Pizza on the 18" OTS


 
S

Steve Mattheis

TVWBB Member
I've done several pizzas on my Genesis Silver C with much success with the help of everyone's suggestions on the site. My problem is that I offered to make pizzas for my friends who will be visiting us at our summerhome in Antioch, IL this weekend. I have an 18" OTS and have never made pizzas in a kettle before. My questions are:
1. Should I use lump or charcoal? I normally use Royal Oak Steakhouse lump when I cook and use Kingsford when I use my WSM.

2. How should I arrange the fuel? Around the outside leaving the center open or just lay down a nice even layer on the charcoal grate.

3. How much fuel should I use?

All help would be greatly appreciated, I am doing this on Saturday night.
 
Use Lump.

I'd highly suggest doing this for a trial run BEFORE showtime. Meaning tomorrow night.

I assume you're either cooking on a stone or bare grate and are comfortable with whatever method.

I cook pizza on a cast iron pan, either a 12" skillet or a 12" square griddle. I arrange the coals in a circle around the edge. You want it HOT.

I put the CI pan in with the pizza fixed on it 'cold', meaning I don't slide the made up pizza on a hot stone/CI. You have to watch it, put the lid on and be careful not to burn the crust on the bottom. I use an 8" skillet turned upside down for a buffer.
 
I assume you're not doing grilled pizza.
This was my arrangement that worked well for me on my 22" kettle.
I elevated a 14" cast iron pizza pan on firebricks, preheated the whole arrangement, and slid the pie on it. Coals were not arranged in any particular manner.
I just built myself a wood fired oven so that's where I do my pizzas now.

P1040031.jpg
 
When I cook pizzas on my gasser I elevate my pizza stone off of my cast iron grates with a clay saucer turned upside down. I thought that I would use the same method on my 18" OTS. Hey Wolgast, you make some awsome looking meals man. Keep it up.
 
Steve Mattheis: Thanx i do my best.

As for pizza:

I have always used my kettle 22" and firebrick on the grate.

But had better resaults on the wsm last time around 325-350 water pan in,no water inside it ofc.
 
I've done pizza on my 18.5" using a pizza stone.

I used a 3/4 full chimney of briquettes (figuring that lump would burn hotter and faster) along with some extra unlit coals spread around to keep the fire going.

2 important things I learned:

1 - You need to preheat the stone for a while, but will end up with a 600 degree pizza oven that makes pizza FAST.

2 - Use firebricks (or balls of aluminum foil) to raise the stone closer to the lid. This helps to cook the toppings as quickly as the bottom.

Good luck with it!
 
Unless they're grilled, the one thing I dislike about doing pizza over coals or gas is the large amounts of fuel required to pre-heat and bring the grill and stone to cooking temp just to do a couple of pies.
 
Great looking pizzas! Tonight I am doing a pizza on the 18 and will post the results tomorrow.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Steve Mattheis:
Jon, how do you spread out your coals, along the outside edge of the kettle or a nice layer spread across the bottom? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I try to do a circle at the outside of the grill. The stone will get plenty hot, but I think this way gives more reflected heat around the stone to cook the top.
 
I think it also depends on how thick your stone is. Mine is 3/4 thick and heavy. I tried the ring and an even bed and it didn't make a difference.
 
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