Weekend Pizzaquest with Big Green Egg

[benny]

i have a large egg.  i also have a mucher larger smoker that i can do a dozen butts at a time on.

i don't own a pizzeria. My grandparents are off the boat italians, and i learned to make bread, pizza (sicilian style) , and italian food growing up. Then while in grad school, money was tight and my wife and i had pizza date night (pizza bear and a video) in the cold chicago winters. we perefected a more american style pizza. 

now, like my bbq i am on a quest o learn finer techiniques and materials to take it to the next level. Frankly, my current american style pizza won't win any award.

I got linked on the egg site to this site, and a link to a guy in the quest for a definitive naples style pizza. his name is jeff V.  anyway.  Im trying to read up on pizza itself, and doing it on the egg to get the temp.

by the way. do you put any smoke on your pizza? if so what woods?  I'd guess maybe oak, pecan, maple
would think hickory would be too much.

I personally think fresh ingrediants are best.  I grow oregano, basil and other herbs.  to me makes all the difference in my cooking whether italian, pizza or bbq.

this week I need to find a starter.

[pizzaman73]

Benny,

I have made my pizza both ways, with and without smoke. When I do use a little smoke, I prefer the flavor of the pecan in pizza to give it that something extra. I have also used a small amount of oak via some of the lump charcoal I use.

This weekend I am hopefull that I can make a few excellent pizza's, I just ordered some 00 flour and imported italian tomatoes from Forno Bravo to try something different using the lessons I have learned from my latest attempts. Hopefully it arrives in time for a weekend bake.

For a starter, checkout the KA site, that's where I got mine but I still have yet to try it out. I still need to learn more....

-Pizzaman73

[pizzaman73]

This is a photo of my 1st attempt for 02/10/07. Unfortunately, my Fornobravo order did not arrive yet, so I used KA Artisan flour for these two pies. These pies are right about 19" each. I used the same exact dough recipe I posted earlier with one slight modification, I used 1 cup of a darker amber ale micro brew beer in addition to 1 cup of water. In the past, I learned that the beer helped make the dough more stretchable which I felt I needed since the KA Artisan Flour is only 4g of protein.

Unfortunately, this 1st pie came out slightly burned on the top due to my premature cooking. Should have let the egg warm up more so the flames could die down more. The bottom could have also been better as I should have shaken more of the flour off the dough prior to placing on the peel.

-Pizzaman73

[pizzaman73]

Here is pizza #2.

[icemncmth]

I have been cooking pizza's on the egg for a few years...and I cook mine at around 900 deg..I have the bottom vent wide open and
no daisy wheel on. The reason you are having problems with the dough could be a couple of reasons...one since the stone is being heated from both the top and bottom ..you need to have a higher hydration..but the best trick is the setup..


plate setter down and get 4 or more 1/2" brass elbows at the local hardware store and place them under your pizza stone....between the stone or fibramat and the plate setter. This will give you an air cusion and it wll allow you to cook the pizza more from the top like a pizza oven...

give it a try it is cheap and simple..it will also raise the pizza about a 1/2" higher making it easier to remove...

I have cooked 30+ pizza's in one night using this method....

[AKSteve]

I have cooked 30+ pizza's in one night using this method....

How much charcoal did you use to cook 30 pizzas at 900 degrees? Is there a way to refuel a BGE during the cooking process? With my Kamado, when the fuel is done, I'm done. I would basically have to wait several hours for everything to come down in temperature so I could remove the grill/baking stone/etc. to refuel. But I've never really timed it to see how long I can hold 900 degrees with a full load of charcoal. How long did you have yours going at this temp and did you need to refuel?

Thanks

Steve

[pizzaman73]

Icemncmth,

Thank's for the tips. I will have to try the brass elbows for my next attempts. Do you have trouble with the stone slipping in this configuration? What about bricks, do you think they would work just as well? I am thinking they might give my stone more height in the dome? Or will the use of bricks make it harder to keep the egg hot? What size egg are you using? Mine is the Xtra Large so my stone is just above the bottom half of the egg. Also, what brand of charcoal are you using? Last night, I was using the "Ozark Oak" lump, but it did not achieve great performance in the higher temperature ranges. A few weeks ago I used another brand (not sure the name) that is supposed to be similiar to the Green Egg Brand (which I have not yet tried) and it performed much better at achieving and maintaining the higher temps.

In response to one of Steve's questions, on the Xtra Large Egg you can refuel as there is just enough room around the diameter of the plate setter to add more coal. Due to my use of sub par lump last night, I had to refuel right after my first pizza.

-Pizzaman73

[pizzaman73]

For Valentine's Day, my wonderful wife was nice enough to buy me a new Kitchenaid Professional 600 Stand Mixer so I can finally ditch the bread machine method. Man, I wish my wife got me one of these long ago...What a difference it makes in preparing the dough.

I guess my wife wanted to compliment my purchase of Captu 00 flour and Strianeese tomatoes I purchased and just received from FornoBravo.com.

I made the dough this past Thursday in advance of my bake last night.

Attached is the post-bake pic and I will attach more in subsequent emails.

The pizza you will see was baked in exactly 3 minutes at about 750 degrees. Although it tasted really good, I think the KA Perfect Pizza Blend made a better crust and one that I associate with NY Pizza, but this may be due to not baking at the higher temps I was hoping to achieve a faster bake time and I don't think 00 flour is true to NY Pizza, but I could be wrong on that as well.

This weeks pizza was with Pepperoni, Sargento Blended Cheese (Provalone and Mozzerella, I was lazy), Red Bell Pepper, Fresh Italian Spicy Sausage and White Onion.

-Pizzaman73

[pizzaman73]

And another...

[pizzaman73]

A few more...

[Bryan S]

With my Kamado, when the fuel is done, I'm done. I would basically have to wait several hours for everything to come down in temperature so I could remove the grill/baking stone/etc. to refuel.

Thanks

Steve

No need to wait my friend. Two words for you, Welding Gloves. 

[icemncmth]

How much charcoal did you use to cook 30 pizzas at 900 degrees? Is there a way to refuel a BGE during the cooking process? With my Kamado, when the fuel is done, I'm done. I would basically have to wait several hours for everything to come down in temperature so I could remove the grill/baking stone/etc. to refuel. But I've never really timed it to see how long I can hold 900 degrees with a full load of charcoal. How long did you have yours going at this temp and did you need to refuel?

Thanks

Steve

I went through 8 lbs of lump..I have had to add more but that isn't always the case..if I do need to add I just drop small pieces of lump down the space
between the platesetter and egg..and then I have a long rod to stir it into the center..

I can cook at high temps for about 3 hours + or - depending on what type of lump I use. But I have had a problem where some lumps burn up quick..

[icemncmth]

Icemncmth,

Thank's for the tips. I will have to try the brass elbows for my next attempts. Do you have trouble with the stone slipping in this configuration? What about bricks, do you think they would work just as well? I am thinking they might give my stone more height in the dome? Or will the use of bricks make it harder to keep the egg hot? What size egg are you using? Mine is the Xtra Large so my stone is just above the bottom half of the egg. Also, what brand of charcoal are you using? Last night, I was using the "Ozark Oak" lump, but it did not achieve great performance in the higher temperature ranges. A few weeks ago I used another brand (not sure the name) that is supposed to be similiar to the Green Egg Brand (which I have not yet tried) and it performed much better at achieving and maintaining the higher temps.

In response to one of Steve's questions, on the Xtra Large Egg you can refuel as there is just enough room around the diameter of the plate setter to add more coal. Due to my use of sub par lump last night, I had to refuel right after my first pizza.

-Pizzaman73

I haven't had any problem with my pizza stone moving around. I have a large BGE...and I mostly use Ozark Oak but sometimes I use BGE. I'm not sure if the bricks will work or not but they probably would but the one thing you have to keep in mind..the closer you get to the top of the dome then the more the top of the pizza will cook..could be a good or bad thing.

I have found that Ozark Oak does really well but I have to clean out the egg first for super high temps..I think the egg works really well for pizza because
I can cook a pizza in under 5 mins with that ammount of heat. One thing ..a lot depends on your dough. I like different typs of pizza so sometimes I only take the egg to 600 deg and cook longer depend on how thick the crust is..

[busterw]

I'm a newb here but the BGE post caught my eye since I'm on my 3rd BGE. Started with a medium, then a large, now the extra large that I've had for about 6 months. I beleive your charring problem to be the lack of distance between your palte setter and your stone and the platesetter just transferring heat directly to the stone and getting it too hot.

What I've just done is bought a second platesetter. I place one platesetter on top of the firering, legs up, then i put my cooking grate, then i place the second platesetter on top of that with legs down. the reason I put the grate in between is just to prevent the upper plate from slipping around as I hap-hazardly insert or remove the pie. I just got the second platesetter yesterday so will try it this weekend and see how this works.

The first pie I ever did on it, i tried something like your setup and it was just a wreck. I then tried again with a cheap pampered chef pizza stone on the bottom as my hear deflector and the pie on the platesetter with legs down which left about a 1 inch gap between the stone and the plate. This worked well until the pampered chef product split from the 600 degree temp.

On the upside, between that as a direct heat blocker and the use of cornmeal on my platesetter, my pie crust didn't burn.

Buster (Beer-n-Eggs)

[giotto]

I seem to remember sugar being used in pizzaman's recipe. If that's the case, you may want to dispense of the sugar in your ingredients, which is only necessary to produce browning at lower temps. American flours already include malted barley or an enzyme in flours like Pendelton to induce browning. Also, with 8 hours of delayed fermentation, most of the natural sugars in the dough will be released. Even with a couple of days of cold fermentation, you should be fine with American flours without additional sugar. With Italian 00 flours like Caputo, it can be a whole different ball game, since the amalyze process produces little sugar, and hence the propensity for Neapolitan pizzas to have a whitish look that is only offset by intermittent char spots.

It also seems that pizzas are often moved around ovens, which contributes to their end result. Woodstone, for example, suggests specific movements in their ceramic ovens, and I've seen those who use it adhere to the practice. In general, it's part of the value of having one guy who handles the oven; even in my house, I make very specific movements with my pizza depending on what I see in the first few minutes using a thin screen. 

Here's a local Amici pizza, American flour, 750F, no sugar, cooked in Woodstone ceramic oven:
http://home.comcast.net/~keck-foundation1/amici-pizza.jpg

Here's A16's Neapolitan pizza, Caputo flour, 800+F, no sugar allowed of course for Neapolitan:
http://home.comcast.net/~keck-foundation1/Neo-roll.jpg

Here's a slice of mine, American flour (in this case, King Harvest), 530F home oven, no sugar, screen (no char that comes off in my hands, unfortunately; but crispy all the same):
http://home.comcast.net/~keck-foundation1/copy-king-harv-slice.JPG
 
I looked at a large green egg today. I can't help but wonder what the result would be if you inverted the plate setter (legs up), and placed the pizza directly on top of a thin pizza screen, which goes in with the pizza (and heats immediately) instead of a pizza stone. By the way, do you get actual char marks instead of burn marks on your pizza (the good stuff that comes off in your hands)?

[busterw]

The bottom of mine looks about like the bottom on your bottom link but I'm only cooking between 500 and 550 and not letting the stone sit in there at that temp long before tossing the pie on. I think if I warmed the tone for awhile before, it would get slightly darker which would be nice. I tend to be impatient though.

My egg is an Extra Large and I've had a medium, a large, now the XL. I use the latesetter with legs down and the pizza stone directly on top of it. I lightly dust my peel with cornmeal before putting the pie on it so that ends up transferring to the stone when I slide the pie into the egg. I've not had a sticking issue thus far but generally open the dome once and do a partial rotation to prevent stickiness and burning.