Made my first pizza, kinda...


 
LeoP.

LeoP.

TVWBB Member
A total fail! :mad:

So I started with this equipment, I bought it a couple weeks ago and have been itchinh to use it!!!



I thought I was doing right by following what I've seen others doing online but I obviously got a bit carried away with the charcoal.



I ended up with a stone so hot the corn mill I put down caught on fire! So I had a heat issue, then there was the pizza itself. I tried a pre-made thin crust which stuck like super glue on the chopping block, so I couldn't get it off to even put it on the cooking stone. The pizza peel I bought won't stay folded out and keeps swinging back pinching my hand. So I ended up using this great hot fire for cooking a couple nice thick ribeyes! So far I'm about $300 into making a pizza...


What did I learned? First use less charcoal and set up a ring for an indirect cooking method. When rolling out dough use oil on the chopping block so the dough won't stick. And I'm going to mod the pizza peel I have not to suck so much!
 
keep at it--- Most of the masters go for super high temperatures, but I've had good luck cooking at oven-like (~400-425F) temperatures - on a stone or directly on the grates.
 
my wife and I had the same issues transferring and we switched to semolina flower when we rolled it out (use OO for the dough) and haven't looked back. made a big difference.

don't feel bad. cooking pizza's on the kettle seems to be a hit or miss situation. even with the pizza kettle it seems to be fairly difficult to get the stone hot enough and also cook the top properly and get that to be consistent (judging from the posts here. I don't have one). I'd love to make real Neapolitan style pizza (my wife found a dough recipe I think is as close to what we had in Italy as anything I've tasted), but I'm beginning to wonder if using my weber is the best solution!
 
Matt H. said:
my wife and I had the same issues transferring and we switched to semolina flower when we rolled it out (use OO for the dough) and haven't looked back. made a big difference.

don't feel bad. cooking pizza's on the kettle seems to be a hit or miss situation. even with the pizza kettle it seems to be fairly difficult to get the stone hot enough and also cook the top properly and get that to be consistent (judging from the posts here. I don't have one). I'd love to make real Neapolitan style pizza (my wife found a dough recipe I think is as close to what we had in Italy as anything I've tasted), but I'm beginning to wonder if using my weber is the best solution!
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If Neapolitan is what you're after, like I am, my research has turned up really only 3 viable routes.

1.) Buy/build a wood-fired oven. I can't do this at my place.
2.) Use an indoor hybrid method of cooking the pizza in a skillet under the broiler first, to cook the top, then transfer the skillet to the stovetop to cook the bottom. Meh...
3.) KettlePizza or some sort of mod to a kettle that gives a good mix of heat, convection, and radiant energy onto the top of the pizza. There have been several threads to this effect in the last few months.

I know you've probably read those threads, Matt - and I've gathered from reading your posts that you're a smart guy with a good amount of common sense. I think you should give it a try and burn some pizzas along with the rest of us! XD

To Leo, the OP, you've already got enough kit there to make some good pizzas. It will just take practice to figure out the ideal mix of time and temperature for the style of dough you're using. Take a look at any of the recent pizza threads and you can learn about some of the successes and mishaps that other members have had. There are a number of us who are just starting to traverse the KettlePizza learning curve, and there a bunch of other members who've already crossed that curve that have chimed in with a lot of good advice.
 
Chris Conro said:
If Neapolitan is what you're after, like I am, my research has turned up really only 3 viable routes.

1.) Buy/build a wood-fired oven. I can't do this at my place.
2.) Use an indoor hybrid method of cooking the pizza in a skillet under the broiler first, to cook the top, then transfer the skillet to the stovetop to cook the bottom. Meh...
3.) KettlePizza or some sort of mod to a kettle that gives a good mix of heat, convection, and radiant energy onto the top of the pizza. There have been several threads to this effect in the last few months.

I know you've probably read those threads, Matt - and I've gathered from reading your posts that you're a smart guy with a good amount of common sense. I think you should give it a try and burn some pizzas along with the rest of us! XD

To Leo, the OP, you've already got enough kit there to make some good pizzas. It will just take practice to figure out the ideal mix of time and temperature for the style of dough you're using. Take a look at any of the recent pizza threads and you can learn about some of the successes and mishaps that other members have had. There are a number of us who are just starting to traverse the KettlePizza learning curve, and there a bunch of other members who've already crossed that curve that have chimed in with a lot of good advice.
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I'm right on the border Chris! Will likely make the plunge soon. only things holding me back are a) the fuel consumption, b) the fact it seems to lose heat quickly, and c) the fact people seem to have problems getting consistent results. oh and the fact that the one that works best is $400!
 
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Don't give up LeoP and don't use oil on your chopping block. Use flour or semolina flour. Make sure you dust your peel with flour or semolina and make sure the dough slides before loading it up. Also, don't put the dough on the peel and load it up if you're not going to immediately launch it to the stone. I've found the longer I leave a pizza on the peel, it tends to stick.

What is your setup? I assume you raised the stone off of the cooking grate. If not, try it that way. I also think 1 full chimney is enough. You could always add a little more after you dump it in the kettle. You also want to give your stone enough time to preheat.

Here's my old setup prior to the KP. Charcoal in a semi circle and raised stone. I would get dome temps of 550*. These cooked appx 11 min. I rotated the pie half way through the cook.




 
Nate Frost said:
Here's my old setup prior to the KP. Charcoal in a semi circle and raised stone. I would get dome temps of 550*. These cooked appx 11 min. I rotated the pie half way through the cook.
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That's a pretty sweet set up Nate. It would be hard to leave that set up for the KP. So that grate that you made, what would you say, about 1/2 higher than the top of the kettle?
 
ChuckO said:
That's a pretty sweet set up Nate. It would be hard to leave that set up for the KP. So that grate that you made, what would you say, about 1/2 higher than the top of the kettle?
Click to expand...

It's Appx 3" off the cooking grate, about the height of the charcoal baskets plus the thickness of the pizza stone. I still use this method but with the charcoal baskets to elevate the stone. This is used when I cook deep dish pizzas.

You've seen these before but here's another with this method.


And a deep dish.


 
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