experiment ::: weber bbq grill pizza *PICS*

[snowdy]

My oven goes to 500 and both of the last 2 houses ive made pizza at go to 550 and the difference has been huge.. i have trouble getting any decent browning to my crust here at home while the other places ive tried cook it amazing with nice char.

i decided to use my weber grill tonight for an experiment. I have no idea how to really do this so i kinda winged it expecting i would not have perfect results.

I got a big bag of mesquite charcoal and put in just about the entire bag thinking that more coal would mean a hotter burn. At the same time the charcoal was burning and getting ready, i put my pizza stone into the oven @ 300 degrees. It was in the oven for about 30 minutes.

Once the charcoal flames died down i spread them all out... took the pizza stone out of my oven with mitts and put it on the bbq.. then put the lid on and let the stone heat up some more for about 20 minutes.

My goal was to get more "char" to my crust. But this didnt happen exactly. Even with all the charcoal i put on the grill the hottest i could get it according to my guage was about 400 degrees. Once i opened it and put the stone in it went down to about 380 and ended up cooking the pizza at about the same temp for about 20 minutes.

I shined a flashlite in the top holes to see how everything was cooking as to not open the lid and let any heat out. I guaged everything off the toppings and once they finally looked done i took it out. It looked great and actually was a bit browner than my oven cooks... i got the char i was looking for....

but unfortunately the bottom was burned badly.

a few of the pieces were still good enough to eat and actually the pizza had awesome flavor but i just wish i could get my grill to cook at the full 550 degrees and not have the bottom burn so badly. I was worried the toppings would cook to fast while the crust wasnt done yet but it turned out to be the opposite.

if anyone has any suggestions or experience with this type of weber grill please post

pepperoni used was ezzo..
sauce was escalon 6 in 1 with penzy's pizza mix and other seasonings...
cheese was whole milk mozz.. not sure of brand (got from local italian deli)

[snowdy]

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[snowdy]

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[snowdy]

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[snowdy]

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[duckjob]

Looks better than how mine turned out. I used a DCS grill with two layers of 3/8" tile over the grill. I preheated for a half hour on high, and in two and a half minutes, this was the result. I decided to abandon pizza grilling until i invest in an infared thermometer. I actually saw one at costco yesterday for like $70, I was very tempted. It went up to 950 degrees.

(http://www.duckjob.net/pizza/miscpizza/bbqfirstbottom.jpg)

(http://www.duckjob.net/pizza/miscpizza/bbqfirsttop.jpg)

[pftaylor]

Snowdy, Duckjob,
Don't give up, don't ever give up. Both your results look better than my initial results did even after a month. You are on the right track but it will take time.

Do you have the time to invest?

If you do have the time to invest then I will gladly assist as I have a number of helpful ideas. But you have to commit the time, energy and resources to wanting grilled pie.
Ciao

[canadianbacon]

Hi Snowdy,

I'm really disappointed the grill didn't get way up to say 600 degrees F or so, that's really sad.

I was going to try this same thing, as I have a Weber smoker, but I can also use it as a bbq, and can do exactly
what you did there. darn 

Mike ( QFan) that posts here from time to time owns a Big Green Egg, this is a ceramic smoker, like mine, but not like mine,
the thing is built for very high temps, and keeps the heat in much better than my $400 smoker. 

I know he can push the heat up in there to about 800 degrees F ( Mike, correct me if I'm wrong ) .... do a search for Qfan,
I think he posted something about this on our board here..... pretty sure anyway.
I'll send him an email about this thread so he can jump in on it.

On LIVE TV about 2 months ago he did a smoked pizza, and I know he does it at home also, and has had good success with it.

Anyway I also thought that the charcoal and stone would kind of be like the traditional pizza ovens you see in places.

My only *TIP* would be this..... try trying 2 stones in the BBQ.  I have a feeling the heat of the charcoal is making hot spots on the
stone.  An additional stone on top of the first one would really equal out the heat, and also burn the bottom much less, letting the top
get browner to sort of equal things on the pie.

anyway great pix there Snowdy ! Loved seeing the setup also, it's nice seeing a few pics of setup, ( getting the bbq going etc, I do it that way and find it fun, it gives you that feeling "of being there " ) 

Great job .

Btw, I did a smoke on Saturday, I'll post a link to some pix a bit later in a new thread.



Mark

[Qfan]

Snowdy:
As Mark mentioned, I have the Big Green Egg ceramic grill and it can be ramped up to over 1000°F with the air vents wide open.  I usually do pizzas in the 600-700 range since the platesetters they have for the cookers restrict some of the heat getting up into the dome and getting the toppings cooking in line with the crust (which looks like part of your disappointment with the cook you did). 
The Big Green Egg (BGE) has just come out with an extra Large cooker with a 24" grate area and here is a pie I did on that one.
(http://)
I'll wait to see if this posted picture attempt works and then I'll show some more pics of the actual cooker and the set up for pizza.
A suggestion for you and the Weber might be to go with hardwood lump charcoal rather than briquettes; it generally burns hotter and a bit longer.  Might get you up into that 500-600 range although those cookers aren't intended for much over the 400 range from what I've learned about them.
Mike/Qfan

[duckjob]

Snowdy, Duckjob,
Don't give up, don't ever give up. Both your results look better than my initial results did even after a month. You are on the right track but it will take time.

Do you have the time to invest?

If you do have the time to invest then I will gladly assist as I have a number of helpful ideas. But you have to commit the time, energy and resources to wanting grilled pie.
Ciao

I'm not giving up on it, I'm just gonna hold off for another month when I'm done with school. I'll have more time to experiment and do what I want to do with the BBQ. I'd welcome your advice pftaylor when I decide to undertake this. I think I'll go invest in that infared thermometer also. The way the bottom cooked, the tiles had to be 800 degrees plus.

Brian

[Qfan]

Snowdy:
Here is the set-up for the Big Green Egg (BGE) with the platesetter, which is a ceramic pizza stone with legs that elevates the surface of the stone up to the lip of the grill for easy access with a pizza paddle.  With lump charcoal in the firebox, and the vents open, the temp will come up quickly to over 1200°F if you let it.  I leave the top vent (actually a steel cap over a ceramic 'chimney' on this particular cooker) open/off and use the lower vent to get a totally clean-burning hardwood charcoal fire roaring about 650-700°F.  The platesetter blocks direct contact with fire and the hot air in the dome swirls to cook the toppings.  I often use a pizza screen as you see in these pics.
Since it is natural hardwood charcoal, there is some smoke flavour of hickory, apple or cherry, but at the combustion temp involved it is minimal.  (What I'm trying to say is that you can definitely tell it was cooked over live coals, but, no, it is not a 'smoked pizza'.  Second pic is of my/our favourite from the cook we last did; it's just hard mozzarella on bottom, sliced provolone next, some buffalo soft mozzarella and toppings of torn basil and some sundried tomatoes.  Think that was it.  All on a crackery thin crust.  My Italian born-and-raised brother in law liked this one best, if that earns bonus points... LOL
Mike/Qfan
(http://)
(http://)

[Qfan]

Snowdy, et al:
Sorry if this is a repeat, but looking back at my post with dual-pix, it looks like the one with the setup didn't work.  Here it is again.
Mike/Qfan

[snowdy]

qfan, that looks awesome!
how much is that grill? Im going to try the hard lump charcoal next week and i'll post the results

pftaylor i appreciate any advice you might have...
my family has a gas grill that says it goes up to 750 and has enough space for my stone so i might give that grill a try too.

l8r!

[pftaylor]

snowdy,
The trick to successfully grilling pie is to control the heat. Sounds easy enough but in reality it will take weeks, if not months, to perfect. The end point is what I call Equal Relative Heat. Specifically, the pizza top has to cook at a slightly higher temperature than the bottom (since the top of a pie is not in direct contact with the stone). My guess is by 100 degrees or more. So in order to achieve this, you must control the temperature underneath the stone as well as on top.

Varasano recommends lining the bottom of the stone with foil. If the stone is too hot, line it with the shiny side facing the burners. If the opposite condition exists, flip the foil. You may have to line the hood as well using the same approach.

Implement the above idea first and then report back.

[duckjob]

pftaylor, how quickly do you get the pizza into the grill and covered again. It seems like all the heat in the top would escape. Also do you open the grill all the way, or just enough to slide your peel in?

Brian

[pftaylor]

duckjob,
I have it down to a science.

With one hand I barely open the hood. I then slide the peel all the way in until it butts up against the back wall and then I slide the pie off onto the tiles. I open the hood just enough to allow the peel to slide under the lip.

It took a long time to get down the coordinated movement necessary to keep the heated air in the hood. Just as important however, is to allow room on both sides of the tiles/stone to allow hot air to engulf the top of the pie.

Practice...

[MTPIZZA]

technique, technique, technique, thats grilling a pie is all about. I have tried in the past by cooking my crust twice. Grilling it once on the grates, then removing when grill marks appeared. Flipping it and putting on the ingrediants then putting it back on the grill for the final bake...no tile or stone. The pie was very tasty but different eye appeal. It had the grill markings and not the browning type look of an oven baked pie. My brother tried using actual coal in his grill and got it up to 800 degrees. But the pie almost incinerated and did'nt cook even. Its a balance between keeping the bottom hot while not letting the top get too cool, there lies the problem. You have to imitate what pftaylor stated by slipping the pie in w/o lifting the lid and letting the heat escape then you have to monitor very carefully....practice practice practice...