Weber Pizza Oven?


 
John_NJ

John_NJ

TVWBB Wizard
I have been experimenting making pizza on my Genesis 1000 and I am not getting good results with melting/ browning the cheese and toppings.

I have tried different temperatures and cooking times, raising the pizza stone higher/ closer to the inside top of the lid and am not getting great results.

I was cleaning my grill this morning and I had an idea- make a removable tray to fit where the drip tray fits and use it as a final “browning/ crisping station for making pizza, similar to a broiling burner in a conventional oven.

Has anyone ever tried anything like this?

I know the burner tubes are facing the wrong direction but wondered it I could get enough heat.
 
The issue IMO is the heat is all from the bottom. When we do pizza on the grill it's on my Wolf. I use moderately high heat from the main burners but I also keep the IR rotisserie burner on full blast. This gives fully surround heat. I get beautiful results. I have never been able to achieve a good pizza on the Genesis
 
I have good results on my genesis with a simple steel pizza pan under my pizza. I love pizza, but I cannot call myself a pizza connoisseur like some others.....I am simply not picky. That being said, I don't think the oven in the kitchen does any better.
 
I use a thick piece of marble directly on the grates to cook pizza. The key is to heat the stone up really really hot. I preheat for about 30 minutes and use one of those laser thermometers to check the stone temperature. The hotter the better. I have a genesis 3000 (same internals as your 1000) and I try to get the stone up to 500. It takes a while to heat it up that hot but I get all the pizza cooking abilities I want when I get it good and hot. I’m mired in dough making challenges now, I’m going to get bread flour for my next attempt.
 
Also, while it is a unique idea, cooking under the burner tubes would not be as hot as cooking over them. Heat rises.
 
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THyde said:
I use a thick piece of marble directly on the grates to cook pizza. The key is to heat the stone up really really hot. I preheat for about 30 minutes and use one of those laser thermometers to check the stone temperature. The hotter the better. I have a genesis 3000 (same internals as your 1000) and I try to get the stone up to 500. It takes a while to heat it up that hot but I get all the pizza cooking abilities I want when I get it good and hot. I’m mired in dough making challenges now, I’m going to get bread flour for my next attempt.
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I am going to get some dough started and try out your method- thank you.
 
I’m going to do the same for dinner tonight! I’ll post a picture of the setup later today
 
What kind of pizza stone do you have? What is it made of? Also do you have one of those laser thermometers to check it’s temperature with?

I’m asking because pizzeria pizza ovens (commercial) operate between 700 and 800 degrees. Getting the stone up over 400 works for me, but like I said the hotter the better.

I have noticed during preheats the outside grill thermometer is slow to heat up because the big piece of marble consumes so much heat. The stone is 14.5” by 17” and a full inch thick. image.jpg
 
THyde said:
What kind of pizza stone do you have? What is it made of? Also do you have one of those laser thermometers to check it’s temperature with?

I’m asking because pizzeria pizza ovens (commercial) operate between 700 and 800 degrees. Getting the stone up over 400 works for me, but like I said the hotter the better.

I have noticed during preheats the outside grill thermometer is slow to heat up because the big piece of marble consumes so much heat. The stone is 14.5” by 17” and a full inch thick. View attachment 58348
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The good old reliable Pampered Chef pizza stone- if I had to guess it’s about 20 years old and still going strong.

97739FA6-A981-427E-8AAB-1879D467E3BF.jpeg
 
LMichaels said:
I should also note one of the reasons I asked Dave Santana to build my Wolf grates the way I did was so they could handle raw pizza dough better when we make that. They do a wonderful job BTW
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I guess some of that preheat time is also spent heating up Dave’s grates on the Genesis. All told I’m sure I’m heating around 40 pounds of steel and marble lol
 
Well pre heat is not that much of an issue with as much oomph as the Wolf has. It gets scary hot if I let it. I just never had good luck doing pizza on the Weber (or on my BroilMaster) when I had it. I don't think simple "raw" heat is the total answer. The heat needs to surround it. Which is why the rear burner helps so much on the Wolf
 
LMichaels said:
Well pre heat is not that much of an issue with as much oomph as the Wolf has. It gets scary hot if I let it. I just never had good luck doing pizza on the Weber (or on my BroilMaster) when I had it. I don't think simple "raw" heat is the total answer. The heat needs to surround it. Which is why the rear burner helps so much on the Wolf
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I agree but I don’t have an IR burner, and like I said I have checked the temperature of the stone while preheating and it really does take about 30 minutes or more to get the stone close to 500. It’s a marble cutoff from a shower bench my buddy and I made when we redid the master bath, so it is probably overkill. Once the stone is that hot the air in the grill is hot like that too, judging by the lid thermometer. The whole concept is to cook the raw dough on a very hot stone and make sure there’s enough surrounding heat to cook the top too. That’s why I let it get so hot. This is another instance in addition to rotisserie where I’m still actively happy the grill runs on Natural gas, no propane tank to run out!

I’ll probably post pictures of the results later tonight.

Edit: watching the stone heat up and checking its temperature has made all the difference for me in this case. But I had to check the temperature of the stone, that is the key. It really does take half an hour or more to get that rock up over 400 degrees. Any lower and the pizzas don’t come out right. Higher then they just take less time to cook. I judge doneness by looking at the bottom of the crust ideally getting a light brown color.
 
LMichaels said:
I also did not know you could allow marble to get that hot without damaging it.
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I did google it and apparently it is fine. Plus so far so good from experience. Like I said it’s probably overkill from a size, thickness and cost perspective but it was a cutoff from another project so it was “free”
 
Larry I’m hoping later this year to get to kitchen aid mixer level. I’ve been making bread and pizza dough by hand, a mixer would really up my game. John and Larry, how are you guys making the dough? Mixer? By hand?

Tim
 
I keep throwing this in without any apparent takers, but... My Genesis with a bun-warmer-level upper grate (inexpensive mod) and no stone or any similar device (pizza right on the grate) produces enough heat to cook the pie from top and bottom simultaneously -- and fast. No waiting for a heat sink to warm up. Adapt to the technique and bake a couple to get it right, and the pizza is perfect.
 
RichPB (richlife) said:
I keep throwing this in without any apparent takers, but... My Genesis with a bun-warmer-level upper grate (inexpensive mod) and no stone or any similar device (pizza right on the grate) produces enough heat to cook the pie from top and bottom simultaneously -- and fast. No waiting for a heat sink to warm up. Adapt to the technique and bake a couple to get it right, and the pizza is perfect
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How can you cook raw dough pizza directly on a grate? My dough would fall through on the sides ...
 
THyde said:
Larry I’m hoping later this year to get to kitchen aid mixer level. I’ve been making bread and pizza dough by hand, a mixer would really up my game. John and Larry, how are you guys making the dough? Mixer? By hand?

Tim
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Well, obviously we use the KA. I managed to fall into a deal about 2 years ago and got the big (true) Commercial 1.3 HP 8qt unit. I LOOOOOOVE that thing. Powerful enough to rip your arm off but whisper quiet.
 
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