Pizza Oven Conversion kit


 
Albert E said:
Most pizza places around here uses two different pizza peels. One wood and one metal. They use one to place the pizza in the oven, and the other to take it out. Can't remember wich one they start with, though...


A traditional wood fired pizza oven is supposed to be kept "white hot" at 750 deg F (400 deg C) or more! And bakes your pizza in like 2 minutes.
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Wood to put in and metal to pull out.. I have a wood peel but I'm not that good with it yet. I use a pizza pan sprinklered with corn meal, then stretch and build the pizza on the pan. Cook it for 2-3 mins on the pan then remove the pizza while rotating with a larbe BBQ burger spatuala to help move it. When it's gets cooked I use a spatuala or tongs to move it back onto the same pan and slide it over to a warming rack (pic above).
 
Bob Ivey said:
Can you post pictures of how you attached the sheet metal to the lid? TIA
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The under side of the lid is pictured below. I drilled a hole though the middle of the lid to allow a stainless bolt to hold the sheet metal. The space in the sheet metal is to allow air to vent and is opposite the standard four hole lid vent.

Current setup is:

Fire towards back up kettle
Grill grate with hinged end cut open and placed over the fire area. This is to keep feeding the fire as needed.
12 inch Flower pot base on grill elevates my steel plate (I may try a smaller flower pot base to get more direct heat on the steel plate)
18 inch 1/4 in. steel plate positioned towards front of kettle
lid with sheet metal diverter on inside-brings heat down and over pizza

The opening in the lid sheet metal is positioned in front of the kettle. In theory this allows hot air to zig zag from the back of the kettle up over the pizza plate and pizza towards the front of the kettle, from there it moves to the back of the kettle and out through the normal lid vent.

I don't know if my set up is ideal... (I keep tinkering). Other options are (1) to cut a hole in the lid like the Frankenweber or (2) just tilt the lid a little in front (with top vent closed) to force air over the pizza and out the front.

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If your dough is what is often termed "high hydration" meaning wet and sticky, you might want to look at the Super Peel. I do not have it but have talked to people that do and they've been pretty impressed with it. One of those and a metal peel for retrieving your cooked pizza and you should be good, regardless of how "sticky" your pizza dough is. I seem to remember they were working on a high temp version, which might be a better choice for the hot wood fired temperatures seen with the Kettle Pizza unit. Been awhile since I was researching them.
 
Thanks for the Link! I havent seen this lid live. Sure looks good. But the cost is a bit over the "top"(costs more then a new 22 OTG in any color)
 
Wolgast said:
Thanks for the Link! I havent seen this lid live. Sure looks good. But the cost is a bit over the "top"(costs more then a new 22 OTG in any color)/QUOTE]

Wolfgast, here is another option. In this forum, the moderator has made some simple modifications to the pizzakettle accessory that started this thread. The moderator puts a second cooking grate on the top wingnuts of the pizzakettle ring extension...that top grate sits about a foot above the lower grate (the lower grate is what will hold the stone and pizza). There is something called a "baking steel" that he puts on the top grate (has great thermal properties to push the heat back onto the top of the pizza). Then he covers the entire upper grate with aluminum foil to minimize heat loss.

i have done the same thing, except on the top grate I use fire bricks instead of the baking steel. I can get air temps, just above my pizza, of 900 degrees. I haven't perfected it yet, mostly because i still struggle MIGHTILY with getting my pizza onto the stone...sticks to the peel, so I have to mangle it to get it on the stone. My only solution thus far has been to bake the dough for 3 minutes before I make the pizza, which dries it out to where I can slide it off the peel easily. But when I do that, and I leave the pizza on long enough to get the top cooked nicely, the crust is burnt on the bottom..

I have to figure out a way to transfer raw dough from the peel to the stone. I will try parchment paper or a super peel thing which has a little conveyor belt.

Anyway, here is the write up about combining the kettlepizza with the baking steel. Photos look incredible IMHO.

http://slice.seriouseats.com/archiv...e-ultimate-home-pizza-setup.html?ref=obinsite
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