Propane fired pizza rotisserie, 10 stones on the cheap

[Jet_deck]

Thanks Craig.


Well, I have been pursuing pizza cooking for the last 6 mos (give/take)  with various results.  I'm still very new at this, but I can do several steps much better now.  I can make dough without getting flour on the floor and I can top a skin without getting sauce on the counter. This video gives a pretty good clear view of a 90 second pizza that I cooked last night.  I even got that big pile of steam coming off the pizza at the end, that to me is the best part of the whole thing.

Thanks to everyone that answered my stupid questions, answered my stupid pm's and ignored my stupid posts.  Caputo Diem.  (Sieze the flour)

http://img545.imageshack.us/i/file24467.mp4/

[Fishwish]

Hey jet deck, do you have any descriptions/pics of the rotisserie connections? I have looked at Daves and am wondering if yours is different. I love your ingenuity, thanks for posting.

[Tampa]

I love the video Jet.  That roar of the burner makes me all tingley.  It looks like you are getting dialed in so the top and bottom are finished at the same time.  Did you adjust the upper burner as well during the bake, or just the bottom?  If your setup performs at all like mine, throttling up the bottom burner doesn't change the stone temp much in the few minutes it takes to bake a pie, but it does provide heat flow over the top augmenting the upper burner.

Good work.

Dave

[Jet_deck]

Hey jet deck, do you have any descriptions/pics of the rotisserie connections?

I used the standard rotisserie motor that came with my gas bbq grill.  It has a female square hole that is used to turn the square rotisserie rod.  I took a piece of 1.5" stainless pipe and welded a short piece of 1/4" square keystock to the pipe.  On top of the pipe is a 12" x 12" piece of 14 gauge steel, I just put the stone on top of it.  A couple of pieces of plastic (away from the heat) with a 1.5" hole in them serve as a bearing to hold the stainless pipe up.  Hope this helps, I could get pictures if you need.

[Jet_deck]

Did you adjust the upper burner as well during the bake, or just the bottom?  If your setup performs at all like mine, throttling up the bottom burner doesn't change the stone temp much in the few minutes it takes to bake a pie, but it does provide heat flow over the top augmenting the upper burner.

Dave

Thanks Dave.  I just left the top burner on the highest setting possible.  My little stainless surround was cherry red.  In fact, the next pizza after the one in the video was cooked with top heat only.  My observation was that top heat can be hotter than top/bottom heat (to an extent)).  If the bottom burner is at idle or just up to half way, the heat from it (because of the way the air is forced over the top and out the front) pushes the top heat out the front and it just fowls things up.  Top heat rules.

[Tampa]

"...fouls things up"  Isn't that funny how hard it is to anticipate how little changes sometimes make a big difference inside the oven?

It sounds like we have similar environments in that the thermal mass of the stone is more than adequate to cook the underside of the pizza.  In my upper burner / lower burner setup.  I can just turn off the lower burner when I throw the pie - it makes no difference.

Since in your case, "top heat rules", I'll mention that the amount of radiatiant heat to the pie is proportional to the inverse square of the distance from the upper heat source.  That's a fancy way of saying, It seems like you have a large air gap.  If the distance between the pie and the upper heat is, say 4", and you cut that to 2", you should be able to cut the propane flow in half and get the same results.  Of course, it's never that simple.  In your case, if the lower burner is still going, by cutting the air gap you will also increase the convective heat flow as well, so you may get an even greater benefit.

Feel free to ignore my suggestion.  I only share it because you have a rotisserie which tends to minimize effect hot spots (and I like to drive folks crazy).

Dave

[Jet_deck]

....It seems like you have a large air gap.  If the distance between the pie and the upper heat is, say 4", and you cut that to 2", you should be able to cut the propane flow in half and get the same results....  Dave

Sounds good.  Since my upper stone sits on the two firebrick, I just need to cut one of them in half to bring the roof down some.  I just bought a masonry cutting blade for a chop saw, so I have no excuse not to lower it now.

[Jet_deck]

I tested two versions of the Essen1's NY-style pizza recipe on the 10stone.  The original version (test dough #2):

410gr. BF                 100%
262gr. Water(90°F)   64%
12gr. Oil                       3%
4gr.   Brown sugar       1%
6gr. Sea salt                1.5%
2.5gr.   IDY                   0.6%

I mixed everything together, let it rest for 20 mins, then kneaded it for the next 8 mins, divided the dough and let it rest for about 1.5hrs before baking it off.

And a higher hydration version with 68% water (test dough #1)

Pictures of the 2 bulk fermenting dough:

[Jet_deck]

The first picture above is the lower hydration (dough #2) original recipe.  The second picture above is the higher hydration (dough #1).  I kneaded the #2 a bit more heavily to take into account the higher hydration.

I preheated the 10stone and measured the cooking surface at about 600 for both test.  Cooking time was about 4 minutes for both test.  The low quality part-skim and whole milk mozz couldn't take the heat, but no one complained about the cheese tasting burnt.  The pizza was heavily sauced, and topped with Jimmy dean pre-cooked breakfast sausage.  Pizza #1(high hydration):below

[Jet_deck]

Below is the lower hydration (dough #2) pizza.

[Jet_deck]

Comments about #1: floppy, bready, gooey inside, needs to be thicker, sweeter than #2(they had the same amount of sugar, lol)
Comments about #2:crunchier,needs to be thicker and gooeyer.

#2 was favored by me as well. Even 2 hours after cooling, the crumb was light and moist without being bready and the crust still crunched a bit when cut or tasted.
Here is another funny part.  Even though we all prefered #2, by the time the dust settled, both pizzas were both nearly gone.

One last thing I should mention is that pizza #1 was cooked entirely with the top burner on the 10stone,  the second pizza was cooked entirely with the bottom burner only on the 10stone.  A guy could spent years with this crazy pizza stuff.

[Tampa]

Good stuff, thanks for sharing.

It seems to me that there is a lot of heat stored in a 1/2" stone - enough to cook a pie assuming a 3-5 minute bake.  Like you, I've played with cooking only off the upper burner and only off the bottom burner.  These days, I'm doing a little of both.  In a recent 5 minute bake, I burned a bit of the top cheese, but liked the crisp of the underside crust.  So I lowered the stone about 1/2" closer to the bottom burner and away from the top.  Of course, a simple change like that resulted in unexpected trade offs.  The warm-up time was a minute or so longer, but he cheese didn't seem to burn as much.  I know the heatflow is less optimal than before.  In search of a still crispier bottom crust w/o burned cheese, I turned off the upper (rotisserie) burner entirely when the pie went in.  After three-four minutes, I turn the upper burner on again.  The result?  Just as expected - not - more oven spring.  Huh?  I did get the crispier bottom crust w/o burned cheese, but I didn't expect more oven spring.  I'm guessing that the absence of upper heat prevents the crust from "setting" like an epoxy in the first few minutes.  YMMV.

Dave

[Essen1]

Pretty cool!

But it goes to show that the heat was too much for the cheese and perhaps the crust. I wonder if all the moisture was baked out of it?

Keep in mind that this crust was designed for a regular home oven. I have a different formula if I use my LBE.

[fazzari]

Maybe it's just me, but I'm bettin that cheese was tasty!!!

John

[compatta]

Jet deck, could you post some pictures how you attached the fireplace burner to your
propane tank? It would help a lot how i can learn how to attach regular propane burners to
a propane tank without the whole grill itself.

thanks!

[Jet_deck]

Sure, give me a couple days.

[Jet_deck]

Jet deck, could you post some pictures how you attached the fireplace burner to your
propane tank? It would help a lot how i can learn how to attach regular propane burners to
a propane tank without the whole grill itself.

thanks!

Here are the connections.  High pressure regulator (not like the low pressure ones on a typical backyard bbq grill), a "T" to split the gas into two lines, then the flow control knob, then a hose to the burner.  Hope this helps.

[compatta]

I just have one more question. I was wondering how you got the natural gas burner directly attached your propane hose.
could you show a picture/refer me the part?

I'm gonna start making a hybrid Propane Fired Rotisserie/2 stone/LBE MOD
Soon in order to get some true "street style" pizza going.

Thanks for the help in advance!

[gtsum2]

I really like the idea of the rotis for even cooking.  I wonder how something like this could be used on my LBE cooker??  I am getting good results with my LBE, but it would not hurt to experiment a bit more with it

[Jet_deck]

...  could you show a picture/refer me the part?....

Compatta here are some detailed pics.  If your unable to get the reuslts you want send me a pm.

>> Don't forget to drill the extra holes for the "make up" air.  Otherwise the flame will burn only yellow and not the blue with yellow tips.