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[hopgeek]

Hopgeek,

Thanks for all the pics

That is incredible, I always wondered how hot
you could get it in a good gas grill. I was reading the
specs on your grill last night and I understand it
only has 36,000 btu. The new weber genesis has
42,000 btu. (I may have to spring for one)
Your pie's look great, nice carmalization on the cheese
and the "upskirts" were some of the best looking I have seen.
Are you using "00" flour?

Thanks for the comments Willard!  I am indeed using Caputo "00" flour and this dough was 63% hydration.  The cheese was fresh mozz from Trader Joe's, the kind that they sell as a 1lb log in shrinkwrap.

Hopgeek, that temp reading is very impressive!  How long did your pies take to cook?  Also, it looks like the tops are a touch under-done compared to the bottoms (which look perfect), or is that just the pictures?

I'd agree that the tops were just a bit underdone, most were crisp around the cornicione but lacked a real char.  The first pie baked the fastest at roughly 2.5 mins.  Subsequent pies took longer - 3 mins, 3.5 mins and about 5 mins for the final pie as my propane tank was freezing up.  I'll keep a better log of more precise cooking times for the next round.

Cheers!

[2stone]

Hopgeek

I have learned that I can push the pie to wards
the back of the stone closer to the edge and I
get more charring. some times I will load it up by
the front and immediately turn it to the back
so there is no guess work

willard

[bakerbill]

How do you get the discount?  I may have missed that announcement.

bakerbill

[2stone]

bakerbill,

yeah it's buried in here somewhere...

To get the discount go to www.2stonepg.com
and at the end of checkout there will be a coupon box.
Fill the box inn with "pizzamakingmember" (the code) and it will
factor inn your 20% discount.

willard

www.2stonepg.com
www.2stonepizzagrill.com

[2stone]

Normally I haven't gotten good results
from frozen dough. This time I thawed it out
for 2 hrs. in the fridge and let it sit on the counter
for 45 min before baking. The air voids are almost the size
as unfrozen.
Baked at 750F 2stone on gas.

willard

[canadianbacon]

Looks really good Willard 

do you deliver ? 

Normally I haven't gotten good results
from frozen dough. This time I thawed it out
for 2 hrs. in the fridge and let it sit on the counter
for 45 min before baking. The air voids are almost the size
as unfrozen.
Baked at 750F 2stone on gas.

willard

[2stone]

canadianbacon

just digital delivery!!

willard

[Brian Hunt]

Wow!

this may be just what I have been looking for until I can find the time and the money to build a brick oven. Unfortunatly I do not have the cash to be able to order at this time so I will have to save my change for a few weeks. 

I love the idea of being able to cook with coal, wood, or gas depending upon the grill. Now if it hadn't started snowing already . . . .

Brian Hunt.

[Chas]

Fired up the 2stone for the first time last night. Cooked 3 pizzas and they were by far the best pies I have made to date. I've been making my own pizzas for the past several of months in my electric oven. The results were ok but this grill has taken the quality of my pizzas to a new level.   Crusts and tops were cooked to perfection within 3-4 minutes. The stone heated to 675 degrees within 30 minutes on my Fire Magic. I was considering building an oven, but I don't see any reason to spend the time or money now. These pizzas were great. No longer have to put up with a hot kitchen in the summer. I also like the fact that the 2stone is portable. Perfect to bring along camping or to a gathering at a friend's house. Good design job Willard. 

Charlie 

[2stone]

Hi Brian,

When the time is right, just let me know, we'll get one out to you.

Snow! you must live north of us. I'm a transplanted Norwegian, just read in the paper
it was snowing over there.

Hey Chas,

thanks,

Nice to hear everything worked out well. Wood fired ovens are cool,
but I think we are getting close!! Yeah, the camping idea sounds neat.

regards,

willard

[bakerbill]

I ordered the oven but wondered whether it will come with a recommended recipe.  What are you suggesting in this area?

bakerbill

[2stone]

Hi Bakerbill,

I have been asked that many times now, so I'm going to have to break down and try
to be specific and put it all down in writing. Thats going to take me a little time, because I'm kind of a "pinch of this, handfull of that" type of guy, and that type of information would be a farce to this forum!
I have learned a few tricks (some from this forum) so I will do my best and and try to post them here and on my website soon. www.2stonepizzagrill.com
In the mean time....I mostly only use all-purpose unbleached flour, water, sea salt, and yeast. I use a DLX mixer, which I like, but I'm sure the other brands work fine too. I determine the hydration level (water content) by judging the consistency of the dough in the mixer. Most of the time I add a week old dough ball (leftover from the last batch) to the batch, and use  slow proofing in the fridge. Usually I proof the whole batch first (over night) and  then split it up into individual dough balls and keep them for up to a week in glad containers. I don't proof at room temp too much after that maybe 10 min at the most. This is just some general info, hope it is helpful.

regards,
willard

you should be getting your 2stone any day now!

 
 

[scottfsmith]

Here are my first 2stone results.

I had a thermoprobe in the back left corner to measure air temp and an IR gauge to measure stone temp.  My grill is a Fire Magic which I think is 64K BTU.  First picture below shows setup: I put the 2stone directly on the heat reflector plates to get it closer to the heat.  That generally worked well, but it was hard to get the pies out since the stone was a bit below the front of the grill.

First pie: ~850F on the stone and ~900F air temp.  Cooking time 1.5 minutes.  Thats the first two pictures.  It burned a little on the bottom.

Second pie: >975F on the stone (it tilted my gauge) and ~1000F air temp.  I noticed it was starting to burn on the bottom after 30 seconds (!) so I pulled it then.  It was still completely cooked on the top but was underdone.  I knew this stone temp was too hot but hungry kids were waiting so I didn't have the time to cool down the stone.

This was a Neopolitan dough recipe with Caputo 00.  I don't measure but I roughly follow the standard Neo recipes with 55-65% hydration, high salt, low yeast (IDY), and nothing else.  It was under-proofed (4 hrs), had to start too late today.

Overall, the 2stone is doing the main thing I need: getting me more HEAT!!  That has been my main problem up to now, 700F is the max I have been able to hit.  It is going to be some work to figure out the balance between stone and air temp.  My guess is you need something like 1000F air / 800F stone to get the proper cooking (?)  There are lots of things that can be tried, e.g. trying with it on the grill grate, wrapping the bottom spinning part in alu foil, cooling down the stone, etc.

I am really looking forward to more experiments with the 2stone, and feel like I may finally be able to get something close to Neopolitan pies on my grill.  The pizzas were not perfect, but I felt like I finally understood what the style was all about: the slices were floppy, and the crust was soft light and airy, not crunchy.

Scott

[2stone]

Hi Scott,

first off, congratulations!
I think you have probably broken the 2stone record
with your 1000F THAT IS JUST INCREDIBLE. I have been doing
some tweeking myself and did a pie in about 1 3/4 min last week.
You may just need to bring it up 1 inch or so to achieve the perfect balance.
Maybe you can coil up some braided high temp rope inside the pan under the stone
to reduce some of the heat. Also in my high temp tests last week I was able to controll
the heat to the stone by placing a 4x4 steel plate in the middle under the turn table to deflect
some of the heat from the stone.
I think you will figure it out...... I'm impressed.
The first pie looked fantastic!

good work, keep us posted.

regards,
willard

[Brian Hunt]

Hi Willard,

my home town sits at about 6,000 feet above sea level. We often get snow for halloween though it seldom sticks, there have been times when I was young that I was trick or treating with a few inches on the ground. But I can currently look out at the surounding mountains and they are covered down to the foothills already. Bit too cold to be outside using the grill. 

You will be hearing from me in the future for one of your nifty creations, probably be sometime after christmas in order to start preparing to use my grill again in the spring. 

Nice design, I thought about making a clone, but after figuring cost of materials and my time factor, it is a much better deal to buy the original. 

thanks.

Brian.

[2stone]

Brian, .......outwest or up north .....6000 ft!!!


Have had a number of people who don't have grills or don't have good grills tell me they have to save up for a good grill first. I'm one of those people who has a grill but not anywhere near what many of you have (not to mention Scott) Yesterday Pete-zza prodded me into "00" territory! Well there is no way my grill can get into the 1000's. I have been quite content with 3 min pizzas.
But anyway.... with some inspiration from Villa Roma we now have a stand alone 2stone pizza oven that uses a Bayou classic SQ-14 propane burner(under 50 bucks from Home Depot... some serious heat) for the heat source. See it at www.2stonepg.com

Now I am not joking here.... seriously....I did this pie in 1 min 10 sec!!!!  I never thought that much about it until Scott explained what it was like. The numbers started to burn off my thermometer so I had to remove it......I suspect I was in the 1000F range.

So Pete-zza I'm ready to roll... I just need to order some "Caputo 00" and I'll be waiting for your guidance on the two dough styles

by the way if there is any interest I could work up a "Bayou adapter" for the grill version

regards,
willard

[Bill/SFNM]

I just need to order some "Caputo 00" and I'll be waiting for your guidance on the two dough styles

willard,

I am very impressed with what you are trying to achieve and I hope to read reports from many members about their success with your product. I have been following this thread with great interest, but have remained on the sidelines because it originated in the "New York style" forum. We could argue all day (and have) about New York vs. Neapolitan and variants in between. I think that once you are using Caputo 00 dough in such high temperatures, you may be crossing the line into true Neapolitan territory, although the main point of this obsession we share is NOT to produce a certain style, but to produce something we truly enjoy eating.

A couple of issues you should be aware of with Caputo 00, at least as far as as my experience has taught me:

1) The window for the pie being perfectly cooked on the top and bottom and inside the crust can be very small, maybe only a few seconds for it to go from underbaked to overbaked. The point of perfection is up to personal preference, but I prefer a soft, light, fluffy crust with just the thinnest layer of crisp on the outside.

2. It is very easy to bake a pie that looks perfect but is overcooked.

3. The way the dough is built (hydration, fermentation/proofing regimens, etc.) will make a big difference in how the pie ultimately bakes up. You have a great deal of experimentation ahead of you. I hope your dog doesn't get too fat.

Bill/SFNM

[2stone]

Bill,

thanks for the interest/comments.

I lose track of were things are on this forum, but I think I saw some pics from you of some pies that were fired at 1000-1100 The pies were beautiful.. and an inspiration...and I'm sure they tasted good also. I also read you explain about the flames. I have had some flames comming up around the pizza with the 2Stone, and yes the whole thing is a lot more complicated than people think.
I suspected the window was pretty small for baking at real high heat, thats why I really worked to get an open door design sort of like a real wood fired oven that you have.
By the way, the pie I did today had that light fluffy texture to it, and to my surprise it was baked on the inside. I'm sure I just got lucky on my first try. (I think it was up there as the best I have had)

Yes I believe you when you say I'm inn for a learning curve with "00" I guess thats what makes this fun for me, If I figured it all out in one day I would get bored and loose interest.

When I get stumped I'll no were to turn!

regards'

willard

[canadianbacon]

Hi Willard,

That's pretty impressive indeed.  You keep pushing the envelope !, I'm very glad
you joined our community, it's great to read your posts,
and you are making things exciting ! 

[2stone]

Canadianbacon

Oh.... you're too kind..
I get inspired by all of the brilliant people
on this forum........I'm just trying to keep up!

willard