Kettle Pizza


 
R

Riki Barulich

TVWBB Member
Just purchased a kettle pizza today. I am gonna use it tomorrow. Cant wait! Just curious if there is any tips people have? Also has any one cooked anything besides pizza with it? Like bread or chicken, potatoes, anything else?
 
I have one. I use it on my Weber Smokey Mountain. I tried to do it without the middle portion a few times, but then the bottom would cook too fast and the top would be under done. So I keep the middle portion now, and put the Kettle Pizza on top.

I've only done pizza in it.

I place an aluminum wrapped pan on top of the Kettle Pizza, to deflect heat back to the top of the pizza.

What are you using your Kettle Pizza on?

What type of steel or stone do you have?

Post some pictures of your cook, if you can.
 
I have used one on my Kettle for a couple of years now. Make sure the stone you are using is made for the high heat the grill will get up to. It uses a lot of charcoal. I make a C shaped ring of unlit coals around the back of the grill then place a full chimney of lit coals on top of that. Let the pizza stone heat up for a bit and put some hardwood on the coals before you start your pizzas. I use cornmeal on the pizza peel and also place some on the stone so the pizzas wont stick.
 
Like Ryan, a C shaped ring about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way around the back, topped with lit. I'll add a few of the biggest chunks of oak or pecan onto that for a little longevity and that wood-fired experience. If you're not using the sheet metal topper attachment thingy (I forget what it's called), sometimes the crust is done before the toppings. When that happens, I use the peel to lift the pizza up toward the lid for 30 seconds or so at the end of the cook.

If possible, I will sometimes preheat the stone in the oven for a bit. I think even bringing it to 250 or 300 helps to greatly reduce preheating time that's burning charcoal. But I have a bit of a walk from the oven to the grill outside, so I'd say do that at your own risk, and only if you have really good gloves.
 
Thanks for the tips, I'm using it on my kettle. The kit came with a stone so I'll be using that one. It didnt come with the steel on top but lifting into the dome sounds like a good idea. I'll post some pics tonight.
 
You got some great tips from Jim and Ryan, Riki. Since you don't have the top steel, you might shoot for a bit lower temps so that you have more time for the top to get done before the bottom is burnt. Lifting it into the dome to finish will help.

It's not a great tool for cooking anything that needs a longer cook time (bread, chicken, etc), as the heat does get pretty high. I have considered cooking chicken or similar in the KP in a cast iron skillet on top of the stone, but typically, I decide that it's just more complicated than it will be worth.

Good luck!

R
 
I use a Dough Joe Steel, the 24 lb. 3/8" one. I think I could have gotten the 1/4" 16 lb. one instead.

I had been using applewood on the charcoal.

I just bought some olive wood. It's supposed to be better for high heat. I haven't made another pizza yet, but that will be the new thing I try next time.
 
I have a laser infrared thermometer.

I use it to measure the temperature of the steel. I wait until it's at the temperature that I want, before putting the pizza on it.
 
Ryan Burke said:
It uses a lot of charcoal. I make a C shaped ring of unlit coals around the back of the grill then place a full chimney of lit coals on top of that.
Click to expand...

I've never done this before. What's the benefit, as opposed to having a more even distribution of unlit coals, and then the lit coals on top of that?

Do you only put the lit coals on the C shaped ring?
 
Barb and I make pizzas that don't need the screaming heat that some do. Most chain pizza joints run around 450-550 for their pizzas. We use a high heat stone and our 22 kettle or performer.
The Kettle Pizza is now a garage wall ornament., at our age we really can't tell much difference but our way is a lot less hassle.
 
Pizza is going on the Wolf for us tonight. Homemade organic dough, fresh mozzarella, fresh made sauce, imported prosciutto, and nice fresh basilico as well.
 
Congrats on your KP Riki. I'm sure you'll love it. There's a bit of a learning curve but it's well worth it. I got the baking steel a few months after buying the KP. There's a few pretty basic videos on the KP website that helped me with the set up. Looking forward to seeing your results

Oh yeah, it will help for the first couple of pizzas to keep them fairly simple while you get familiar with your oven, stone and peel. Maybe one topping or so on each.
 
Nice pictures. The top came out well, and was melted nice.

Don't hide the beer next time. Knowing what beer you had with the pizza is a part of sharing the experience. Looks like a Lagunitas IPA.

I was considering buying their Hop Stoopid again today, but went with something else.
 
For me, I had a few mistakes involving transferring the pizza. Once I put it on the peel, sometimes it felt heavy and wouldn't come off. Even after dusting it with cornmeal.

During my post recent time, I pre-cooked my crust for a few minutes in the kettle pizza, before putting the toppings on. After that, transferring became very easy. So that's what worked for me.

A few other times, I would finish the pizza, remove it from the Kettle Pizza, onto the peel, then drop the peel on the way back inside the house. :(

That happened 2 different times.

I now make sure all door obstacles are removed. So I leave the sliding door open when I know I'm going to bring the pizza in.

And I have a zippered sliding door around my gazebo. I now make sure that the zippered door is completely open, and the doors are completely apart. One of the times when I dropped the pizza, the zippered doors were apart, but the zipper was still in the top position, meaning that the doors weren't completely separated. Well, my peel hit part of the zippered door, and that made my drop my peel, with the pizza on it.

As I said, I now make sure the zippered door is completely apart, and that I can fit all the way though without my peel hitting anything.

I didn't think that such a minor collision would cause my to drop my peel. But once it happened, I learned not to take any chances.

For you, everything looks like it turned out all right.

What charcoal formation did you use?
 
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