pizza on OTS the bane of my existence


 
I love j's set up. I'll put the dough with a little olive oil and seasoning on for about a min, take it off, put topping on and heat from there. It seems to help the crust and I have less issues will dough sticking to peel and dumping the pie.
 
I've cooked many pizzas on a performer without a stone. I always put the dough directly on the grill cooked for 4 to 5 minutes with lid on,flipped the dough,added toppings and cooked for another 4 to 5 minutes.
 
Bear said:
I've cooked many pizzas on a performer without a stone. I always put the dough directly on the grill cooked for 4 to 5 minutes with lid on,flipped the dough,added toppings and cooked for another 4 to 5 minutes.
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I think that is how they do it in the Weber video as well, but for some reason I cant explain I'd like to perfect the launch, mostly because I'm looking for that " litlle spots of char" on the bottom.
 
Sandy B;
Just get that pizza stone elevated (as mentioned in a couple of posts above), throw a fully lit chimney of coals spread evenly, and you will have nearly perfectly cooked pizza every time. I've done all of my pizzas on a OTG and after I learned to elevate the stone, I have never had a failure (knock on wood;)).

I look through the vent holes in my lid and when the pizza slightly chars around the edges, it is done. If I'm doing this after dark (or even on a dark day) I sometimes use a flashlight to look through the vent. You may or may not have to rotate the pizza once while cooking, depending on your particular set up.

I, now, ALWAYS use parchment paper under my pizza. I trim it so it doesn't stick out over the stone (just quickly trim it after the pizza is "built" with a pair of kitchen shears). If it sticks over the pizza stone, it can/will catch on fire. It probably won't hurt anything but it's not something I would deliberately do. I use an aluminum peel, build the pizza on the parchment paper, then place the peel over the stone, and pull the pizza onto the stone with tongs. VERY easy and RELIABLE. The pizza browns nicely in spite of the paper - not a problem. After the pizza is done, just grab the pizza AND paper (with tongs) and slide it back onto the peel for removal. Be careful as it is easy to dump the pizza from the peel (guests get all bent out of shape when the pizza hits the ground:rolleyes:.

Keep on smokin',
Dale53:wsm:
 
I found for me the secret was getting the OTG as hot as I can, in spite of what has been said the reason for high heat is not the ability to punch out more volume. The reason is it turns out better cooked pizza by a long shot. Elevate the stone, I use two fire bricks on their side but anything will work. Just get that pie high as you can into the dome. I look for a minimum of 600 but have gotten higher with lump charcoal. Let that stone get good and hot. Thin spots in your spread dough on the peel is often what causes sticking as the moisture bleeds right through any spots that are too thin. Flour your dough well while spreading, just watch a pizza man do his, he is constantly sprinkling flour on it, especially before he lays it on the peel then get that dough into the fire quick before moisture leeches through.
My pies take usually two to three minutes then I rotate them 180 for another two to three and they are done.
Just my two cents
 
Sandy B said:
I think that is how they do it in the Weber video as well, but for some reason I cant explain I'd like to perfect the launch, mostly because I'm looking for that " litlle spots of char" on the bottom.
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Success at last!

Even though we ordered pizza last night and my wife could not understand why I wanted to do pizza again, it finally worked out.
The dough rested about 2 hours and was plenty stretchy. Used the stok grates ( which is important later). Used a full chimney of KBB and let them go in the chimney till they were roaring. Here iis the grill


used the charcoal baskets upside down then put the stone on here it is in two pics



and from the side



Let it go pretty well with the lid on the IR thermometer was showing 450 but with the center part of the grill missing it allowed me to throw in some wood chunks that started burning and smoking and got the temp up to about 500.

here is the pizza on the peel ( Margharita)



the launch went great here it is on the stone



and here is is after about 6 min



and a somewhat blurry pic of the bottom



All in all it was great, I made a smaller cheese only one later that took longer presumably because the stone was cooling off which is where the open hole could help by adding in more wood without moving the stone or add new briquettes from the front or the back and frop them down into the hole.

if I could get it a little hotter ( perhaps more coals/more wood it would be great, I could taste the wood smoke in the crust.

not great, but like 8/10.
 
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looks good to me! I've made crust a few times....and while not authentic (almost every crust I made was with whole wheat flour) it was really good. Here's the crust recipe from Cuisinart in case you haven't seen it - I think I've tried it but I might've just used whole wheat.
 
Nate Frost said:
That's great you finally got it worked out. What method with the coals did you end up trying and lid set up?
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Sorry I should have been more descriptive.

The charcoal baskets were on both sides of the center cut out. A full chimney was raging hot poured through the cutout. Used long tongs to move all of the coals, pretty flat directly under the cutout, tried to make it an even layer.

then spanned the hole on the upsidedown coal baskets. Covered it ( lid did fit) and let it get hot for 20 min, at this point the center of the stone was about 450. Then dropped some apple chunks under the stone and poked them till they fell through onto the hot coals. This got it up to about 500. So the heat was semi-direct, and it took about 6 minutes total, I did spin it at 3 minutes.

After eating the first I tried another small just cheese pizza, it was okay but took longer and there was no charring of the bottom. It was good, but nothing like #1. This is why I like the cutout, i can add more coals or wood without moving the stone.
 
Get a lodge cast iron pizza pan. Heat it for 30min for as hot as your oven will go. Light two chimneys and dump them screaming hot around the sides of the kettle, a few can go in the center. Place the pan on the kettle. Put pizza on parchment paper and slide onto cast iron.
 
Sandy B;
I think you have about got a handle on it! Those are good lookin' pies!

If you dump a half chimney of unlit spread around, then a full chimney of lit, also spread evenly over the bottom, the fire will last much longer and your later pizzas will cook as fast as the first. Throwing a few chunks of wood on the fire doesn't hurt anything, either;).

Keep on smokin',
Dale53
 
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