Joe Milczewski
TVWBB Fan
My quest for a nearly perfect wood-fired pizza continues. Much progress was made with the wife this month in my crusade to install a full Neapolitan brick oven in the backyard. She agreed that we Need it, but only if I agreed to put it off a year for budget considerations. Marriage is the art of compromise, so I quickly agreed. In the meantime, I picked up a Kettle Pizza and have put it through its paces.
I got the basic version because I couldn't stand the idea of paying $80 more basically just for the baking steel. So below is how I've rigged it up and, after a couple trial runs, have gotten very good results.
After a first run, it was very, very clear that everyone online who said you need to add some thermal mass to the dome was right on the money. So I put my CI grate on the top level of the attachment, and on that placed some unglazed red quarry tile I picked up for about $.60/apiece. I know it looks hokey, but it works and it only cost me a couple bucks. If you notice, I put the hinged Weber grill grate on the bottom to hold the pizza stone. I put the hinged grate in upside down, so that the flaps hang down and open, which allows me to shove wood across the pizza stone and down on to the fire as needed. It works so well I'm just going to pull the hinged flaps off completely this weekend.
I lit the unit - just in the back third of the grill - with an overflowing chimney full of KBB, and then stacked on top of that about 4 or 5 of the biggest chunks of smoke wood I have. It ended up being a mix of hickory and pecan. The ideal would be splits, not chunks, of oak but that's hard to find in this country. Chunks work ok, but the bigger the better as this things burns fuel in a hurry. Sorry, I didn't take any pics of fueling.
The first pie I fired was a simple basic Neapolitan pizza dough recipe found online. Used AP flour rather than 00 or anything fancy. This one had torn pepperoni, hot italian sausage and fresh mozzarella.
In the meantime, I had my pizza stone warming in the oven in the house at about 500*. I think warming the stone in the oven is an important step. I don't think the Kettle Pizza can be set up to run for the length of time necessary to really load the stone. This is a great accessory for quick flashes of pizza brilliance - not extended, hours long pizza parties (unless you have a LOT of fuel on hand).
This is what the kettle looked like all set up and fired.
The whole idea of covering the top of the unit with stone or steel is to build thermal mass to help cook from the top down. In my view, this is best accomplished by getting the flames to lick forward toward the opening in the kettle. This was definitely happening for me. I tried to capture it in the pic below but I'm not sure it turned out.
Finally, the finished product. I forgot to turn this one halfway through, hence the different hemispheres of char. But without question this pizza, and the four that followed, have been the best I've turned out at home. Best of all, I was able to cook the pies on the stone for about 90 - 100 seconds, and then lift them on the peel to "dome" them inside the unit. For the first time I was able to really crisp up the toppings. You just can't beat those little burnt ends on the pepperoni. When I had my kettle at its peak for heat, I was cooking pies in just under 2 minutes. Sorry, I didn't have a laser handy to get a good temp. I just ordered a new one on Amazon.
Here's a quick clip of the first pie on the stone.
Lessons drawn from this cook:
1. This needs hardwood splits, not chunks, to achieve the temps necessary for a true Neapolitan experience
2. No matter what, your pizza stone will cool as it sits in the pizza kettle, especially the front of the stone. Pre-heat your stone in your oven.
3. All fuel must be in the back of the grill, not under the stone. Fuel under the stone leads to burned pizza. I learned this the hard way on a previous cook.
4. It probably takes a solid hour to hour and a half to get the coals lit, get the grill lit and let the heat build before you can think about cooking a pizza.
5. If anyone knows where to find a 22" pizza stone that I could put on the top of this instead of those stupid tiles, I am in the market.
All in all, I really like the Kettle Pizza and highly recommend, as long as you're ok tinkering with it a bit.
I got the basic version because I couldn't stand the idea of paying $80 more basically just for the baking steel. So below is how I've rigged it up and, after a couple trial runs, have gotten very good results.
After a first run, it was very, very clear that everyone online who said you need to add some thermal mass to the dome was right on the money. So I put my CI grate on the top level of the attachment, and on that placed some unglazed red quarry tile I picked up for about $.60/apiece. I know it looks hokey, but it works and it only cost me a couple bucks. If you notice, I put the hinged Weber grill grate on the bottom to hold the pizza stone. I put the hinged grate in upside down, so that the flaps hang down and open, which allows me to shove wood across the pizza stone and down on to the fire as needed. It works so well I'm just going to pull the hinged flaps off completely this weekend.

I lit the unit - just in the back third of the grill - with an overflowing chimney full of KBB, and then stacked on top of that about 4 or 5 of the biggest chunks of smoke wood I have. It ended up being a mix of hickory and pecan. The ideal would be splits, not chunks, of oak but that's hard to find in this country. Chunks work ok, but the bigger the better as this things burns fuel in a hurry. Sorry, I didn't take any pics of fueling.
The first pie I fired was a simple basic Neapolitan pizza dough recipe found online. Used AP flour rather than 00 or anything fancy. This one had torn pepperoni, hot italian sausage and fresh mozzarella.

In the meantime, I had my pizza stone warming in the oven in the house at about 500*. I think warming the stone in the oven is an important step. I don't think the Kettle Pizza can be set up to run for the length of time necessary to really load the stone. This is a great accessory for quick flashes of pizza brilliance - not extended, hours long pizza parties (unless you have a LOT of fuel on hand).
This is what the kettle looked like all set up and fired.

The whole idea of covering the top of the unit with stone or steel is to build thermal mass to help cook from the top down. In my view, this is best accomplished by getting the flames to lick forward toward the opening in the kettle. This was definitely happening for me. I tried to capture it in the pic below but I'm not sure it turned out.

Finally, the finished product. I forgot to turn this one halfway through, hence the different hemispheres of char. But without question this pizza, and the four that followed, have been the best I've turned out at home. Best of all, I was able to cook the pies on the stone for about 90 - 100 seconds, and then lift them on the peel to "dome" them inside the unit. For the first time I was able to really crisp up the toppings. You just can't beat those little burnt ends on the pepperoni. When I had my kettle at its peak for heat, I was cooking pies in just under 2 minutes. Sorry, I didn't have a laser handy to get a good temp. I just ordered a new one on Amazon.

Here's a quick clip of the first pie on the stone.
Lessons drawn from this cook:
1. This needs hardwood splits, not chunks, to achieve the temps necessary for a true Neapolitan experience
2. No matter what, your pizza stone will cool as it sits in the pizza kettle, especially the front of the stone. Pre-heat your stone in your oven.
3. All fuel must be in the back of the grill, not under the stone. Fuel under the stone leads to burned pizza. I learned this the hard way on a previous cook.
4. It probably takes a solid hour to hour and a half to get the coals lit, get the grill lit and let the heat build before you can think about cooking a pizza.
5. If anyone knows where to find a 22" pizza stone that I could put on the top of this instead of those stupid tiles, I am in the market.
All in all, I really like the Kettle Pizza and highly recommend, as long as you're ok tinkering with it a bit.