Pizza Kettle trial & error, maybe a victory!


 
Clay Neubauer

Clay Neubauer

TVWBB Pro
I've had a Pizza Kettle for awhile now, and haven't done nearly enough cooks with it. Part of that is because, in spite of the pies which come out of it ranging somewhere between good and fantastic, consistency is a struggle. Wind & weather impact it more than most standard Weber products. Using the pizza stone and a peel usually entails some frantic moments trying to either get a slightly too sticky crust in the cooker, or rotating the pie to avoid burning one side. And, making a second pizza on the stone seems to impart some burnt flavor from the first one if you've used any flour or corn meal to keep them from sticking. I've tried the metal pizza sheet which comes with the kit, and it has it's own weaknesses. Here's a recent margherita pizza I did. Lots of color from my garden with heirloom tomatoes, and purple basil to go with standard basil.

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Coming up to temp.

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Sitting on the stone, already have evidence of the crust cooking faster in places than the toppings should.

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It was good, but- not great. I did some thread searching here and other places, and decided maybe it was time to invest in some Lodge cast iron yet again. For the trial run, put the dough on parchment paper and trimmed around it with scissors after the toppings were added. Hawaiian with ham, pineapple, and candied jalapeños.

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The consistency and crunch of this crust are superb. I think some repeatable results can come from this!

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Hi Clay,

are you preparing the pizza on a cold CI Lodge tray, and then putting the Pizza (on top of the CI), on the heated stone to cook?
 
That's how this one was done. I will, of course, have to conduct further research to determine how successful cooking a second pizza on already hot CI works.
 
Nice looking pies Clay, keep us posted. I mounted a makeshift heat defector in the lid of mine as my one performer is a dedicated pizza maker, but haven't tried it yet.
 
Clay that Hawaiian pizza look great. We have never done our pizzas on CI only the stones, we heat them first and then take our made pizza out on the peel. You do need to heat your stone first that is the key to great pizza.
 
Barb, I've always done it with a hot stone. Still haven't been pleased with the consistency, especially if you are doing 2-3 pies in sequence and the temperature inside the grill is changing some as you go.
 
Great looking pizzas Clay. Corn meal solved my transfer problem from peel to stone. A lot of the guys prefer semolina. Also, I'd invest in some pizza spinners. KP offers them but they are pretty pricy. There are some nice looking clones out there that some of the members have found.
 
If my dough is dry it slides on to the stone easily. If I make it right and it's soft, I tear the pizza up trying to get it on the stone. I've never tried corn meal and flour doesn't seem to help much. I'd love to figure it out because I love homemade pizza!


Edit: I tried the corn meal, it really made a big difference- I should have listened better!
 
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Clay the pies look delicious, like Enrico not a big fan of over loaded pies but that is just personal preference. I have a couple of suggestions for you based on what I have found. The wood peels work the best, sprinkle four on them and rub it in good with your hand so its got a good amount loose and worked in. The only time this does not work is when you have to much dampness seeping through the dough. Nothing works if you have that. So, for me what that means is I make my own sauce, and I cook it down to about half so it is 1. Very intense flavor ( not as much added ) 2. It is thick and much drier. If you make your dough too thin for the type of flour used the moisture goes right through pretty quickly. Same for the moisture in your additions.
I just spent two weeks paying close attention to how the Italian Pizza Masters do it, main thing I noticed was obviously all add ons are lying close at hand and from the time they finish spreading the dough to shape and place it on the peel to the time they have to toppings on and it is in the oven is less than a minute or two max. That was key observation for me and once I did just that no more stuck pies.
Oh, one other thing. I looked at the peels they were using and guess what, super smooth finish on them. The one I bought was just machine sanded and not very smooth. A half hour with a sanding block and fine sand paper changed that considerably.
Just some thoughts you might find help, they helped me considerably
 
Thanks for the input. I've never had any problem getting dough off the peel- corn meal and a little flour take care of that. Again, it's the consistency inside the cook that I've always been somewhat frustrated with. That pizza spinner idea looks great, although one of the draws of this CI pan was definitely that if I wasn't happy with it for pizzas it will have plenty of other uses!
 
Clay Neubauer said:
Using the pizza stone and a peel usually entails some frantic moments trying to either get a slightly too sticky crust in the cooker, or rotating the pie to avoid burning one side
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I've struggled making pizza on my kettle & KP. I've had great success cooking pizzas using my WSM & KP. You can get a good fire going but there's enough distance between the fire and pizza that it won't burn the pizza. The stone you use makes a huge difference. I have a Emile Henry which costed $50 give or take, that's 5 times what you might spend normally. But I tell you, it's the cat's meow about not sticking. I don't put anything on my stone except the pizza and I have zero stick problems
 
Pies look delicious, I don't have the kettle pizza attachment so I cant chime in on that. I do make pizza on the performer and I use cornmeal with great success with the pizza not sticking to the peel.
 
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