I call it the Grill-a-nator!

[sajata]

Ii have been baking pizza's on Thursday nights for over 25 years for all my my friends and co-workers.  I have tried many different things in the search of the perfect pie.  this is my latest attempt.  My ultimate goal is a WFO.    There were too many people her last night to document the Pie's and the process so i will do a bake over the weekend and show document the pie's then but here is the setup.

this is a 30" viking grill with a infrared rotisserie burner.   with a 24" x 24" x 1.5" slab o. granite.  i had been just putting the slab directly on the grates but the slab was getting too hot and tops were way underdone by the time the crust was getting charred. so i elevated the slab to the height of the infrared burner.  i preheat the slab for about and hour on low, slab temp about 600deg using an ir gun.  then when i an ready to bake I Light the IR burner about 10 min before i start the bake.   then turn about every 90 seconds total bake time about 6 min.  results were very good IMO.
 

i can adjust the deck temp my moving the bricks in the front to open or close (Vent) the area under the granite..

[scott123]

Tim, granite has almost no resistance to thermal shock and has no place in an oven. It's an especially poor choice for a grill because of the intensity of the heat.  When it fails, it could just crack, but it could also explode. Lose it.

You are one of the lucky grill owners who have an IR burner.  This makes your life SO much easier. Get a cordierite kiln shelf in the 20" size or larger:

http://www.axner.com/cordierite-shelf-20x20square.aspx

and use that in conjunction with the IR burner.  Pre-heat the shelf, on high, to 600, turn the IR burner on, launch the pizza, wait until the bottom sets (maybe a minute), then turn the pizza every minute so the IR burner can brown the top evenly.

[sajata]

upgrading to a kiln shelf is the goal, and yes over the last two years the granite has devloped a large crack in it.  I guess i shoudl just go ahead and order the kiln shelf

[sajata]

ok, two 20"x20"x3/4" shelves ordered, i was not sure if the 3/4" would be thick enough. so i figure i would try 1 shelf and then 2 shelves and see how is handled.

[scott123]

Tim, one shelf is more than thick enough.

You want to be really careful about adding too much thermal mass to a grill (or oven setup).  Thermal mass can lower bake times, but if you have too much of it, it acts like a sponge and takes forever to pre-heat.  A 3/4" cordierite kiln shelf should fully pre-heat in about 60 minutes, but, just to be safe, I'd give it 70 or even 80.  Fully pre-heating two shelves will double that. You don't want to wait 2 hours to make pizza nor do you want to spend that kind of money on propane.

As long as you can pre-heat the stone to 625, which, for this grill is extremely likely, a single 3/4" shelf should give you any NY style bake time that you want.

[pizzaneer]

+1

Save the other one to use in your kitchen oven during winter.

[sajata]

Ok, George from the Dock just brough them to my office, Thanks George!  I will pop them in for tonights bake. i will also collect stats on heat times and bake times.  I will also try and get some good pictures.

Cant Wait!

[sajata]

Ok new kiln shelfs installed,  600 deg was not hard to reach.  actually it went up to over 750 so i had to back it off.  after 3 or 4 pies i got it dialed in to about 600 deg, that seems to work just fine. attached are some pitures of the bake, i am saying that are not the best but pretty good.

dough is
32 oz of Sams bread flour
18 oz of water
1 tbl salt
1 tbl of sugar
1 packet of IDY
2 oz of EVO

8 hour cold ferment

350gr dough ball