Getting good heat distribution in gas grill

[scottfsmith]

I recently discovered this great board and have been learning a lot about pizza making.  I have been using my old outdoor gas grill as my oven, setting a pizza stone on the grates.  I am getting pizzas cooked in 2-3 minutes so the grill is plenty hot.  The problem I am having is the bottom heat is making the stone too hot relative to the rest so the bottom is overcooked relative to the top.  I searched and found a related thread here:

  (main) /forum/index.php/topic,4453.0.html

(put the main website in for (main) above - as a new member the spam filter is not allowing me to post links)

I wondered what other people using gas grills are doing to solve this - my plan for next time is to put bricks on either side to put the stone as high as I can get it in the grill, and also maybe to put aluminum on the bottom of the stone to reflect heat.  The whole grill I lined with aluminum as per another post here and this helped get the cooking times from 5 minutes to 2-3 minutes.  The stone is the same size as the grill front-to-back, the only gap is on the sides and this contributes to the uneven heating problem.

 .. So far I am amazed at the potential for the gas grill, besides this one problem I cannot belive the quality of pizzas I can turn out.  I have some Caputo 00 flour on order but have been using King Arthur flour plus a bit of pure wheat gluten added to increase the protein content.  I'm just trying to get a decent Margherita pizza at this point, nothing more nothing less.

Scott

[MWTC]

Have you tried this?

Slide a pizza screen or disk under the pizza once the bottom is to your liking and finish it that way. Just the first thought that came to mind.

MWTC 

[Jack]

All I've ever done was aluminum under the stone and that was more to keep the barbeque residue off the bottom of the stone. 

Suggestions:

1. Use a drier mix of ingredients above the dough
2, Lower the temperature (not likely given the direction you are heading.

I'll play around once grilling season starts around here.  <LOL> that may not happen.  I bought a smoker a few weeks ago and every weekend since, I've been smoking brisket, ribs, etc., but it's been two weeks withough pizza.  Somebody help meeeeeee!!!! <grin>

Jack

[scottfsmith]

Thanks for the replies.  Maybe I  will just try the aluminum, if thats not working add bricks to raise it, and throw in a screen if its still burning them.  I was also thinking of using coarse cornmeal in a similar manner as the screen, to get the pizza a little bit off the stone.  I would just brush the charred cornmeal off the bottom of the pizza when its done.

Scott

[scottfsmith]

OK I did some experiments. 

First pizza the &$!@**?! gas ran out not long after I popped the pizza on.  Figures that after half an hour of warming up it would die on the pie.  It actually ended up coming out OK by coasting with the heat still in there, just no browning on the crust.

Next one with both foil and bricks raising the stone: I could not get as much heat and the pie took 4-5 minutes.  bottom vs top heat was OK but I just needed more heat.

Third one without foil but with the stone still raised: better but still not as fast as the stone right on the grates without foil.

Fourth one I tried the stone with partial foil coverage (ripped some holes in the foil) but set right on the grates.   This one worked the best.  It took 2-3 minutes to cook and it puffed up nicely.   Still it was not perfect: a little too burned in a couple spots on the bottom and not brown in a couple spots on the top.  Its clear I will need to be rotating the pie halfway through if I want a more even bake.

I'm going to keep experimenting but I think I am getting close to the best I can do on my current grill.  The stone covers the whole grill grate except 3" on each side and thats just too small a grate for the stone I have.  The tops by those sides are overcooking a bit since there is more top heat there.  The grill is also tiny by todays standards, its about 20 years old and is smaller than just about any grilll I see in the store.  I need a bigger grill.  Still, with a 90-degree rotation halfway through I should be able to make a perfectly decent pizza with it.

Scott