trouble with makeshift grill oven

[PizzaSuperFreak]

I think your dough ingredients may be the more immediate problem.

well, since i've minimized my recipe down to kabf, idy, water, and salt, do you think i'm on a better track for this style of cooking? or should i consider something else in your opinion?

[Bill/SFNM]

Is it still burning on the bottom? Temp of surface before baking? How long are you baking?

[dirk3000]

The same liquids that go in the dough. When the pizza is placed in the oven, the dough begins to 'sweat'. The water wants to go out and fats are melting. In this proces the edges of the pizza exposed to open space turn into a nice crust, but when the cooking surface doesn't allow these to travel freely across the skin of the dough because it there is no absorbtion it burns black.

When you fry meat or vegetables, you use oil or fat to provide the space for the fluids to come out en travel across the skin, and you get a crust by caramelization.

[PizzaSuperFreak]

Is it still burning on the bottom? Temp of surface before baking? How long are you baking?

no - it's not burning at all on the bottom. getting much more of an evenly-browned crust. however, still not getting any leopard spots or anything - possibly due to the heat still not being high enough. perhaps using a 00 flour would help?

i'm at 600 oven temp and 550 tile floor temp. takes 5-6 min cook time.

[Bill/SFNM]

no - it's not burning at all on the bottom. getting much more of an evenly-browned crust. however, still not getting any leopard spots or anything - possibly due to the heat still not being high enough. perhaps using a 00 flour would help?

i'm at 600 oven temp and 550 tile floor temp. takes 5-6 min cook time.

Why do you want leoparding? It is more of a cosmetic attribute that indicates high-temps on a dough that has been fermented to a certain point. I'd focus more on how delicious your pizzas are. Not all 00 flours have the same responses to high heat. Something like Caputo 00 Pizzeria flour won't help you much till you get a couple of hundred degrees hotter.

[PizzaSuperFreak]

Why do you want leoparding?

because the best pizza i ever made had it. a few years ago when i modded my oven to cook on the clean cycle - before i broke it that way.

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,1519.msg13850.html#msg13850

[TXCraig1]

I don't think you will be able to get enough top heat to realize the browning you want without insulation. You just loose too much through the metal top.

Not running the middle burner would go a long way toward solving your bottom heat problem.

Here is what I did years ago: http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,9614.0.html

I'm NOT recommending you try this.

CL

[PizzaSuperFreak]

I don't think you will be able to get enough top heat to realize the browning you want without insulation. You just loose too much through the metal top.

Not running the middle burner would go a long way toward solving your bottom heat problem.

Here is what I did years ago: http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,9614.0.html

I'm NOT recommending you try this.

CL

yeah - i've read that post before. thanks but it seems like a lot of jimmy rigging and stuff that i don't have.

i was thinking i should just bite the bullet and go with the 2stone grill unit.

[buceriasdon]

I agree with you PizzaFreak, if you don't have the tools or means to DIY an oven inside a grill the 2stone is a good investment.
http://2stonepizzagrill.com/  If you compare it to your first picture of your setup you can see the sides are steel, your bricks are sucking off too much heat and not transferring that heat to the top. The 2stone aluminum top holding the upper stone is an excellent conductor of heat. Getting good top heat is important for an even bake.
Don

[PizzaSuperFreak]

I agree with you PizzaFreak, if you don't have the tools or means to DIY an oven inside a grill the 2stone is a good investment.
Don

Thx. I am a DIY sort of guy though. However, I haven't seen a really great grill setup on this forum yet. But there is a lot to search through so maybe I just haven't found the right one yet. My thoughts are that I just don't necessarily want to go fooling around with it much more and waste the money when there's something out there (2stone) that's relatively proven itself.

[buceriasdon]

I have built a few ovens including a LBE, this is my latest. I think if you could locate some soft insulating firebricks(ceramic supply house) and find a way to have a stone on top of them , you're gold.  http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,16652.0.html
http://www.traditionaloven.com/articles/81/insulating-fire-bricks
Is there a supplier of thick aluminum plate near you for the top? steel would work also.
Don

[PizzaSuperFreak]

I have built a few ovens including a LBE, this is my latest. I think if you could locate some soft insulating firebricks(ceramic supply house) and find a way to have a stone on top of them , you're gold.  http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,16652.0.html
http://www.traditionaloven.com/articles/81/insulating-fire-bricks
Is there a supplier of thick aluminum plate near you for the top? steel would work also.
Don

wow. that is a franken-oven for sure!
i live in south florida so we've got just about everything around as far as supply houses. it's just a matter of locating it!

[Mick.Chicago]

Thx. I am a DIY sort of guy though. However, I haven't seen a really great grill setup on this forum yet. But there is a lot to search through so maybe I just haven't found the right one yet. My thoughts are that I just don't necessarily want to go fooling around with it much more and waste the money when there's something out there (2stone) that's relatively proven itself.

Keep looking    

Hint, LBE, 70 pages. 

[PizzaSuperFreak]

Keep looking    

Hint, LBE, 70 pages. 

i had always thought they were referring to the little green egg. lol.

i see how many hits there are on the subject now. thx.

what lengths we all have to go through in order to have a decent home pizza contraption! you'd think it wouldn't need to be this difficult!

[buceriasdon]

I don't think of it as difficult, perhaps challenging. Another fun project:   http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,13610.0.html
You can see how the little oven evolved,but it would work better if it was inside a lidded grill.
Don

[TXCraig1]

Don,

How did I miss all these topics with cool ovens that you built???

CL