Author Topic: Little Black Egg (Read 275388 times)

toddster63 · « **Reply #60 on:** August 19, 2007, 02:10:32 AM »

The LBE pies are looking good, guys... That leopard spot charring is more than a LITTLE exciting, Mike!

Rkos--that pie looks mighty tasty--how long did it cook for? Also, what kind of flour did you use for that dough? Sorry to hear about your Fibrament stone pan melting, but think of it this way--I won't be bothering to order a pan from Mark for my Fibrament stone, I'll just put some tiles under it, like Villa Roma has done. So your loss is helpful to others and serves a positive purpose...! The Fibrament stones are really great, though, aren't they? I really like mine.

Villa Roma, it'll be interesting to see how the new bigger vent works out with your bake this weekend. How would you do a rotating stone mod....?
(P.S. I got a new KA 600 today with a spiral dough hook! Time to knead some dough!)

Villa Roma · « **Reply #61 on:** August 19, 2007, 05:50:12 AM »

Toddster63.....Congratulations on your purchase of your KA mixer. I think you'll really like the spiral dough hook.

Here's a conceptual diagram of the Rolling Stone mod. There are three small pulleys located 120 degrees apart attached to the inside of the Weber. Two of the pulleys will be free wheeling while one will be driven by a rotisserie motor. The existing cooking grate would be driven by the the pulleys. You could use just a crank handle instead of the motor if you wanted to keep it simple.

Three pulleys and a crank handle and it's spin city!

Villa Roma

Villa Roma · « **Reply #62 on:** August 19, 2007, 06:58:27 AM »

Mike....I've never tried Caputo flour. I understand that there are at least 2 types. Which type do you use and is it worth all the hype? I'm thinking of ordering some and like to know if it makes that big of a difference.

Also, how long did you knead your dough and on what speed?

Villa Roma

Y-TOWN · « **Reply #63 on:** August 19, 2007, 09:31:34 AM »

Quote from: toddster63 on August 19, 2007, 02:10:32 AM

Rkos--that pie looks mighty tasty--how long did it cook for? Also, what kind of flour did you use for that dough? Sorry to hear about your Fibrament stone pan melting, but think of it this way--I won't be bothering to order a pan from Mark for my Fibrament stone, I'll just put some tiles under it, like Villa Roma has done. So your loss is helpful to others and serves a positive purpose...! The Fibrament stones are really great, though, aren't they? I really like mine.

toddster63,

I can't find unglazed tiles in this area - lord knows I've looked. Wish I wouldn't have trashed those broken stones, they would have worked well for bottom flame buffers.

I really like the Fibrament stone but need to go to our local restaurant supply store and find a new bottom for it before I use it again. I won't call Mark because it's evident the pan those folks send with the 3/4" stone won't work on the LBE.

The flour I use is Pillsbury Bread flour - it gives me more oven spring than KA bread flour, Harvest King, or other supermarket flours I've used - for the dough recipe I use the Pillsbury bread flour just seems to work better. The bake time on the pie shown in the photo's was a little under 5 minutes, but again that was with me removing the lid to look at the top of the pie excessively.

Here is a photo of my factory pan -

Villa Roma · « **Reply #64 on:** August 19, 2007, 09:59:56 AM »

Rkos.....Bummer on the lava flow, but look at the bright side, at least it didn't tear up your stone. I'll be using an aluminum pan also so I hope they used a higher grade aluminum on it, we'll see. You can bet I'll be wearing boots, just in case.

I have a theory why Pills flour works better than the others. They use vitamin C and the others don't. For an uplifting experience, try adding some C to any flour and you'll be pleasantly surprised. It's like Viagra for your pizza! I just grind up a small portion of a regular C tablet. You don't need much, just 20 PPM. For 800 grams of flour that would be 16 mg. It's supposed to be a dough conditioner similar in action to bromate.

Villa Roma

Villa Roma · « **Reply #65 on:** August 19, 2007, 11:02:52 AM »

Rkos....Have you considered using HD aluminum foil in lieu of your now defunct pan? You may have to use several layers and replace it every now and then but I think this will work just fine.

Villa Roma

Y-TOWN · « **Reply #66 on:** August 19, 2007, 11:15:47 AM »

Quote from: Villa Roma on August 19, 2007, 11:02:52 AM

Rkos....Have you considered using HD aluminum foil in lieu of you now defunct pan? You may have to try several layers but I think this will work just fine.

Villa Roma

Villa Roma,

Actually, I didn't think about that

- several layers of HD tin foil would probably work well as a direct flame buffer - sure would be a lot less $ than another pan and I've got an extra roll here from when I covered the interior of my LBE.

Thanks for the idea !!

Regards,

Boy Hits Car · « **Reply #67 on:** August 19, 2007, 11:31:58 AM »

Quote from: Villa Roma on August 19, 2007, 06:58:27 AM

Mike....I've never tried Caputo flour. I understand that there are at least 2 types. Which type do you use and is it worth all the hype? I'm thinking of ordering some and like to know if it makes that big of a difference.

Also, how long did you knead your dough and on what speed?

Villa Roma

Villa Roma,

I have the Caputo 00 Pizzeria version from PennMac: http://www.pennmac.com/items/3202. I believe the other Caputo type is much lower in protein then the Pizzeria version I have.

I used it with a mixture of All Trumps High Gluten Flour when I was trying to reverse engineer a Difara's Square pizza. Here is the thread about that: http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,504.msg39649.html#msg39649

Those square pizzas took awhile to brown using my regular oven set at 550 degrees. I'll have a more definitive opinion on the Caputo 00 next week when I cook a few pizzas with it in the LBE. I'm actually going to make three pies next week. One with 100% Caputo, one with 75%/25% Caputo/Bread and one with 75%/25% Bread/Caputo.

As far as mixing, I don't have spiral hook for my KA mixer so I use the paddle attachment with all the ingredients and 75% flour and mix for a few minutes on speed 1 then add the rest of the flour with the dough hook and knead for 2 minutes on speed 2. I then knead by hand for a minute and place in the fridge.

-Mike

Villa Roma · « **Reply #68 on:** August 19, 2007, 01:20:19 PM »

Mike....Thanks for the update on the Caputo Pizzeria flour. I checked and the protein level is 11.5-12.5 percent. Looks like it's about midway between AP and strong bread flour.

Next weekend should be a feast for the eyes as well as the stomach with you, me and hopefully Rkos cooking pizza. I'm really anxious to see the results of your Caputo threesome.

Villa Roma

Randy · « **Reply #69 on:** August 19, 2007, 01:40:01 PM »

Drop by your local metal fabricator shop and they can cut you a steel plate. Or go to Lowe's and find the steel section and but a piece of sheet metal and a pair of hand shears and cut your own. Do not get galvanished

Villa Roma · « **Reply #70 on:** August 26, 2007, 05:34:30 AM »

I made pizza yesterday and I put an aluminum pan under the stones and like Rkos, I had a melt down.

The molten aluminum spilled onto the burner partially clogging it so I had to pick the slag out of the burner after it cooled. I cut a 6" round hole in the pan so if it melts again it hopefully won't fall onto the burner.

Villa Roma

Villa Roma · « **Reply #71 on:** August 26, 2007, 06:10:12 AM »

Here's some pics of the pizza I made this weekend. This was 25% whole grain (10% rye, 15% whole wheat) with no fat or sugar. The balance of the flour was GM all purpose. Cooked at 675 degrees for just under 3 minutes. It came out good but not great. Seems a little fat, sugar and maybe milk makes a big difference in the lightness of the crust, as well as the taste, at least with whole grains.

The vent mod worked great and is a keeper. The LBE heated up quicker and I was able to maintain 675 degrees at around medium throttle. The RTV around the base of the vent survived without burning but I didn't crank the heat up this time. I tried rotating the lid as opposed to the pizza but there is a hot spot so that did not work. I'm going to have to rotate the pizza until I can get the Rolling Stones mod worked out. No biggie, most ovens have a hot spot which necessitates the need to turn the pizza.

The aluminum pan on the bottom of the stones is also a keeper. The outside of the stone has a tendency to heat up higher than the center and the pan evens this out real well. It also cradles the stones better than the grate which has sagged some with the 800+ degree heat that I used last time.

Villa Roma

Randy · « **Reply #72 on:** August 26, 2007, 07:22:03 AM »

Melting aluminum fumes and pizza may not be such a good idea although aluminum/Alzheimer's link remains unproven I wonder if it is worth the risk. You may find a steel disk to actually give you better results since the aluminum is reflecting some of the heat.

Randy

Villa Roma · « **Reply #73 on:** August 26, 2007, 08:32:58 AM »

Quote from: Randy on August 26, 2007, 07:22:03 AM

Melting aluminum fumes and pizza may not be such a good idea although aluminum/Alzheimer's link remains unproven I wonder if it is worth the risk. You may find a steel disk to actually give you better results since the aluminum is reflecting some of the heat.

Randy

In order to create aluminum fumes it must first be vaporized. Aluminum melts at 660 degrees Celsius (1220 F) and boils at 2518 degrees Celsius (4564 F). This propane burner will not get anywhere near 4564 F so we should be OK.

Thanks for your concern.....Villa Roma

Randy · « **Reply #74 on:** August 26, 2007, 11:07:12 AM »

No problem, not trying to be critical, just helpful. The older you get the more people you know with this devastating disease and it makes you cautious.

Randy

Villa Roma · « **Reply #75 on:** August 26, 2007, 12:01:40 PM »

I hear you, my memory is bad enough as it is. Thank goodness for computers and the internet! And sticky notes!

Villa Roma

Villa Roma · « **Reply #76 on:** August 28, 2007, 03:24:35 AM »

Here's another solution to the cure the uneven cooking issue. Instead of rotating the grate and stones, why not rotate the whole egg? The hot spot is most likely caused by the burner, so placing a lazy susan bearing between the burner and the LBE will allow it to spin manually, or if you're a really lazy susan, you can use a motor! I have a LS bearing on order and it should be here in about a week.

Villa Roma

apizza · « **Reply #77 on:** August 29, 2007, 08:08:46 PM »

Villa Roma, are you Don Herbert ? $:-\$

toddster63 · « **Reply #78 on:** August 29, 2007, 08:14:40 PM »

Yeah, that's Villa Roma--Mr. Wizard...!

Villa Roma, what size lazy susan bearing did you order for the modified Weber--I'm thinking 12"...? I think your modified hole was around 11 1/2", right...?

Villa Roma · « **Reply #79 on:** August 30, 2007, 12:23:03 AM »

Quote from: apizza on August 29, 2007, 08:08:46 PM

Villa Roma, are you Don Herbert ? $:-\$

Sorry, I'm not Don Herbert.

Quote from: toddster63 on August 29, 2007, 08:14:40 PM

Yeah, that's Villa Roma--Mr. Wizard...!

Villa Roma, what size lazy susan bearing did you order for the modified Weber--I'm thinking 12"...? I think your modified hole was around 11 1/2", right...?

The LS bearing of choice is in fact a 12" bearing which should fit the 11 1/2" opening pretty good,. The one I selected can be found here: http://www.omeganationalproducts.com/php/products.php?p=pd&pid=387 It's the top one.

I chose this one because it's made of aluminum so it won't rust and it has an open center which can be wrapped in foil to shield it from the heat. How it holds up to the heat remains to be seen.

Villa Roma