Simple but effective Gas Grill Conversion !!

[Xtra Crispy]

THE OVEN

I recently constructed  a very simple insert for my Char Broil Quantum grill  This started as an infrared grill and was very weak at cooking anything so I threw the infrared platform in the garbage !  It has four burners with a total output of 40,000 BTUs. I bought firebrick splits and went to work on it.

I started with pic1 and could not get the bottom bricks to 500 in an hour. I concluded that there was too much mass and too little ventilation and BTUs.

I then modified and simplified with six bricks on the bottom and an upside down pizza stone for the top which is 4inches from the bottom, supported by two bricks. Pic2
  Grill is 1ft4in by 2ft6in.  the firebrick surface is 6 bricks and is 1ft6in by 1ft2in.

This achieved the performance I was looking for.

Started oven
Bottom 75degrees
Top 75

10 minutes
B235 degrees
T305

20 min
B385
T420

35 min
B521
T517

43min
B565
T553

50min
B611
T575

One hour
B640
T593

One hr  seventeen
B665
T595

One Hour Forty
B685
T625


THE DOUGH

The dough with All Trumps
.10 tf
Fourteen inch pies at 15.55 oz each

F 35.13oz
W 24.59
Y .09
S .61


The day prior to cooking I made a mixture of 6.75oz water with 6.75oz flour and left on the counter covered loosely with wrap. No yeast.

Below shows the net remaining w and f to be added to make the total.

F 36.05-6.75.       29.3net
W25.24-6.75.    18.49net

During the mixing I held out 25percent of the flour to be added later in the process
....so 7.x oz were held aside.

Mixing details on Viking mixer..........

2 min low
20 minute rest
3  min low then added flour
Mix for 5
Off hook at 75.6 degrees
In bag and in the refrig
On counter dusted and balled at 4 hours prior to cook time at 54 degrees.

THE PIES

First pie ........cooked  for 6 minutes.....bottom was at 671 degrees measured with IR therm.
Second pie.....started 3 minutes after first pie was pulled....cooked in 10 min
Pic3......Third pie....started 11 min after second pie was pulled.....cooked in 8min

Best pies I have ever made.....and I have been pursuing this for many years with kitchen gas ovens.

My goals are:

1. Oven deck at 800+ degrees
2. Dough with more sourdough flavor.

I welcome your input !!!!!

Many thanks,

Xtra Crispy

[Pete-zza]

Xtra Crispy,

You did a very nice job in orchestrating the adaptation of your grill and creating a dough formulation to match the modified grill. I was especially intrigued by your dough formulation. As best I can tell, it looks like you used a soaker (the mixture of flour and water without yeast). Is that correct and, if so, was it intentional and, if so, what led you to use it? As you may know, the use of soakers has come up recently in other threads.

Peter

[TXCraig1]

Xtra Crispy,

You did a very nice job in orchestrating the adaptation of your grill and creating a dough formulation to match the modified grill. I was especially intrigued by your dough formulation. As best I can tell, it looks like you used a soaker (the mixture of flour and water without yeast). Is that correct and, if so, was it intentional and, if so, what led you to use it? As you may know, the use of soakers has come up recently in other threads.

Peter

The day prior to cooking I made a mixture of 6.75oz water with 6.75oz flour and left on the counter covered loosely with wrap. No yeast.

I have not seen this before. What is it supposed to do?

XC, looks like you're getting nice results from your grill set-up.

Craig

[Xtra Crispy]

Hi and thank you for the questions.

Yes, the soaker was intentional and not adding yeast was intentional also.

In years past when I was making artisan bread (at home) I tried this.

The idea is to leave the wrap open a bit so wild yeast can get in the mix.  Its a yeast trap.

I started one this morning and will use it for the Friday night pies.

I don't have the data to prove that it worked but I do know that the pies tasted awesome and the texture was awesome as well.

Xtra Crispy

[scott123]

My goals are:

1. Oven deck at 800+ degrees
2. Dough with more sourdough flavor.

Right now, in the high 600 hearth realm, you're making a pretty solid NY pizza with enough top heat to provide top browning that matches your bottom browning.  In the kind of setup you have, the hearth will always be hotter than the ceiling, so if you push the hearth to 800, the ceiling will be 750 max.  At those temperatures, the bottom will be done long before the top.

Instead of striving to push up the temp of the whole system, you should be taking steps to increase the heat of the ceiling.   In these kinds of two stones scenarios, it's critical that the ceiling be larger than the hearth, so it can collect the heat rising from below. It's also important to have the ceiling as close to the pizza as possible- 3" max.

Edit: get rid  of those firebrick ceiling supports.  They suck up too much heat and don't give you much browning from the side.

[Xtra Crispy]

Scott123, thanks for the ideas.  I will put them to use on the next bake.

Xtra Crispy

[Chicago Bob]

Scott,

Thank you for that diagram...very nice. I'm not sure where you are talking about putting the tin foil though, do you have a pic?  Would simply closing the grill lid work?  Thanks!

Bob