KP + CI + Oven = Pizza!


 
Rich G

Rich G

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I've been reading a bit about skillet pizzas lately, and it seemed like no fun to just cook it in the oven....... so, I fired up the Kettle Pizza attachment (sitting on the bottom of my WSM22), and went to town. I expected this pizza to need a bit more time than my usual, so I adjusted my dough formula to be 75% AP, 25% 00. Sauce was made from a box of diced italian tomatoes, and frozen the last time I made pizza. Toppings were low moisture mozzarella, homemade italian sausage, and jalapeño from the garden (for my portion.....) I used fewer briquettes than I normally do, trying to keep the temps around 500-550. I preheated the CI skillet for about 15 minutes, and have decided that's too much. Next time, I either won't pre-heat at all, or just five minutes......my challenge continues to be top heat, so this one got finished under the broiler to cook the toppings properly. The pie was really good! Some pics....

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Hope y'all are ready for the next installment of Groundhog Day tomorrow! ;)

R
 
Steve Madden said:
That looks like it came out great! How do arrange the coals in that type of setup?
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Thanks, Steve. I use the same setup with the WSM22 base as I do with the kettle. Here's a pic from a previous cook:

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I used fewer unlit coals this time out, and about 3/4 of a chimney of lit gets poured evenly on top of that. The KP thermometer was running about 550F, and the lid therm only hit 375F, which is why I had to use the broiler to get the toppings finished.

R
 
That looks great. I have never cooked in the KP but I would try putting something on the stone to get an air gap between the stone and your skillet so the crust cooks slower and getting the pie higher in the dome so the heat from the lid cooks your toppings. I also dont preheat the pan at all for pan pizzas.
 
Looks like a tasty pie! I shoot for 475° when doing the cast iron pan pizzas. Do not preheat the pan. One more trick is to place the cheese on the dough then your sauce, toppings and a bit more cheese if you like. The cheese layer helps keep the moisture from the sauce off the top of the dough and will give you a better crust.

When I did our last camp cook in the dutch oven, I too had a hard time getting the top done, because with the fire ban in the woods we couldn't use briquettes. Two pizzas were done in the DO. We preheated the DO base (since that was the lid) over the propane burners. Then placed the lid with the Pizza on the burner and preheated DO on top. Unfortunately the DO did not hold heat super good so tops weren't quite done when the bottom was.

The third pizza was done in a 12" skillet. I used one of the DO lids to top it. This worked great actually. bottom crust and top were done at the same time. So if you have a lid for that skillet or a dutch oven lid that will fit give it a try.

For the DO pizzas I leaned back on Blow torch nachos we used the propane torch to get the tops done.
 
Preston B said:
That looks great. I have never cooked in the KP but I would try putting something on the stone to get an air gap between the stone and your skillet so the crust cooks slower and getting the pie higher in the dome so the heat from the lid cooks your toppings. I also dont preheat the pan at all for pan pizzas.
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CaseT said:
Looks like a tasty pie! I shoot for 475° when doing the cast iron pan pizzas. Do not preheat the pan. One more trick is to place the cheese on the dough then your sauce, toppings and a bit more cheese if you like. The cheese layer helps keep the moisture from the sauce off the top of the dough and will give you a better crust.

When I did our last camp cook in the dutch oven, I too had a hard time getting the top done, because with the fire ban in the woods we couldn't use briquettes. Two pizzas were done in the DO. We preheated the DO base (since that was the lid) over the propane burners. Then placed the lid with the Pizza on the burner and preheated DO on top. Unfortunately the DO did not hold heat super good so tops weren't quite done when the bottom was.

The third pizza was done in a 12" skillet. I used one of the DO lids to top it. This worked great actually. bottom crust and top were done at the same time. So if you have a lid for that skillet or a dutch oven lid that will fit give it a try.

For the DO pizzas I leaned back on Blow torch nachos we used the propane torch to get the tops done.
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Thanks, guys for the thoughts on how to tweak this one. There's not much clearance in the KP opening, so raising the skillet off the stone would be difficult, and trying to play around with lids/toppers for the skillet will be a challenge, too. I think the two things I need to try next are no preheat on the skillet (it's funny, pretty much every article/recipe I read about skillet pizza preheated the skillet, but I KNEW when I dropped it in there, that I was going to have a done bottom before done top), and to remember to put some coals on top of my baking steel (upper heat in the KP) to get more heat up there during the pre-heat.

The pie turned out great, but I do want to figure out a method that will get everything done correctly 100% in the KP. I think those two tweaks will get me there, or very close. One bonus if I don't preheat the skillet, is that pie #2 can be prepared while pie #1 is cooking.

Thanks!

R
 
Rich G said:
Thanks, guys for the thoughts on how to tweak this one. There's not much clearance in the KP opening, so raising the skillet off the stone would be difficult, and trying to play around with lids/toppers for the skillet will be a challenge, too. I think the two things I need to try next are no preheat on the skillet (it's funny, pretty much every article/recipe I read about skillet pizza preheated the skillet, but I KNEW when I dropped it in there, that I was going to have a done bottom before done top), and to remember to put some coals on top of my baking steel (upper heat in the KP) to get more heat up there during the pre-heat.

The pie turned out great, but I do want to figure out a method that will get everything done correctly 100% in the KP. I think those two tweaks will get me there, or very close. One bonus if I don't preheat the skillet, is that pie #2 can be prepared while pie #1 is cooking.

Thanks!

R
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Could you not use the KP and put the stone directly on your grate and use a couple foil balls on the stone to put your pan on to create an air gap? That would lower your dome to the pizza and you are still indirect.
 
Preston B said:
Could you not use the KP and put the stone directly on your grate and use a couple foil balls on the stone to put your pan on to create an air gap? That would lower your dome to the pizza and you are still indirect.
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Yes, I totally could, but my goal right now is to do this WITH the KP attachment. If my tweaks I mentioned above don't work, then I will try it with the stone on a grate, removing the KP stone "holder".....which could also give me room to put a gap between the skillet and the stone. I like to play around with stuff, so this will be some fun experimentation (which results in pizza I get to eat, so win/win!) :)

Thanks for your suggestions, I think they are very valid, I'm just not ready to give up on the traditional KP setup just yet. :)

R
 
So in my mini-za oven I had a problem with heat at the top too. I put a grate above and placed a terracotta plant tray wrapped in foil on it to radiate the heat back down better. You could do something similar by not using your dome lid and placing a flat piece of metal or a large pizza stone, or???? Another thing I found was that not having the top vent open and letting it vent out the front opening allowed the heat to run over the top of the za. Last time I used it I didn't use the domed lid. I put the original flat tamale pot lid on and it did even better.

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CaseT said:
So in my mini-za oven I had a problem with heat at the top too. I put a grate above and placed a terracotta plant tray wrapped in foil on it to radiate the heat back down better. You could do something similar by not using your dome lid and placing a flat piece of metal or a large pizza stone, or???? Another thing I found was that not having the top vent open and letting it vent out the front opening allowed the heat to run over the top of the za. Last time I used it I didn't use the domed lid. I put the original flat tamale pot lid on and it did even better.
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That's a cool setup, Case. In my KP setup, there is a "baking steel" insert that sits under the kettle lid (you just can't see it in the photos.) One of the things that I did in my last pizza cook (non-skillet) is to place some coals on top of that baking steel to be sure that I got it heated up enough to cook the top of the pie more quickly. I forgot to do that last night, so need to add that to my list of tweaks on the next skillet cook. I have another weber pizza stone, too, so I could add that to the baking steel for even more top heat. Lots of options, trying to keep it from getting to complicated to set up.

R
 
Rich.... I've been thinking about your top heat issue. BTW.... the coals on top of the baking steel worked very nicely for me. Got that tip from you.

I got to wondering about a flat lid from a camp dutch oven, which is designed to accommodate hot coals. You might luck out and find one that fit on that skillet. I wasn't sure from looking at your picture though. There may not be enough clearance between the top of your pie and the flat lid. Then I got to thinking about my two piece Lodge CI cooker.

https://www.wayfair.com/Lodge--Lodg...MIzZOr_anc6gIVNAnnCh1FNwR8EAQYASABEgIgd_D_BwE

You'd be able to pile coals on either half of that too, or you could bake your pizza in the lid half using your KP. Then preheat the deeper half in the oven and have it ready to throw on for the top heat at the end?? That would limit you to a 10" pie though
 
Cliff Bartlett said:
Rich.... I've been thinking about your top heat issue. BTW.... the coals on top of the baking steel worked very nicely for me. Got that tip from you.

I got to wondering about a flat lid from a camp dutch oven, which is designed to accommodate hot coals. You might luck out and find one that fit on that skillet. I wasn't sure from looking at your picture though. There may not be enough clearance between the top of your pie and the flat lid. Then I got to thinking about my two piece Lodge CI cooker.

https://www.wayfair.com/Lodge--Lodg...MIzZOr_anc6gIVNAnnCh1FNwR8EAQYASABEgIgd_D_BwE

You'd be able to pile coals on either half of that too, or you could bake your pizza in the lid half using your KP. Then preheat the deeper half in the oven and have it ready to throw on for the top heat at the end?? That would limit you to a 10" pie though
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This is exactly what we did camping last time. Our 12" DO lid fits our 12" skillet. I didn't put coals on top tough because we couldn't use them. They weren't needed though. just the lid being that close held the heat in. Top and bottom done perfectly at same time.
 
Very nice looking pie Rich
We do quite a few skillet pizzas and regular pizzas on the performer sans the Kettle Pizza which is a garage wall ornament now .
When I had a dedicated 22 kettle for the KP I took an old ash catcher tray from a silver kettle. I drilled a 1/8" hole in the top of the lid and ran a
6" long bolt and inverted the ash catcher and attached it to the bolt. That made a world of difference in getting the top cooked at the same time the crust was done. The ash catcher did a great job of reflecting the heat down onto the pie.
Now we just use the performer and a pizza stone and find it much less hassle than the KP and not that much different than the taste and texture of the KP pizzas.
But my 72 year old taste buds aren't what they used to be either.
 
KE Quist said:
Rich, do you elevate the stone off the cooking grate at all, or just keep it on the cooking grate?
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It's not on the grate, the stone sits in a rack that fits inside the KP attachment. There is no grate.....

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This setup was a redesign from the original that had the stone on the grate, which meant the level of the stone was below the lip of the opening. This mismatch could be problematic for launching pies from the peel. The setup pictured above, which I use, means the stone surface is flush with the bottom of the KP attachment opening.
 
Rich G said:
It's not on the grate, the stone sits in a rack that fits inside the KP attachment. There is no grate.....

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This setup was a redesign from the original that had the stone on the grate, which meant the level of the stone was below the lip of the opening. This mismatch could be problematic for launching pies from the peel. The setup pictured above, which I use, means the stone surface is flush with the bottom of the KP attachment opening.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Sorry, I meant the other Rich (Dahl). Just realized there is more than one Rich on this thread haha. :eek:
 
Just a wild guess, but is it possible that the skillet being deeper than the thickness of the pizza somehow shielded or insulated its top from the full effect of the heat?
 
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