First step was to find an 18” kettle. I wanted it for smaller cooks and appetizers too. I thought it would complement my 26. Found a used OTG in nice shape and bought some 18 gauge 304 Stainless and some ¼” round bar.
This is what we came up with after a trip to the fab shop.

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I decided it would be easier if I just dedicated a charcoal grill to making pizza as part of my set-up. That way I could bank my coals to keep the heat as indirect as possible so I welded expanded metal to a charcoal grate and shaped it with the idea of using a 14” pizza stone.

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I used my favorite foiling setup.

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The cooking grate got in the way of adding charcoal and wood so I improvised using a spare cooking grate from the lower rack of my WSM. I cut away enough of the rack to allow for adding fuel and wood but still support the bottom pizza stone. Since these rings are smaller in diameter I simply welded some tabs on each side and extended a piece of metal to prevent the rack from sliding forward. They are heavier and should withstand the heat a little better too.

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We have been trying to cook a pizza on the kettle and last night I think we finally nailed it. Here’s what worked for us. We used very thin aluminum ring. We worked the dough out on the ring and fired up the kettle.

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My set up includes a second stone 4” above as well. I think a 16" stone here would be better and I may change that in the future.

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We slid the ring onto the pizza stone. We were around 500 degrees, going by the little thermometer I installed but I had not tested it. We cooked the pizza rotating it until the toppings were melted and the crust started to brown. We lifted the pizza off the screen and placed it directly onto the stone to crisp the crust. Overall the cook took about 15 minutes. It was great.
I’m not convinced that you need 600-700 degrees to cook great pizza but this is a new skill I’m still learning.

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[Ray Jey]

Looks good, what dough recipe did you use?

 

[Regina S]

Looks perfect!

 

[Bill Schultz]

Very nice looking pie, my friend that has a purpose built masonry pizza and cooking wood oven says the temps are around 800 degrees in most spots once it warms up. Pizzas are in for a very short time so I think you are right about the temps

 

[Gary S]

Looks good, what dough recipe did you use?

Ray this time we used store made dough. I wanted to get the cooking down first. Old dog, new tricks, one cook at a time but I do love the taste yeast adds to the dough so I will be experimenting in the future.

 

[Tony R]

Looks great and nice set up Gary.

 

[J Reyes]

Ray it looks pretty good, so the 1/4 round bar is to have that rolled edge on top? If so how is that done?

Most of the hard core pizza cooks like to go with 2-3 min pizzas for Neopolitan or 5-8 min. for NY Style... One of the challenges of the Kettle Pizza is that it loses a lot of heat to the high ceiling and one of the hacks is getting the ceiling down closer to the Pizza. The new version is shorter by 20% which still is high. There's a lot of info over at Slice at the Serious Eats site.

Some alternative materials to use would be chimney stove pipe or just cut a hole in the kettle lid.

 

[Mike Cosgrove]

Nice post Gary, the pizza looks great!!

 

[Gary S]

Ray it looks pretty good, so the 1/4 round bar is to have that rolled edge on top? If so how is that done?

The new version is shorter by 20% which still is high. There's a lot of info over at Slice at the Serious Eats site.

J, the round bar is tack welded in several locations around the ring. This is to keep the lid on correctly and give the ring some added strength. The PK relies on the handles to assist with supporting the lid. My ring is shorter than the PK in height and there is only 4" clearance between the top and the bottom pizza stones.
I agree the heat loss is significant with a kettle but it is what it is. It's easier for me to remove the ring than to hack the lid.
Thanks for the link.

 

[Gary S]

Ray it looks pretty good, so the 1/4 round bar is to have that rolled edge on top? If so how is that done?

Most of the hard core pizza cooks like to go with 2-3 min pizzas for Neopolitan or 5-8 min. for NY Style... One of the challenges of the Kettle Pizza is that it loses a lot of heat to the high ceiling and one of the hacks is getting the ceiling down closer to the Pizza. The new version is shorter by 20% which still is high. There's a lot of info over at Slice at the Serious Eats site.

Some alternative materials to use would be chimney stove pipe or just cut a hole in the kettle lid.

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I tried a larger diameter stone for above the pizza and completely foiled the grate it was sitting on. This made a huge difference. I was 700 plus in less time than it took me before to get to 500 and I did not need a raging fire. If anybody is having issues with their pizza kettle using this upper stone method with foil will work.

 

[Bill Schultz]

Sorted it out did ya? That sounds more like it temp wise, well done

 

[Gary S]

Sorted it out did ya? That sounds more like it temp wise, well done

I did Bill. I don't ever see me trying Neapolitan, 900 degrees for 90 seconds. I cooked two pies yesterday, one at 700+ the other at about 550. I liked the 550 cook better overall. At 700+ with this setup it was cooking faster from the top than it was from the bottom whereas the 550 cook seemed to come out more even.

I also managed to turn the kettle lid blue at the mouth of the pizza ring which I'm not happy about: mad: It has a little rainbow effect just in that area.

 

[J Reyes]

I did Bill. I don't ever see me trying Neapolitan, 900 degrees for 90 seconds. I cooked two pies yesterday, one at 700+ the other at about 550. I liked the 550 cook better overall. At 700+ with this setup it was cooking faster from the top than it was from the bottom whereas the 550 cook seemed to come out more even.

I also managed to turn the kettle lid blue at the mouth of the pizza ring which I'm not happy about: mad: It has a little rainbow effect just in that area.

The stone talkes a while to preheat.. if you have an infrared thermo , the stone temps can be monitored to help dial in the temps.

 

[James Lake]

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I tried a larger diameter stone for above the pizza and completely foiled the grate it was sitting on. This made a huge difference. I was 700 plus in less time than it took me before to get to 500 and I did not need a raging fire. If anybody is having issues with their pizza kettle using this upper stone method with foil will work.

I like this idea....I'm for sure trying this next time it's pie time.

 

[David]

Gary, I do love pizza, and that's a great set up, but too much work for me................by the way, I posted a dough recipe over on Tony's "it's not delivery" thread..........................ck

 

[Gary S]

Gary, I do love pizza, and that's a great set up, but too much work for me................by the way, I posted a dough recipe over on Tony's "it's not delivery" thread..........................ck

Thanks David I'll check it out.