First Try at Pizza on the Grill. Not so Good...


 
Robert T

Robert T

TVWBB Guru
I have been reading so many great posts with pizza Kim and I just had to give it a try. Got a pizza stone from my kids for Father's Day and kind of embarrassingly we've only used for frozen pizzas for the kids.

So here we go with our first try.
imagejpg1_zpsc324891b.jpg


I kind of cheated on the dough, using canned pizza crust. Okay I really cheated.
imagejpg2_zps67360d7a.jpg


Everything was going great. The kids love cheese pizza so we will do that first. Put down some sauce and cheese.
imagejpg4_zps4d6263aa.jpg

imagejpg5_zps683a859d.jpg


Then everything went south. I have no pics of this but when I tried to scoop it up and put on the stone it crumpled up and I lost half my cheese on the patio. We managed to somehow get it on the stone but it was frustrating.

Then the cheese didn't melt so well. Ended up cooking for 20 minutes. The bottom was black. I lower my head in failure!
imagejpg6_zps65ab9a9f.jpg


imagejpg1_zps037a1d42.jpg


It was kind of edible but not what I was hoping for. One chimney didn't seem to be enough heat. And the whole sticky dough thing needs to be re-thought. I'm not giving up though! I'll get this! Thanks for looking and any advice would be wonderful. BTW, cooked Kim and my pizza in the oven. No pics, but it was good.

Thanks for looking and have a great rest of the week!
 
Last edited:
Try parchment paper and a pan with no lip on it to transfer to the stone. A lot of guys are elevating their stones off the grates to get the pizza higher up in the lid where the heat is.
 
What was your set up? Coals and pizza stone height? I know some use direct heat and some use indirect heat. I use indirect since I had your outcome with direct. My stone was blazing hot, much hotter than the air temp so it cooked unevenly. I will be giving the direct method another try with the setup another member uses to see how that goes; lid slightly raised with top vents closed. And as James said, you could give parchment paper a try so you don't have to worry about the delivery.
 
Thanks for sharing. My experience was the same my first time I have never made one again. Only heated the frozen ones.

Time to try this again until we get it right. Then I can come up with a carne asada pizza....lol
 
Geez Louise... Don't hang you head. Learn from what wen wrong and kick it's *** next time. Pizza is a learning experience. Try building the pizza on the peel. Jim mentioned parchment paper. I've used that before with great results. You can also spread cornmeal on the peel before building the pizza. Good luck and hang in there!
 
Pizzas just seem to be harder to cook than most other things. I have had more failures trying to do a pizza than probably everything else combined.
 
Like others have stated, pizza ain't easy. It's no magic formula, just some logistics that us grill freaks don't normally consider - like handling sticky dough. If you don't have a pizza peel, use an unrimmed cookie sheet or parchment. If not using parchment, just use cornmeal, or better yet, semolina flour. The semolina "rolls" better in my experience and doesn't burn like the cornmeal can tend to do. Keep trying! There is no bad pizza and we get to eat our mistakes.

Chin up! :cool:
 
Robert - My first try was a failure too...same type situation. I'm a fan of semolina flour on a wooden peel, but there are lots of ways to make it work. Search for some of the pizza threads and try a few of the methods used by others. You'll find your pizza niche. Go Irish!
 
Been there done that, if you have a super hot fire and place the stone and pie right over the coals it will more than likely burn the bottom. Raising your stone on a couple of fire bricks and closing the top vent will help, but you also need to crack the lid so you don't smother the fire. Also a peel with a lot of corn starch will help a whole lot in getting the pie to and from the grill.
Also make sure your dough is at room temp so it doesn't have to heat up before starting to cook.
Hang in there you will see success!
 
I haven't used a stone but I could never get the pizza cooked without burning the bottoms until I elevated it ( pop cans )
28652_390530876965_697648_n_zpsf414d567.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]
 
Corn meal on the pizza stone along with a pizza peal.
Pillsbury makes a good pizza dough in the baking section of your local grocery store.
Or look for a frozen dough @ your local store.
And practice, practice, practice.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top