next »

[Parttimepizzaiolo]

I've been experimenting with my BGE branded pizza stone on my large BGE (with plate setter, legs up) and have had wonderful results on the bottom of the pie when the stone is preheated to about 500F.  The problem I'm having, even with a full firebox of lump, I can't get the dome temp much above 500F.

In order to get any color on the top of the pizza, I need to cook it for like 15 minutes, and by then the dough starts to get tough (instead of light and chewy/tender).

Does anybody have any experience or tips using the BGE and stone combo?  I've had my stone up to 800F before (without the plate setter in place) and just fried the bottom of the pie (see my blog below for results). 

Any tips would be appreciated.

John

[UnConundrum]

John, how much time are you giving the egg to heat up?  Assuming you're giving an hour or more, I'd suggest checking the alignment of the firebox and the cleanout.  There's always questions like wether the egg was cleaned out first (BTW, I don't clean mine, but little chunks of charcoal can clog the air holes in the bottom grate), the size on the lump (again little chunks can clog), dampness of the lump, etc, but seems like the most common issue is avoiding any restriction at the air supply.

To get the top of your pizza done faster, you have to make sure the egg is at the desired temp for some time before starting.  IOW, if your target is 500, don't start baking as soon as it hits 500.  You have to give the dome time to preheat.  Your stone is thinner and closer to the heat source so it will heat up faster.  Try giving it a good half hour AFTER it hits your target.  If you're still having problems, try raising the pizza in the egg using something like a spider, putting the pizza stone higher in the dome.

[Parttimepizzaiolo]

John, how much time are you giving the egg to heat up?  Assuming you're giving an hour or more, I'd suggest checking the alignment of the firebox and the cleanout.  There's always questions like wether the egg was cleaned out first (BTW, I don't clean mine, but little chunks of charcoal can clog the air holes in the bottom grate), the size on the lump (again little chunks can clog), dampness of the lump, etc, but seems like the most common issue is avoiding any restriction at the air supply.

To get the top of your pizza done faster, you have to make sure the egg is at the desired temp for some time before starting.  IOW, if your target is 500, don't start baking as soon as it hits 500.  You have to give the dome time to preheat.  Your stone is thinner and closer to the heat source so it will heat up faster.  Try giving it a good half hour AFTER it hits your target.  If you're still having problems, try raising the pizza in the egg using something like a spider, putting the pizza stone higher in the dome.

I think you are right about using the spider.  I will probably order one of those.  I do let the stone preheat for a whole hour.  It's just that after an hour of burning, with both draft holes wide open, the lump starts running out of steam.

Do you have a spider, and if so, have you noticed that if you can get the pie higher into the dome area, does it brown faster (logic says it would)?

Thanks for the tip.

[UnConundrum]

I now have a WFO, and haven't done a pizza on the egg in a few months.  When I did, I used to make my dough with KAAP flour, which would not tolerate heat above 500, so I was content there for pizza.  I did find that the spider helped.  You say it runs out of steam, I'd suggest more charcoal.  Unless you're using a poor grade, it should handle several hours @ 500 without a problem.

[SmokinGuitarPlayer]

A couple of things ..

Ciao Warren!

In answer to these concerns..... we've been baking pizza every wednesday on both a Large and a XL BGE.
In a large, a over-full load of really good lump .. ... once we "bury" the thermo ..we get around 45 minutes of "maxxed-out  (700+)" baking times, then the dome temp starts to fall ..we have repeated this test numerous times. The XL goes a little longer but not that much considering all the additional lump.

Also ... the biggest problem is the crust burning before top of pie chars because the heat source is below the stone as opposed to aside of the pizza as in a brick oven...best solution we've found so far is internal BGE setup as shown in our latest video (on youtube search "pizza on egg") ..where we use a platesetter legs-down and a pan for a riser.

Also ..after lighting the Egg, we let it  go full tilt buggie with nothing in it for a while to "charge" the dome to highest possible temp but keeping in mind that our lump supply will start to fade out if we take to much time....

so once we get maxxed out on the dome thermo, we insert the platesetter, riser and stone and monitor stone temp with infrared thermo ..when it's up to 500 or so we bake a test foccacia bread made out of a pizza dough ... then we start baking pizza. If the stone gets too hot ...they we use pizza screens as spacers... you can see the results on that video.

Hope this helps everybody. I have spent a ton of time experimenting and burned a LOT of pizza crusts and fried a LOT of NOMEX GASKETS in the past few months.
FB/SGP