Pizza crust


 
J

J Causey

TVWBB Member
I just bought a cheap tile looking pizza stone and decided to give it a try Saturday night. I used the store bought pizza dough and fired up the grill to preheat the stone for about 20 minutes. I put the dough on there and in no time it started to burn. In the end I ended up with a very burnt bottom of the crust. My temp was about 400 degrees.

What did I do wrong? Is 400-500 too hot or is my ceramic stone just junk?

Thanks
 
What Wolgast said...no or very little direct heat under stone. Plus use cornmeal or semolina flour on bottom of crust and your peel. I've learned through trial and error and guidance from others on the site...I can get the kettle around 600 degrees and have no burning of crust. Good luck and don't give up - pizza on the grill is awesome!
 
Definitely go with the coals around the edge of the grill and not under your stone. I use the charcoal ring from my WSM inside a 22" kettle and put the coals around the outside of the WSM ring. This setup works well, and gets the heat up to the lid which is what cooks your toppings. I like to preheat my stone at least 20 minutes, but often I will put my stone in the oven at 400 for a while, then bring it out to a hot grill and let it go a little longer yet.
 
Just an FYI, instead of buying expensive ceramic pizza stones you can also use unglazed natural stone tile. Just be sure you have dried it out before using. Will also work in your oven. This isn't directed so much as an answer to this thread as much as an answer for folks who read about smokers and have grills.
 
If you don't have a WSM to supply the charcoal ring but have the kettle char-baskets, you can just put them together in the middle (upside-down is better) and dump the coals in the remaining space.

It's probably easier to rotate the pizza once or twice during cooking than to get coals spread evenly all the way round ;)
 
I spread the coals around the perimemter in a ring of fire configuration and use a 12" cast iron skillet. I must admit I do place a few (5 -6) in the middle of the ring of fire.
 
I also spread my charcoal around the edge in addition to raising my pizza stone up using a fire brick under both sides of the pizza stone. Then resist the temptation to peak at your pizza. Te trick is to keep the heat in the dome to ensure that the toppings cook before the crust burns. Also set your dome so the vent causes the heat to be drawn over the pizza.

Mike
 
sure, get the direct heat out from under the stone, but the key is to get plenty of flour or cornmeal under your pie. It will lift up the dough and give you a buffer layer of air that will keep the crust from over cooking. A bit of flour might not seem like much, but I've noticed a difference between a well floured peel and one that wasn't
 
I have the large green egg pizza stone, I love it. I actually put my stone in the oven to preheat for 30 minutes. I then place it on 3 cans, to elevate the stone. By the time put the pizza stone on the grill I have 2 pizzas prepared and ready to go. I use corn meal. The k goes around the outside of the stone. The nice thing about pre heating the stone in the oven is that you don't waste the k on getting the stone to temperature and your able to get more cooking time out of the k.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top