MBE (Mini Black Egg) Project

[compatta]

Oh yeah. Here was my pizza the last time i made it. i was a NY-politan made with GM better for bread flour. For some odd reason,
i want to stay away from High Gluten, especially Bromated Flours for a while. I just not im love with the flour exactly. I'm waiting to
buy some All trumps, unbromated flour in San Diego sometimes in the future. Otherwise, its not bad considering that was my 15th attempt
at making pizza. Just need to learn how sourdough cultures work and learn to make my own cheese.

[CMY]

CMY or anyone interested.  You guys should look into this Charbroil Patio Bistro infrared electricl grill. 

Not going that far.. the simple facts are that I have a BC fryer (doing double duty for brewing) and I also have a slightly older Char-Broil smoker that was used once in the last 10 years. It's clean, almost new (after a bath) and ready for duty.

I've been waffling back and forth on buying a new 18" Weber for this but it occurred to me today that I could easily adjust a lot of good/bad if I mounted the burner within this tub (and started off with some proven specs). As the product of a few engineers I like a solid foundation.

I've got a week or two until I have a vehicle that can pick up "R2P2" (amongst other items) and start my own thread.

We'll see how it pans out.. pretty sure that recommending an untested product to a newbie is not the way to go, however. 

-Chris

[Jackie Tran]

We'll see how it pans out.. pretty sure that recommending an untested product to a newbie is not the way to go, however. 

-Chris

Chris, I'm sure you will be well happy enough with building your own MBE/LBE.  Hopefully you will find all the past experimentations, failures, and successes by myself and many others beneficial to you.

I will say that much of what has been achieved in this forum & community come from many hours of studying, reading the forum, endless "new" experimentations, along with many failures before any sucesses are enjoyed.   And then more time and effort is taken to do write ups along with pictures.  I myself have been able to benefit from the work of many others along with making my own contributions to this community.  I stand behind my recommendation for "newbies" to branch out and test uncharted territory.  Experiment on untested products, unconventional methods and ideas.   Discover something new for the benefit of yourself and the community.   And you don't have to be a forum superstar to try something new.  It can be something as small as increasing the hydration level to your dough to see what happens to something totally brand new like modifying a new grill.   For when we don't step out of our comfort zones, we don't grow.

At this point, my recommendation will be no more new and untested than your very own LBE/MBE project.   It is basically an LBE with a top heat source.   I have merely given you an idea for which you are free to do as you wish.  I look forward to reading about your build and seeing pictures of your setup and the resulting pizzas.  I wish you all the luck in your pizza journey.   

Regards,
Chau

[buceriasdon]

Chris, My high pressure burner extends inside the bottom of the kettle 3/4" or 20 mm. Between the bottle of my tile(hearth) and the top of the burner the distance is 5.5" or 14 cm. I use no diffuser of any kind. Distance between the hearth tile and the lid mounted tile is 3" or 7.7 cm. The inside diameter of the kettle is 17.5" or 44.5 cm. The gap at the rear between the kettle and the tile is a maximum of 1" 25mm tapering to zero.  As my tile is an octogon there five such open areas. The three forward open areas are stuffed with al. foil. I use a twenty to forty lb. high pressure regulator imported from the USA. I wrapped electrical tape around the adjustment thread on the regulator to maintain a consistent setting so I can back it off after a baking session. I use no foil inside. My ramp up time to 700F, 350C is 15 minutes. For what it's worth, there you have it.
Don

Not going that far.. the simple facts are that I have a BC fryer (doing double duty for brewing) and I also have a slightly older Char-Broil smoker that was used once in the last 10 years. It's clean, almost new (after a bath) and ready for duty.

I've been waffling back and forth on buying a new 18" Weber for this but it occurred to me today that I could easily adjust a lot of good/bad if I mounted the burner within this tub (and started off with some proven specs). As the product of a few engineers I like a solid foundation.

I've got a week or two until I have a vehicle that can pick up "R2P2" (amongst other items) and start my own thread.

We'll see how it pans out.. pretty sure that recommending an untested product to a newbie is not the way to go, however. 

-Chris

[CMY]

Chris, My high pressure burner extends inside the bottom of the kettle 3/4" or 20 mm. Between the bottle of my tile(hearth) and the top of the burner the distance is 5.5" or 14 cm. I use no diffuser of any kind. Distance between the hearth tile and the lid mounted tile is 3" or 7.7 cm. The inside diameter of the kettle is 17.5" or 44.5 cm. The gap at the rear between the kettle and the tile is a maximum of 1" 25mm tapering to zero.  As my tile is an octogon there five such open areas. The three forward open areas are stuffed with al. foil. I use a twenty to forty lb. high pressure regulator imported from the USA. I wrapped electrical tape around the adjustment thread on the regulator to maintain a consistent setting so I can back it off after a baking session. I use no foil inside. My ramp up time to 700F, 350C is 15 minutes. For what it's worth, there you have it.
Don

Thanks Don! This gives me a great starting point to reference.

[Jackie Tran]

Compatta, again nice post with diagram.   I see you have made some changes to your MBE like pulling the lava rocks from around the stone.   I also like the turntable mod you did.  I should really look into that myself.  I think it will help give me an even puffier rim secondary to retained heat.   Also varying the sand level sounds like a good idea.  Everyone's oven will cook differently so it's mostly just continue tinkering until you get the results you want. 

I baked up a couple of good pies in the MBE tonight and thought I would show them off.  Marc, these pies are for you.   I bought this HG BF from Sunflower Market.   I don't think it is bromated but could be wrong.  I tried googling it and didn't come up with much.  Maybe someone knows the answer.  Anyhow, this flour does make good pizza.   

When I started making pizza a year ago, I started using supermarket flours and this one.  I haven't used this in a long time b/c I had that 50lb bag of Sam's club HG bromated flour to use up.  Now that it's just about gone, I decided to go back and revisiting Sunflower market HG bread flour.

Consequently, this makes for better dough and better pizza than it did a year ago.  No doubt I have learned a few things since then. 

I used Don Pepino's canned sauce on these pies tonight and they were great!   I did alter the sauce just a bit by sweetening it up and adding a little cayenne peppa.  The canned sauce was a bit salty for my taste but overall I did like it quite a bit. 

Here's the first pie.  A cheese pizza with a bit of basil, parm/romano, & EVOO. 

[Jackie Tran]

Here's then 2nd pie.  I baked this one out a bit darker to resemble the New Haven style pies.  I like this one better.  Topped with pepperoni and jarred jalepenos and mozz made from curd (thanks Bob!).  Finished with a good helping of basil, a sprinkle of parm/romano, and OO.  It was fantastic.

I think I may increase the hydration back up just a bit next time. 

[norma427]

Chau,

Great looking pies!  I hope you see I am still smiling.  Your being able to make such delicious looking pies with almost any flour is impressive.  I am sure you have learned a lot since you used the same flour before.

You never cease to amaze me. 

Norma

[Jackie Tran]

Thanks Norma, you have always been one of the few who have encouraged me along the way and I thank you.

I was really pleased with this particular dough and bake because I made many adjustments to the dough & dough making protocol to accomodate my work schedule.   For example, I had woken up earlier than normal and decided to make dough on short notice for pies 12 hours later.  I was using a flour I hadn't used in close to a year, I had to ball the dough shortly after mixing because I would be at work all day.
I made a drier dough than normal just to see the effects.  I put oil in one ball and not the other, can you all see tge difference in the crumb? Which one has oil?  I ask my wife to send me pictures of the dough via cell phone so I can better monitor the dough.   This is of course after I ask how she and the girls are doing.  I also frequently ask her to place the dough into a warm microwave to hasten proofing.  So depending on my work schedule, I prefer to under yeast the dough and vary the prooing temps depending on when I want to bake.

Anyways, I'm finding that I play a huge role in making the pizza I enjoy.  It's much more than following a recipe and fermenting for X hours.  I'm in control of more of the process and that makes it much more fun for me.

Chau

[msheetrit]

i have to built oven like this mbo of yours tran man, your result of pizzas are amazing.
looks very tasty.

[norma427]

Thanks Norma, you have always been one of the few who have encouraged me along the way and I thank you.

I was really pleased with this particular dough and bake because I made many adjustments to the dough & dough making protocol to accomodate my work schedule.   For example, I had woken up earlier than normal and decided to make dough on short notice for pies 12 hours later.  I was using a flour I hadn't used in close to a year, I had to ball the dough shortly after mixing because I would be at work all day.
I made a drier dough than normal just to see the effects.  I put oil in one ball and not the other, can you all see tge difference in the crumb? Which one has oil?  I ask my wife to send me pictures of the dough via cell phone so I can better monitor the dough.   This is of course after I ask how she and the girls are doing.  I also frequently ask her to place the dough into a warm microwave to hasten proofing.  So depending on my work schedule, I prefer to under yeast the dough and vary the prooing temps depending on when I want to bake.

Anyways, I'm finding that I play a huge role in making the pizza I enjoy.  It's much more than following a recipe and fermenting for X hours.  I'm in control of more of the process and that makes it much more fun for me.

Chau

Chau,

I always enjoyed how you go about trying innovative ways and methods and incorporate them into all your pizza making.  I can understand how your work schedule does interfere with making dough, but believe it makes your skills better, because you do like to experiment so much, in so many ways.

I am not sure if I can detect which one has oil in the formula, but it might look to me that your first pie did have oil added. I am not an expert of just looking at a pie and being able to tell when oil is added.  Let me know which pie had oil added.  Do you like oil in your dough or do you prefer no oil? 

I also believe after the basics of understanding how dough works, then it on to understanding different techniques to understand more how dough really ferments under different conditions.

You are doing a great job.  Keep up your experiments.  Your experiments are always interesting. 

Norma

[Jet_deck]

Which one has oil? 
Chau

I believe you are correct Norma, the #1 does have the oil.

[Jackie Tran]

i have to built oven like this mbo of yours tran man, your result of pizzas are amazing.
looks very tasty.

Thank you Michael,  I really enjoyed eating these pies.

Let me know which pie had oil added.  Do you like oil in your dough or do you prefer no oil? 


Norma

Norma you and Gene are correct.  The first pie had oil in it.  It was just a quick experiment to see the difference for this particular dough I was making.   Generally at 1-2%, I can't taste much difference but changes in texture are apparent both visually and in mouth feel.   I can also see and feel it's affect on the gluten structure in the dough once added in during the mix.   I do like to use it, but use it more as a softening agent when I'm cold fermenting or if I'm using a starter instead of commercial yeast. 

Just a trivial side note, you can make a moist, soft, and gooey looking crumb without the use of oil as well.

Chau

[R2-Bayou]

Not sure if this has been covered already, but has anyone tried to setup their MBE on a gas stove top instead of the Bayou Classic? just curious if a home range would put out enough btu's to bring the MBE up to temp...

[Villa Roma]

R2....It was attempted here:
http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,4753.msg60443.html#msg60443

Follow to #361.

If I had a gas cooktop I would try it.

   Villa Roma

[buceriasdon]

If you are looking for 4 minute bakes it won't happen, in double the time maybe, yes, plus the heat up time will be considerable longer. My tiny little kitchen just became unbearable when I tried it. Also I did not find I saved propane over using a high pressure burner. I did have some success using a large area low pressure burner outside, but heat up time was considerable. I would post a link to those pics but the whole LBE link has become so awkward and unweildy and needing editing I don't have the patience to wander around in it.
Don


usingquote author=R2-Bayou link=topic=11126.msg144041#msg144041 date=1308683597]
Not sure if this has been covered already, but has anyone tried to setup their MBE on a gas stove top instead of the Bayou Classic? just curious if a home range would put out enough btu's to bring the MBE up to temp...
[/quote]

[AgPie]

Chau, great work 
your MBE setup seems lost in-between posts. Isn't there a way that you can post the latest/best setup of your MBE, that can be accessed easily.

[Jackie Tran]

Chau, great work 
your MBE setup seems lost in-between posts. Isn't there a way that you can post the latest/best setup of your MBE, that can be accessed easily.

Thanks AgPie.  I disabled my MBE to use the burner for my LBE project.  My LBE setup is very similar to the MBE setup, which can be seen here at reply...Reply #10

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,13036.0.html

The pies in my LBE thread are more current.

Chau

[kaineilsen]

Just wanted to say a resounding "thank you" to everyone who contributed to this thread!  I took my mbe on her maiden voyage tonight armed with the america's test kitchen new york style dough, some fior de latte, cento san marzanos from Trader Joe's and a whole bunch of Calabrian Chiles.  6 pizzas under an hour + sub 4 minute bakes = happy guests and kids.

(btw - cost plus world market pizza stone: 0 - 2 pieces in 20 minutes)

[Jackie Tran]

Congrats! You should consider posting up pictures of some of your pizzas.