My Gas Grill Set Up - Firebricks With Pictures

[PizzaEater101]

Here is my first attempt at posting photos here. 

Background -

This is an old school BBQ as you can see.  It's not the new fancy shinny silver kind that you can buy at Lowes, OSH, Home Depot for a reasonable price.  This was installed about 1994 before all the new fancy ones hit all the stores recently.  This one replaced another old school one that was in the family since the '70s.   

Here is the photo of it

[PizzaEater101]

I made about 11 inch pizza on this yesterday.  I bought the firebricks and set it up to fit a 12 inch pizza. I did not have enough oz of dough for 12 but 11 is close enough.  There are splits but I had a couple of full sized bricks on the side where the three bricks are in the back.  I mean in the spaces next to them but after warming it up a bit I thought I'd remove them with my head resistant gloves because I thought maybe having them there would be useless.   So on this set up I can have a 12 inch pizza, I measured it.  The 11 inch turned out great.

[PizzaEater101]

Now I re-arranged it to fit a 14 inch pizza.  I only made the 11 inch but tomorrow I plan on making 14 inch pizza for dinner.  Not sure how it will turn out but the 11 inch pizza I made turned out to be perfection in my opinion.  Hopefully the 14 inch will work fine too but only a real life experience will tell me.  I'm tempted to make one tonight but I had pizza yesterday and I want a burrito and taco tonight so I'll withstand temptation and not make my pizza tonight.   So this is the firebrick setup to fit a 14 inch pizza.  I added one brick on the back and re-arranged the back bricks to accommodate 4 bricks. 

[PizzaEater101]

How I heated up the bbq grill you ask? 

I used to have a Villaware Pizza Grill they call it. Had a cordierite stone in a metal frame with a temp gauge.  Worked fine, no worked great but I left it out on a outdoor table and in a rare windstorm it knocked over and the stone cracked.  Either was going to buy another Villaware or get a replacement stone, I'd say a kiln shelf of cordierite.  I did want to though experiment with firebricks so I went that route.

With the Villaware it had a temp gauge on the metal frame to determine the heat of the air temp in the bbq.  The gauge showed "pizza zone" and if I recall it was about 500 to 700 or something like that, I have to go and look.  That would normally take about 30 minutes to heat the thing up to that temp.  It did not show the temp of the stone but did show the temp of the air.  I did not have an IR to measure the temp of the Villaware Pizza Grill stone but the instructions said that you need to get it in the pizza temp zone to make pizza and to get to about 650 F it was about half hour so I figured with my new setup I should base my pre-bake heat up time on that.   But the bricks, even tho they are splits are thicker than the Villaware cordierite so I thought I'd double the pre-heat time plus 10 minutes.  No IR so I could not tell how hot the stone was and no oven temp gauge to measure the air temp.  I figured that double the pre-heat time plus 10 minutes should be safe.  I will buy an IR when I see one on sale.

So I pre-heat for 70 minutes and decide to throw the pie on the bricks.  I do that and check it in about 5 minutes.  Looking good.  I rotate the pizza.  5 minutes later I come out and it looks done so I take it off with the peel and put it on the cutting pan.  I let it rest for about 5 minutes, I cut and eat.   Was one of the best if not best pizzas I have made to date.  The firebricks worked like a charm.  I felt at that moment I was living the life of Riley because I always feel great when I cook or bake something to perfection or to my liking which is perfection.

I had issues with my digi cam's batteries but I did take some photos of the pie with the cell phone camera but I have to figure out how to get them off the camera and onto the computer so I can upload some photos.  I hardly take pics with the cell phone camera so I forgot how to load the photos from the cam to the computer.   I only use it when I don't have a real camera like when I was at the Hard Rock Cafe at the Universal City Walk (next to Universal Studios Hollywood (really Universal City)) and I saw The Ventures guitar on the wall and I just had to have a photo of it.

Once I get the pics on the computer if I can I will post.  The above photos of the stone setup were with my real digital camera.  I got the battery situation taken care of.

[PizzaEater101]

Will with a little help from the phone carrier I was able to get them on the computer.  Hope this loads.

Here is the top of the pizza.

[PizzaEater101]

Here is the bottom of the pizza.

Maybe not as good as some of the other forum member's pizza but this is perfection for me. It tasted great and the texture was perfect for me.

[PizzaEater101]

It is simple pepperoni but the next one will be the following -

1) 14 inch
2) Pepperoni
3) Sausage
4) Canadian Bacon
5) Bacon

[Jet_deck]

I'm glad you enjoyed the pizza coming off your gas grill. You did good to get the top done, many people don't have that success without modifying their grill somewhat.  Keep the pictures coming.

[Jeep Pizza]

It looks like your older grill has a lower dome height then the newer ones, this may be why you were able to get the top done. Just out of curiosity what is the height of the lid to the grill at it's deepest point?

[PizzaEater101]

I'm glad you enjoyed the pizza coming off your gas grill. You did good to get the top done, many people don't have that success without modifying their grill somewhat.  Keep the pictures coming.

Thanks much for the compliments! I am going to try my hand at a 14 inch pie tonight.  The 12 inch works well as we can see but let's see the 14 inch.  Pictures to be posted tonight.  Thanks.

[PizzaEater101]

It looks like your older grill has a lower dome height then the newer ones, this may be why you were able to get the top done. Just out of curiosity what is the height of the lid to the grill at it's deepest point?

Jeep, I measured it the best I can.  This is what I got -

1) If I measured it right the height of the lid to the grill should be 11 inches tops.  It might have been actually 10 but I had a hard time with the measuring.

2) Grill dimensions where 15x20.

As you can see as you noted, this is a smaller gas bbq grill as the newer fancy ones.    I can't do a very big pie in there.  I am going to see if I maxed out too much real estate to get good air flow for my 14 inch pizza.  Hopefully it works fine.

Yes, with my Villaware Pizza Grill device I was able to get the top done well.  With my firebricks came thing so far so good.

 

[Jet_deck]

Yes, with my Villaware Pizza Grill device I was able to get the top done well.  With my firebricks same thing so far so good.
 

I can see how the Villaware pizza grill would help things on the bottom, but not the top.  I think the low dome is whats helping with the top heat, if anything.

[PizzaEater101]

Instead of waiting for dinner I'm hungry so for a late lunch I will eat pizza.  It's either tacos for lunch and pizza for dinner or pizza for lunch and tacos for dinner.  I choose pizza for lunch and tacos for dinner.

I went to play tennis with a friend at the local park so before I left I turned on the gas grill.  I came back one hour and thirty minutes later roughly. Thought I'd heat it when I was out playing tennis to avoid having to wait over an hour after I get back had I heated it then.   I don't know for a fact how hot it is in there but I know it's plenty hot.  So I came home and dressed the pie.  It's on now.  Been on for about three minutes.  I'll take pictures when it's done and post them after I eat. 

It's a hot fall day here in the wild west.  It's about 85 F right now.  It's nice but hot.  I'm gonna check it soon then eat it when it's done and post the pics.

You must be right, that low dome must be a blessing because it must help it a lot with the cooking of the top.

[PizzaEater101]

I will post pics later but I took it off in 8 minutes.  I think that a 12 inch works out better because I noticed with the 14 it was a bit charred on one side.  I should have rotated it more.  I think with the 12 inch there is more airflow since there is one less brick so the top gets more hot air.  I had to leave it on longer to get the top done so the bottom on one side was a bit charred.  The 12 inch gets plenty of heat and airflow on top and the bottom does not chart.  I did try a bite even though it's hot but it taste great.

[PizzaEater101]

Here are three pictures

1) the dough ball
2) the Sbarro pizza sauce
3) the toppings - cheese blend/meat blend
4) all dressed up and ready for work

[PizzaEater101]

Here it is after it's been baked up on the gas bbq grill

1) a picture of the whole pizza after it's been baked
2) a picture of the slice from the side
3) the underside of the charred or maybe I should say burnt bottom

[PizzaEater101]

It was so good guys, well the non-burnt side of it.   It was a meat lovers pizza.   I have to write my notes that are on some random computer paper into a notebook so I can keep this standard.

The bottom either burnt because the 14 inch setup did not allow enough air to flow through the dome because the bricks took up so much real estate, therefore the bottom cooked too fast compared to the top OR because I left the bbq to heat up too long and the bricks got too hot.  Since I went to play tennis it was left to heat up about 1 hour 40 minutes as opposed to last time with the 12 inch pizza at 1 hour 10 minutes.  I think I'll do another 14 inch but let it heat for 1 hour 10 minutes prior to placing on the stones.

I normally like pizzas that are "meat lover" pizzas.  At a local pizza joint they have one that is called the Manhattan and it is all meat.  They put on various meat but different than mine. I actually like meat that has been diced and chopped up then placed on the pizza and baked instead of bigger pieces of topping like whole slices of pepperoni or chunks of sausage.   

The Sbarro sauce is the bomb guys.  I never knock Sbarro because for a mall fast food Italian chain it's very good.  I hold it up high.  Actually forget about it being a mall chain, just on it's own it's good stuff.  Better than most food court choices. 

So the combination of the sauce and the cheese blend with the right toppings, baked in the gas bbq, it was awesome. 

The local place I go to for the Manhattan is very good but mine is just as good if not better.  Just their smallest is 14 inch and my biggest is 14.  I prefer something about that size or bigger but if I have to go back to making 12 inch pies then so be it.  Hopefully by heating less time and turning it sooner I can avoid burning the bottom.

[chickenparm]

Hey Buddy,

The pizza looks great and I can imagine you really love the finish with the sauce.
 
Sbarro's sauce tastes alot like many of the NY pizza places I would frequent.Its basically a NY style pie sauce so it holds up pretty well for use with just about any pizza.

Im going to call the Mall soon and see if they will sell me a can(s).I may have missed it,but how much did they charge you? If you want to keep that personal,you can PM or just leave it at that.No biggie.

If I get a can,I will also try and duplicate it at home as well.Need something to compare it to.

Keep us the good work with the firebrick oven you have going.Once you master how it heats and cooks,you can rotate accordingly and compensate.
 

ps I noticed using my pizza stone,without a screen or anything,my pies will rotate fairly easy just turning it around while wearing oven mits,after about a minute or two.I do check with a spatula first to make sure one side of the crust is not sticking a little somewhere.
 

[PizzaEater101]

Hey chickenparm, no problem about the price of the can.  The manager said he'd sell me a can for the price of a whole cheese pizza so I agreed.  This was $15.50 plus tax.   Once I bought from him, well another woman working at the same Sbarro, for about $10.00.  I think it's not a normal item people ask to buy so the price can vary.  If you call your mall Sbarro and they say they can not sell to you then just go to another mall in person and ask the cashier.  In person I think it would work out better if the phone doesn't work.

I never rotated with oven gloves but I should try it. I did it with the peel and a little by hand without touching so long as not to get burnt.

Yes if you figure out a good clone of it please let us know.  Thanks!

[norma427]

PizzaEater101,

Your recent pie looks good!    I once had a problem with the bottom of the pizza burning and I put a metal container under the bottom, after the bottom crust was finished and then kept baking.  That solved the problem for me. 

Norma