Author Topic: Little Black Egg (Read 268052 times)

buceriasdon · « **Reply #1140 on:** April 10, 2011, 03:37:06 PM »

Somewhere I read a good rule of thumb is 1 to 1 and a half pounds of food per person and I've seen some children who could pack it away with the best of them. Do you also plan on serving a salad and or snacks as that will help folks fill up some? Two people can easily eat one of my 13" pizzas, but I go light on toppings. I have a friend coming over this afternoon and I plan on two for us with some left over. 14" is the maximun diameter my 18" LBE bakes without me getting stressed out. A good working LBE recovers quickly heat wise so by the time the next pizza is topped it's ready to bake. An Infrared thermometer is essential to have to check temps.
Don

Quote from: darule on April 10, 2011, 12:39:10 PM

Thanks Don for the info...I think I'll just pass on the top burner route! That's a great welcoming Ronzo...a little die hard welcome fits the theme

We're going to be doing a party here in a few weeks...hopefully I can get up to snuff by then with my cooking technique and dough. Has anyone figured out the approximate cost per pie? I'm having approx. 40 people (half are kids)...how many pies do you think I should need and how big of a pie can you get on the 22.5 weber (even with the 20" stone, how much does the D shape stone take away from your diameter)?

Again, thanks for the help...I feel like the pointer sisters right now.

darule · « **Reply #1141 on:** April 10, 2011, 05:02:04 PM »

good info, thanks again Don. With that in mind, we'll have plenty of sides and maybe even throw in a lasagna or two as I don't think I want to be baking that many pies! I just placed an order for an IR thermometer on amazon along with the stone, and since I can't get some caputo out here placed an order for a bag on amazon as well (gonna try a 50/50 KA bread with Caputo 00 per Jeff Verasano's reversed engineered Patsy's dough).

Now the hardest part...having to wait to get my first pie in the LBE.

buceriasdon · « **Reply #1142 on:** April 10, 2011, 05:30:33 PM »

darule, I think that's a good plan as at least with mine when the pizza is close to being done I can't be doing anything other than checking and turning the pizza or my edges burn. Four minutes can go by quite quickly in a LBE.
Don

mnjesse · « **Reply #1143 on:** April 12, 2011, 11:39:34 AM »

I have been wanting to make a LBE for quite some time. Recently, I got a free square rectangular grill and I want to turn that into my pizza setup. I have been researching on line trying to figure out what it is going to cost me. It seems that the main expense is for the burner. Do I have to use a high pressure propane burner such as the bayou burner? At a local store, they have a turkey deep fryer combo that includes the burner for $39. The bayou style high pressure burner starts at $50. Basically, I need some advice of what is the cheapest way to build a LBE because I am college poor right now and will be for a few years. I really appreciate any advice about purchasing items. Thanks

The grill that I got for free was a uniflame 295 sq in from walmart

buceriasdon · « **Reply #1144 on:** April 12, 2011, 12:58:16 PM »

mnjesse, Do you know how many BTUs the burner puts out? It should say somewhere. So it comes complete with a regulator and hoses, and you must supply the tank?
Don

mnjesse · « **Reply #1145 on:** April 12, 2011, 02:24:56 PM »

I looked and I couldn't find any info about the btus that it put out. However, I found a similar low pressure burner online and it said that it put out 32,000 btus. I read somewhere on here that people recommend a burner with 50,000 btus, but they run it on low. What is the range of btus that I should be looking for?

jonesyb · « **Reply #1146 on:** April 12, 2011, 05:47:38 PM »

Has anyone made pizza in a kettle grill with no modifications. Just coals in the bottom and a pizza stone on the grill?

buceriasdon · « **Reply #1147 on:** April 12, 2011, 06:25:59 PM »

Several people have done just that as well as propane grills.
Don

Quote from: jonesyb on April 12, 2011, 05:47:38 PM

Has anyone made pizza in a kettle grill with no modifications. Just coals in the bottom and a pizza stone on the grill?

pizzablogger · « **Reply #1148 on:** April 13, 2011, 01:38:56 PM »

Finally....Weber Ash Catcher for a 22.5" grill came in from Amazon. And I just got a roll of 20" wide sheet metal flashing I'm gonna cut to lay on the grill grate to redirect airflow to the back. I may get a 22" pizza plate to lower the dome height if just the ash catcher alone is not sufficient.

Everything is now here.

Now I just need some time

caseyspizza · « **Reply #1149 on:** April 23, 2011, 09:35:08 PM »

hey kids - i've been running a LBE with my mobile pizza operation here in SF for 6 months now

. it's been going great and now have two LBE's in action for my farmers' market setup: one for whole pies and one for slices. big props to VillaRoma and all the user mods, and for inspiring me to take it to the streets. finally getting a chance to share some pics of my pies and setup. my workhorse oven is a standard 18" with old stone pizza stone buffer and split firebricks on top as the hearth. ash catcher mounted in top kettle and standard 8inch airflow cutaway in front. i'll post some pics soon.

caseyspizzas.com

Ronzo · « **Reply #1150 on:** April 23, 2011, 10:15:34 PM »

Quote from: caseyspizza on April 23, 2011, 09:35:08 PM

hey kids - i've been running a LBE with my mobile pizza operation here in SF for 6 months now . it's been going great and now have two LBE's in action for my farmers' market setup: one for whole pies and one for slices. big props to VillaRoma and all the user mods, and for inspiring me to take it to the streets. finally getting a chance to share some pics of my pies and setup. my workhorse oven is a standard 18" with old stone pizza stone buffer and split firebricks on top as the hearth. ash catcher mounted in top kettle and standard 8inch airflow cutaway in front. i'll post some pics soon.

caseyspizzas.com

Been considering doing what you're doing here in Central Texas. Would love to chat with you sometime about your lessons learned, etc.

gtsum2 · « **Reply #1151 on:** April 24, 2011, 10:29:22 PM »

Quote from: caseyspizza on April 23, 2011, 09:35:08 PM

hey kids - i've been running a LBE with my mobile pizza operation here in SF for 6 months now . it's been going great and now have two LBE's in action for my farmers' market setup: one for whole pies and one for slices. big props to VillaRoma and all the user mods, and for inspiring me to take it to the streets. finally getting a chance to share some pics of my pies and setup. my workhorse oven is a standard 18" with old stone pizza stone buffer and split firebricks on top as the hearth. ash catcher mounted in top kettle and standard 8inch airflow cutaway in front. i'll post some pics soon.

caseyspizzas.com

I am looking forward to the pics and your experiences!

AndreasMergner · « **Reply #1152 on:** April 29, 2011, 09:32:50 AM »

I'm thinking about building an LBE vs a temporary wood fired brick oven. I'm pretty much a pizza amateur, although I have made a couple of dozen pizzas on split fire brick in my oven on the clean cycle. I'm looking for a better method and one where I don't fill the house with smoke!

I've looked through a lot of this thread. I saw one rotary method where the pizza is being rotated. Has anyone tried just rotating the lid? You would just put the pizza stone on the grill with some space all around, then on the lid you would fasten a sheet metal ring with a cutout for the air venting. On the opposite side would be the common lid vent. That way, you would just rotate the lid by hand without removing it and the air flow would go in the direction of the vents. You could use a hotter hearth temp since the top would cook faster since you wouldn't be lifting the lid all the time and it would be done sooner.

Thoughts? I can make a drawing if this is difficult to understand. You might want to secure the pizza stone perfectly in the center to make things easier since you probably don't want too large of a gap between the stone and the lid ring.

Jet_deck · « **Reply #1153 on:** April 29, 2011, 09:52:58 AM »

Quote from: AndreasMergner on April 29, 2011, 09:32:50 AM

.....You would just put the pizza stone on the grill with some space all around ...

The space all around is the problem. The hot air from the bottom needs to be opposite of the cutout in the lid.

For example: http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,4753.msg133912.html#msg133912 and
http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,11126.msg110001.html#msg110001

Good luck.

AndreasMergner · « **Reply #1154 on:** April 29, 2011, 10:05:39 AM »

Jet_deck: In my design, the rim on the lid would cut off that air flow. Opposite the normal vent, there would be a cutout in the rim to allow the air up into the lid.

AndreasMergner · « **Reply #1155 on:** April 29, 2011, 10:16:22 AM »

Here's a quick drawing I made. Maybe it will make the design clearer?

Jet_deck · « **Reply #1156 on:** April 29, 2011, 10:23:22 AM »

Yes, I would say that the idea has merit. Don't forget your vortex generator in the lid.

AndreasMergner · « **Reply #1157 on:** April 29, 2011, 10:36:49 AM »

Yes, I would not forget the vortex generator.

The other thing I was thinking about was a variable diffuser. I made another crude diagram. You would open the diffuser for a quick preheat of the pizza stone and then close or almost close before placing the pie so the stone gets indirect heat. I would imagine that once the stone is up to temp, the hot air moving over the top of the pizza would keep it there. It not, you could open the diffuser a bit.

skyno · « **Reply #1158 on:** April 29, 2011, 11:03:57 AM »

Andreas

I really like the direction you're heading in and will be interested to see the results. I have been working on some simple way to rotate the stone or lid during cooking but it is easier said than done at these heat levels and have also contemplated a design similar to the one you are proposing. I currently have a rotational set up for the stone that works, but is not ideal - I will post pics if people are interested.

The potential issue I see with your design is that you will really be pinpointing the airflow to very specific spots and this is likely going to direct a really narrow and intense stream of hot air to a small area and result in strong hotspots - if this happens, you will need to be constantly rotating the lid both during heat-up and cooking in order to distribute the heat - also, heat-up times to the entire stone could take a while.

Also, with such a narrow airflow pathway, I'm imagining that you will not be able to turn up the heat very high before it starts sending the heat straight back down toward the base because it will bottleneck at the small opening along the lid, so the heat will need to escape along the path of least resistance (back where it came from) and this will result in a lower overall temp and long heat-up times

I'm wondering if making this opening extend to a larger portion of the circumference (maybe about 1/3 or more?) opposite the side vent may allow for a larger volume of air to escape to a larger surface area? What do others think?

LJ

skyno · « **Reply #1159 on:** April 29, 2011, 11:06:06 AM »

By the way, love the variable diffuser idea, but how would you access the plates to turn them without removing a blazing hot stone?

Author Topic: Little Black Egg (Read 268052 times)

buceriasdon

buceriasdon

buceriasdon

buceriasdon