Firebricks Question

[norma427]

scott123,

When I looked at the bottom crust, it did look like too much char for me too, but for some reason, it didn’t have a burnt flavor.  I did have pizzas at my market stand that had to much char and they weren’t even this dark.  I can’t understand it, but it is something new to me. 

I don’t have any charcoal at this time.  I have some kind of wood chips that are supposed to be used in a BBQ grill to give meats the smoky flavor, but have never opened the bag, so I don’t know what to expect from them. 

I wanted to let the BBQ grill heat up longer to see how high I could get the temperature on the firebricks, but since it would soon be dark, I just made the pizza. 

I can take the temperatures you mentioned, but don’t know how I would take the underneath the hearth temperature. 

I did take the temperature of the firebricks two hours after I turned off the BBQ grill with the lid open and the hearth temperature was 212 degrees F and the top firebricks were 168 degrees F. 

Thanks,

Norma

[scott123]

212 and 168... Lid open... Very interesting. I might have erred a little on the side of heat retention, but I think with the lid closed, we might be looking at a loss of 125 degrees per hour. That's not too terribly important, though.  The bottom line is that firebrick's poor conductivity causes it to hold it's heat for a while. Thanks for taking those temps.

Re; char.  I've noticed that when making Cajun roux, right before you burn it, there's a split second where it's black, but doesn't taste burnt. I think you hit that window.

For underneath the hearth, I don't want you to put yourself in a dangerous position, but if you can use a stick or something to tilt a brick up and shoot underneath it, that would be helpful.  It's not hugely important, though. I have a pretty strong feeling that the bottom of the brick will be considerably higher (700+) and it would be nice to confirm that, but it isn't essential. Basically, whatever temp you can achieve underneath- that's the temp you can get on the ceiling if the hearth were removed.

[norma427]

scott123,

Next time I will let the lid closed and take the temperature over a two hour period, after the temperatures of the firebricks are up.

I just wonder what is the best temperature are to bake on the firebricks in my grill.  Guess I will find that out over time. 

As to the char, I was also surprised, I couldn’t detect the burnt taste.  I really don’t like a burnt taste to the crust, although some people do. 

I have some sheet metal and wonder if I cut it, bend it over on the edges on both sides of the exposed part of the grill grates and then have like a tunnel over the top of the firebricks if that would help to heat the top firebricks more.  Just trying to think of some ideas and don’t really know how that would work.

I do have big barbeque turners and could lift one of the hearth stones to see what the bottom of the hearth temperature is.  That is what I used to rotate the pie today.  It would be interesting to see what that temperature is. 

Maybe if I have time this week, I will just take the bottom firebricks out and do a test on how hot the top firebricks get, before putting back the bottom firebricks to heat up.

Thanks,

Norma

[norma427]

This morning, I decided to do a test of the BBQ grill set-up.  I moved the steel pan with bricks front more, so there is a gap in the back of the top, between the steel pan and back firebricks.  There is still a gap between the back firebricks and the back of the BBQ grill. I turned the BBQ grill on and will see how high the temperatures can get on the top and bottom firebricks.  I had commented earlier in this thread that my three burners were going crosswise.  That wasn’t correct, I never looked, but thought they did.  Two of the burners run right under the ends of firebricks that are standing up.  The other middle burner is under the middle of the hearth. 

I took the piece of the galvanized steel out of the shed and have pounded the one end down. That was after I took this picture. Now I am still wondering if I cut the one end to fit and then pounded two ends over and put this on over the top position of the firebricks, if this will give them some more heat.  I will probably try that later in the week. 

I tried taking the bottom firebricks out to see how hard that would be in putting them back when the grill was hot and I don’t think there is any way that I would be able to accomplish that while the grill is hot.  They are hard to slide into position, even when the grill is cold.

This is a picture of the BBQ chips I was commenting on.  They are supposed to be used in the grill for a smoky flavor. 

I also took a picture of how high the distance is from the hearth to the top of the steel pan with firebricks placed in the pan.  Another  picture of the side burner on the BBQ grill.  I don’t know if there is someway to channel that heat into the opening on the side of the BBQ grill to also get the top firebricks hotter.  That opening is for a rotisserie.

Additional picture of front of BBQ grill. 

I will report back later on the temperatures of the firebricks.

Norma

[norma427]

last pictures

Norma

[norma427]

In the last post I commented that my burners are crosswise.  I get crosswise and lengthwise mixed up, so to clarify this, I mean the burners are placed across the shortest distance.  I hope this clears up what I was trying to say.

I left the BBQ grill oven propane set-up on for 1 ½ hrs.  I took the temperature of the hearth and it was anywhere between 650-660 degree F, depending on where I aimed the infrared thermometer.
The top firebricks in the steel pan were anywhere between 520-539 degrees F.  I don’t know since I moved the steel pan front, if that had something to do with the change in these temperatures.  Will have to do some more tests on that.  The bottom of the steel pan registered 632 degrees F.  The bottom temperature of the firebricks under the hearth measured 612, but that was the last temperature I took and the lid was open the whole time, while I was taking these temperatures, so there could be heat loss from keeping the lid open.  I just couldn’t hold the lid up, hold the gun, and take pictures all at the same time, without the lid being open.  The heat was too intense for my hands.

I plan to take the temperatures again in one and two hour intervals, since the grill is turned off.

Norma

[norma427]

These were the temperatures taken one and two hours after the BBQ grill was turned off.  After the first hour the hearth temperature was 324 degrees F and the top temperature with the firebricks in the pan was 301 degrees F. After two hours the hearth temperature was 187 degrees F and the top with the firebricks was 209 degrees F.  I really don’t understand this, but know heat rises, but don’t know if the firebricks that are in the steel pan kept their temperature higher in the 2nd hour because of the steel pan holding the firebricks or if the heat radiated from the bottom hearth.  These temperatures were all taken with the lid closed.

Pictured below are the two temperatures taken at hour two of the hearth and firebricks in the steel pan.

Norma