Postmortem notes on this cook:
Dough - near excellent recipe, must go 48 hours on ferment, 4 days should be even better. countertop proof method was successful. if inside kitchen temps are above 75-80 degrees in home, countertop proof of 7 hours was sufficient. in lower kitchen temps, could countertop ferment longer before balling and fridging balls in containers.
Making dough balls, 248g balls yielded a nice 12" pie, lending more to a NY style crust versus a thicker, traditional Neapolitan crust. Neo crust could be a 10" pie shell with a larger crust and thin middle for fast cook. Use as little oil as possible on containers. i used three drop and will attempt 1 drop next time and wipe with paper towel versus silicon brush for lubing the bowl. remove as much air from bowl before fridging containers with dough inside them. MUST make as tight a dough ball as you can before fridging balls.
E6 settings - used KPro as i wanted a lower heat fuel versus JD lump which i know burns hotter from experience. lower bottom vent started in 60% open position after coals were lit and grate and steel were placed onto grill. set steel offset to left side for easy grate flip up panel access to add wood chips right before pie was decked onto steel. top vent was 100%. must experiment with top vent closed 80-90% to retain more heat and smoke when pie is cooking. added a few wood chips right as pizza was decked onto steel. this method worked well for smoke flavor.
steel temps - i am finding that steep temps (average temps across the steel) around 540-600 yields best cook results. each pie cooked in 4-5 minutes. when steel went above 600, as in 3rd pie, cook time decreased to 3 to 4 minutes. i noticed the crust was less brown when pizza cooked more quickly, thus recco keeping steel at 550 degree could be sweet spot on this cooker/cook/method/vents settings. the hotter the steel the faster the cook and the more the Caputo Red Chef's 00 will burn. Red 00 is truly at its max cook temp at 600 degrees. avoid higher temps if using 100% Red bag 00. Caputo Blue bag 00 can handle higher temps but can only ferment for 24 hours. no experiments done with Caputo Blue 00 yet, just these notes to track future cooks
sauce - used Cento crushed toms in can. do not over add water to crushed toms, no more than 1-2 tablespoons. added a small amount of EVOO, gran garlic, dried oregano and kosher salt. salt to flavor profile/taste. do not oversalt as cheese has a lot of salt in it.
sliced raw tomatoes - don't use as a topping. must oven dry/roast any fresh toms to be used as topping. too much moisture given off and made pie #2 mushy on top while cooked on bottom.
peel - used Caputo semolina to dust raw dough balls before shaping and on the wooden peel. gently shake pie after sauced and cheesed to ensure pizza can launch easily. zero fails on launch in this cook using this pre-shake method.
cook time - at 3 min mark, set by timer, rotated pie on steel to ensure no hot/burn spots. 3 mins is the earliest pie will release from steel with pie having shape and enough body to withstand aluminum turner under pie and atop the steel. watch for even cooking of cheese. Neo pizza won't cook cheese like NY style in these cook time frames so final cheese color will be more white than tan. once steel temps went above 600 degrees, cooking became more difficult for this recipe. pizza bottoms were quickly more quickly and less top cooking was taking place. this could possibly be compensated by closing top vent to keep more heat in chamber/dome. DO NOT OPEN DOME for first 3 mins minimum. even 3.5 mins would be okay to keep lid down if steel start temps are 550 or so.
hope this helps anyone seeking to cook this and or use steel to cook pizzas on a grill. overall results are that I'm satisfied with current progress and results. major key to success was overall grill temp on the E6, keeping lower vent at 60% to start and then micro open increments if you need to raise internal and steel temps. if you open bottom vent too far, the steel temps will run away from you. STEEL retains massive heat. it is an excellent heat conductor and doesn't lose heat, if any at all, during each pizza pie cook, which is very unlike stone, from my experiences over the years.
mangia! post your pics if you make some of these please.