Making pizza on the WSM.


 
JBooker said:
My kettle pizza measures 17" across at the bottom and 15" across at the top. That is straight across through the opening, not following the contour of the curve. My opeaning is closer to 3.25 in tall vs kettle pizzas measurement of 3.5.

The tomb stone that I use is 14.5 wide and 16" long at its longest point.

All these measurements are with the kettle pizza set up for 22.5" Weber Kettle.

Kettle Pizza is a high heat pizza oven. If I was doing a deep dish pizza in a cast iron pan I'd probably just use my oven. I am still tinkering with my KP trying different things. My pizzas cook a little faster on the bottom than I'd like. I'd imagine using a steel it would be way to hot vs a stone.

This all is on a grill where the heat source is a lot closer to the bottom of the stone / steel.
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Do you have any pics of your cooks? How many minutes did you do, and at what temperature?
 
Arun L. said:
@JBooker, what makes the wood burn clean, vs smoldering?

@ChuckO, how do you rate the wood taste when using the Kettle Pizza?
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How much air the fire is allowed to get. If your getting flame your getting clean burning wood. Where if your keeping air flow down the wood smolders. With the pizza kettle the whole front is open so there is plenty of air flow, same with keeping the door off the wsm. This allows the wood to burn, clean and hot. It like why the a candle smokes when you blow / snuff it out. It burns clean with a flame but when its blown out the wick smolders for a few seconds making smoke.

You still get a little wood fired taste but its not as strong like traditional smoked foods / cheese.
 
Arun L. said:
Do you have any pics of your cooks? How many minutes did you do, and at what temperature?
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About 2 to maybe 3 minutes at 750. These were both the first pizza out from different cooks with different dough recipes. The bottom was slightly darker than the top side of the crust. As the pizza's continue come out of the oven the bottoms get darker than the tops. This is just using the kettle pizza on a weber grill. I am going to try using a couple different types of bricks to hold the coals back and act as a heat shield / skink under the pizza stone. That should help keep the stone temp down / steady. I also don't have the top steel for the kettle pizza. I use a pizza stone that was made to fit the weber grill for my celing. I think a steel plate would reflect or radiate heat better to the top of the pizza. Eventually I am going to get the top steel plate, I just had the stone on hand and it fits great so that's what I use for now. I think ideally the steel with a layer of firebrick on top would be the best setup. That way your not loosing your top side heat out the top of the steel.

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Thanks.

Aside from the bottom being cooked a little more than the top, how did it taste?

Is there supposed to be a top steel for the kettle pizza? If so, did it come with it, but yours got lost/broken?

Also, if you don't mind, could you measure the top part of the Kettle Pizza again (the across the top part before it curves down)? I just want to know if it's 15" exactly, or perhaps a tiny bit wider.
 
Ok. I realized Webrestaurant charges a 30% restocking fee for items that were shipped to a residential address and then returned.

So I'd be spending $77 (initial cost $58 with $19 shipping) + $26 (return shipping) and only getting about $40 back from the initial $58, a loss of $63 ($77 + $26 - $40).

So, I might as well keep the 17" cast iron.

I can get a smaller deep cast iron that will fit in the Pizza Kettle for deep dish.

And then I can try both pizza from the oven, and Pizza Kettle, haha.
 
Arun L. said:
Back to the topic of recipes for a minute.


I plan to use smoked mozzarella that I smoke using my Emson Pressure Smoker. I've smoked cheese in it before. I used to bring it to my sister and brother-in-law's for their pizza nights.


But, since I also plan to use the WSM with hickory wood for pizza, how will I know if I'm getting a smoky taste from the cheese, or the wood during cooking?
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I thought about it, and my answer to myself would be to use half side smoked mozzarella (or whatever cheese I smoke), and half side regular. Then I could see if the regular sides had any less smokiness than the ones with the smoked cheese.
 
Arun L. said:
Thanks.

Aside from the bottom being cooked a little more than the top, how did it taste?

Is there supposed to be a top steel for the kettle pizza? If so, did it come with it, but yours got lost/broken?
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Pizza's tasted great. I have just been experimenting with different recipes, and flour.

They have several different options at different price points. I started out with just the stainless ring. Then I purchased the pro grate and tomb stone. This only works with the 22" setup because its a fixed / welded grate that holds the tomb stone. The next piece I will buy is a steel or stainless steel for the top ceiling. You can buy it all together if you want to drop $400 all at once. Or you can slowly piece it together over time. That is what I am doing.

Kettle Pizza Kits
http://www.kettlepizza.com/Charcoal-Grill-Pizza-Oven-Kits-s/1818.htm

Kettle Pizza Accessories.
http://www.kettlepizza.com/pizza-oven-accessories-tools-s/1814.htm
 
Here is a pic of the steel. This is an older one and they no longer have the slot hole in the rear.
20130926-kettle-pizza-baking-steel-new-02.jpg
 
Thanks.

Whatever cooking device I use on the grill (steel, stone, cast iron, etc.), should I cover the bottom of such device with aluminum foil, to reduce the scorch marks?

Is there any drawback or harm to doing so?
 
Sorry to space off your measurement. I measured where the opening is 3" tall and it's 14" wide for the top measurement. The 15" is closer to when the height is in the 2.5" tall range.

I put the kettle lid on with the vent wide open. That way you trap as much heat as possible .

I don't cover anything, but maybe I should have covered my upper stone. It's got black soot on it from the flame wicking across the underside.

If your doing high heat pizzas like mine your lower stone doesn't really get any excess grunge from the heat source. That may also burn off any seasoning on your cast iron or steel.

If you want to make your stones look new get a good hot bed of lump charcoal burining in the Weber Kettle and lay it on the cooking rack. Leave the lid off so it gets maximum heat. All the grease, spilled toppings, burnt flour , and soot will burn off clean. You can also run them through a cleaning cycle in your oven. Just be ready to deal with smoke.
 
I use an old cotton towel drapped over the round spiral Weber grill brush to remove burn flour between pizzas. Excess flour will burn on the stone and give the next pizza a bad taste (burnt). The idea is to not have excess flour while not having your dough stick to the pizza peel.
 
JBooker said:
I use an old cotton towel drapped over the round spiral Weber grill brush to remove burn flour between pizzas. Excess flour will burn on the stone and give the next pizza a bad taste (burnt). The idea is to not have excess flour while not having your dough stick to the pizza peel.
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Thanks for the tip.

Is this excess flour burn on the rack of the Weber, or on the insides?
 
JBooker said:
Sorry to space off your measurement. I measured where the opening is 3" tall and it's 14" wide for the top measurement. The 15" is closer to when the height is in the 2.5" tall range.

I put the kettle lid on with the vent wide open. That way you trap as much heat as possible .

I don't cover anything, but maybe I should have covered my upper stone. It's got black soot on it from the flame wicking across the underside.

If your doing high heat pizzas like mine your lower stone doesn't really get any excess grunge from the heat source. That may also burn off any seasoning on your cast iron or steel.

If you want to make your stones look new get a good hot bed of lump charcoal burining in the Weber Kettle and lay it on the cooking rack. Leave the lid off so it gets maximum heat. All the grease, spilled toppings, burnt flour , and soot will burn off clean. You can also run them through a cleaning cycle in your oven. Just be ready to deal with smoke.
Click to expand...

Thanks again for verifying the top measurement.

If I get a 2nd cast iron (one that will fit in the Kettle Pizza), then it will be the 13.25" size then.

I've never used the cleaning cycle in my oven. What does it do? Would you also recommend either the cleaning cycle tip, or the hot bed of lump charcoal tip, for cleaning a steel too?
 
Arun L. said:
Thanks for the tip.

Is this excess flour burn on the rack of the Weber, or on the insides?
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It burns on the surface of the stone. Then when you slide another pizza on the stone it picks up the burnt flower making that pizza taste bad. So I just wipe the stone down between pizza's. I cook my pizza's directly on the stone with no pan or screen.
 
Arun L. said:
I've never used the cleaning cycle in my oven. What does it do? Would you also recommend either the cleaning cycle tip, or the hot bed of lump charcoal tip, for cleaning a steel too?
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It depends there are new eco cleaning cycles that do different things. A traditional cleaning cycle just heats the oven for 3 hrs or so. This gets it super hot and burns everything off. Then you just wipe the ash out. I normally do it outside so the smoke is out side. At least burn most of it off out side. If its still not clean then do a cleaning cycle on the oven. It shouldn't smoke a whole lot because most of the junk burned off on the grill.
 
Made my first pizza on Nov. 17th. I'll make one using the Kettle Pizza next.

Pics:

http://imgur.com/a/khP3k/layout/grid

I used the this deep dish dough recipe:

https://thirtyaweek.wordpress.com/2010/01/28/deep-dish-pizza-recipe/

With this sauce recipe (minus the sugar):

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/10/new-york-style-pizza-sauce.html

I also added some rosemary to the dough.

I finally get all of dough rising jokes. I'd never used yeast before. Now I could see the impact it had.

I'll divide my comments into two parts, initial, and re-heat:

Initial thoughts:

* While cooking, the pizza appeared to be a little wet. I then started reading that the culprit could be mushrooms, bell peppers, or fresh mozzarella.

Some suggestions were to pre-cook the mushrooms and bell-peppers, or use a paper towel on the fresh mozzarella.

Which of these suggestions should I do?

After cooking for 30 minutes at 425, I was still concerned about the wetness. So I increased it to 500 for an additional 10 minutes.

Then, I took it out. After letting it cool for 30 minutes, the pizza didn't appear wet.

What should be the best solution though? Pre-cook mushrooms / bell peppers? Paper towel on fresh mozzarella (not my preference)? Cook at higher heat (maybe 500 for 20 - 25 minutes)? Another site said not to have the fresh mozzarella pieces too small, as you don't want to increase the surface area. And yet another suggestion was to put the toppings on near the end.

I don't have any comments on the sauce. Visually, there appeared just a little less sauce I wanted. But I didn't have any problems with the ratio while eating.

Also, I'll probably have better comments on the sauce when I try a thin pizza.

However, I had a hard time getting the toppings to stay on as after I cut the slices and I tried putting them onto the plate. I used an aluminum triangle shaped cake server. The bottom didn't seem as firm (even though it tasted done).

The crust was a little crisp on top, and soft in the middle. I was fine with it. I wouldn't change it.

Re-heat (different day):

I didn't have any problems with serving. The toppings stayed on.

Crust became a little crunchier, but that's fine.

And no appearance of wetness at all.

Pizza was still enjoyable.
 
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