Gas BBQ experiment

[Piumerl]

First of all, thanks to all members for sharing. I have been a “leecher” for years and would like to share with you my small experience.
I never had a gas grill, and this summer got one as a gift. I am not friend with propane tank….

My favourite kind of pie is the one done by Mike  “Essen1 » . I have been following his project and I thank him very much for all is effort and  his time for posting and sharing the results.

So I was off for couple months making pizza and got a request to do some. Came back to the site and strange, Mike posted a new experiment.  I found that it was simpler process in the technique and decided to test it. And by the way, to make sure I mess it up, try the new gas grill instead of the oven… that’s me…

The first batch is Mike formulation.
http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,8093.msg104685.html#msg104685

I have a stone but use to bake on a screen,  because the stone make the bottom crust to crispy.
So I used the screen, preheated. The beast “BBQ” can go well over 700F and yep, the bottom burned and the top was having problem cooking the cheese. This seems to be the problem with BBQ. So for the second pie, used the stone (wait until it reach min  550F) and this protect the bottom but was missing a bit of top heat to have it perfect. 

Mike, my friend..and wife  said that this was the best tasting pie I made so thanks again to you.

After looking at all possible option found on this site, 2stone, DIY add-ons, was too expensive or too long to do. I needed a simple way to get heat on top, to emulate a kind of wood oven. 
So I came up with this.
Reflective surface, and use the back burner to produce the top heat.  I was amazingly surprise by the result. Not perfect but I am on something close to what I want.
So I did modify a bit Mike’s formulation in reducing a bit the sugar (replacing by honey and used IDY) . Flour is different too since I am in Montreal and I don’t have KABF, but it is bread flour.  So made four balls,  based on Mike formula with  less sugar to try slowing bottom burning with high heat of BBQ.

Formula: 326 gr. per ball / 4 balls per batch / 24 hr cold-rise.

791 ADM Harvest Queen Special (100%)
483 Water - 72°F (61%)
11.71 gr. Honey (1.5%)
15.8 gr. Sea salt (2%)
15.8 gr. Oil EVO(2%)
2.4 gr. IDY (0 .3%)
Bowl residue 1.5%

Used the exact  same mixing  procedure
http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,8093.msg104685.html#msg104685

Split the dough in two balls of 652 gr for bulk rise, after 24 hours, make 2 balls and counter rise for 2,5 hr and split the other bulk ball back to the fridge.

Was ready to try it and rain storm came just before lighting BBQ. So I use the oven and it was very nice.
2 balls were left so they stay in the fridge as single ball for total 3 days. (1 day bulk rise, 2 days individual rise). 
Again 2.5 hr at room temp, was very easy to work with.

Not a lot of pictures, I was just testing not expected to share but was so surprise by the result, it might help other. 
The pie is a mix, so the part with browned cheese is pepperoni and a mix of 4 cheeses, the top half is vegetarian with goat cheese only, which just melted.
Since of the back burner firing up,  I had to watch it and turn the pie to have an even cooking. Turned 3 times and it worked.

Stone temp around 625F, cooking time 4.5 min, same in the oven at 550F on screen was around  7.5 min.

Merci
Claude













 

[TXCraig1]

I like it.

Craig

[Jackie Tran]

Haha awesome post!  That's what I'm talking about. I've been considering a similar setup.  Firebricks for side walls and a stone or metal pan on top to trap and reflect heat. Nice work!
Thx for posting this.

[TXCraig1]

JT,

It looks like he may have the opposite problem from me - too much heat on top relative to the stone. You might try cutting some slots in the reflector if you need to balance it out.
 
Craig

[Jackie Tran]

Good idea Craig.  That or he can dial down the rotisserie burner if he's got it on full blast.  Piumerl, what kind of stone are you using and what is your preheat time? 

Chau

[Piumerl]

Thanks

The stone is Cordierite Ceramic Board. was custom made 18x14x3/4. Got that from a baker and came from a supplier in UK. I could get a 1 inch thick but would have been to heavy for the oven rack and too long too heat it.

It is the same material they use in building baker's oven floor so it quit heavy and resist quite well temperature change without cracking.

Preheat time is quite fast on bbq. Around 20 min to get the stone to 600F. On the right side there is a ceramic infrared burner so it help speeding up.

The overall bbq temp is over 700F. When this is reach I install the metal sheet and lite the back burner. turn all bottom burner to low and the backburner to medium-low so I can control a bit the cooking.

Cook cover closed, after 2 min, start rotating so the part near the flame doesn't burn. After that I turn it every 30-45 secs. so it cooked evenly. At around 4 min it was done.

I did not expect this simple setup to work that good, but it did. just have to be very careful, you can burn the pie quite fast.

If you need more info just ask.

Claude