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My first pizza cook (long story)


 
Rick Body

Rick Body

TVWBB Pro
All the pizza cooks got me really wanting to try to grill some on the performer. Taking tips from everyone on here, I welded up some expanded metal into a ring about 18 inches. Then I put some rods thru it. This would raise the pizza up into the lid and also lift the lid about 1 inch from its base ( I still have to cut the rods) I put the grate from my wsm on the rods. I didn't want to do the pizza kettle thing because I didn't want to rotate the pizza.



I followed Robert Mcgee's suggestion of spreading the coals out on the bottom of the grill. I used a full lit chimney

Then I made the pizza. I had thawed out 2 dough rounds. I rolled one out to about 13 inches. I wanted a supreme so here are the ingredients I had found at Walmart







oh and of course sauce and mozzarella cheese and red onion (softened in microwave)

This was the pizza ready to go on



I had placed the weber griddle upside down on the rack and preheated it. (I ordered a Lodge pizza pan, not here yet)



Then, EPIC FAIL...... the dough stuck to the cardboard when I went to put it on the grill. It basically fell on the griddle in a pile. ARRGHHH

Went back and got the second dough round and started over. I was limited on my ingredients on my second pizza since I used them on the first. So this one only had pepperoni, olives, sauce and cheese.



It came out OK. Temps only got up to 520, so I think I need to raise the lid a little more. I ended up cooking it for 22 minutes total and I had to move the grill onto the porch because it started raining.

I had a picture of the bottom but don't know what happened to it.

It cooked pretty even. I think because of the slow cook the dough raised more. It was like a thick crust pizza, but it was nice and crispy

Thanks for looking

 
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If your gap gets to big you may loose to much heat. I use 2 chimneys of lit lump and spread it around the exterior of the kettle. Make sure to close the top vent if your raising the lid off the bowl. That pizza looks great.
 
Thanks Bob. I did have the top vent closed but I guess one chimney of KBB wasn't enough. I got the temp up to 522 initially but after the first pizza fell and I had start over, I never got the heat that high again.

I will try some lump next time I think. I have never used it.

I think I have the level good since both sides cooked well, but what is the ideal temp?
 
I tried to hit the super high temps but I never figured it out; I was always slightly burning the crust....perfectly done window is so small. So I started shooting for closer to oven times and temps, with the added flavors of charcoal/smoke.

I think you're real close to perfection.
 
The pizza looks good. I've been trying different set up techniques without purchasing a kettle pizza. The best so far for me was banking the charcoal. The last one I did I propped the lid all the way around and spread coals out evenly. Pizza cooked real fast. 2 1/2minutes the bottom of the crust had good coloring but the top wasn't cooking so I left it on and ended up burning the crust. I think I'll try Bob's method of spreading around the exterior. Basically this is a trial and error cook, so don't give up.
 
I don't raise my Weber lid at all. Just raise the pizza stone up into the lid. My next one will have me dumping one full chimney of lit and one full mini chimney of lit evenly spread out. I let the stone heat up about 15-20 minutes then I start making pizza. I can do several pizzas without losing heat with this method. I don't leave the lid off more than necessary between pizzas. Just try to be efficient. It works so well that I doubt I'll be buying the Weber pizza conversion even tho' it looks like it will be priced reasonably (if it's ever available here:confused:) but I am running out of places to put tools. There does come a limit...

Keep on smokin',
Dale53:wsm:

P.S. Here is one of my posts showing a set up:
http://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?37115-More-Pizza-Party-on-the-grill&highlight=Pizza+PARTY
 
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Tony R said:
Looks good to me!!!
Keep cooking. I wish I could help but I never made a pizza...:(
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Tony that has to be the ONLY thing you and Maribel haven't made on your Webers. I think you should try it. They are pretty good!


Robert McGee said:
I don't raise my Weber lid at all. Just raise the pizza stone up into the lid. My next one will have me dumping one full chimney of lit and one full mini chimney of lit evenly spread out. I let the stone heat up about 15-20 minutes then I start making pizza. I can do several pizzas without losing heat with this method. I don't leave the lid off more than necessary between pizzas. Just try to be efficient.[/url]
Click to expand...

I did let the griddle heat up. After I screwed up the first one I had to bring it back in and scrape it off..DOH! By the time I finished quickly making the second one, it was still very hot, so I went with it.

When using the cast iron as opposed to a pizza stone, what do you guys think I should put on the surface. I see that you all use corn meal. Should I do the same on the cast iron?
 
I'm usually in the mid to high 600's and went in the low 700's once. Temp was measured using my combustion analyzer. If your cooking that hot I find the crust burns to quick if I have coals under the stone. Rick try using parchment paper under your crust. I cut it just slightly larger than the pizza and after the pizza's on for a couple minutes you can easily slide it out from under the crust. Don't cut it larger than your stone, in your case griddle, or it will catch fire.
 
Thanks everyone!

Bob, I didn't think about the parchment paper and I had some, dang. Guess I wouldn't have ruined the first pizza.

I am definitely gonna keep trying
 
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