Pizza cooking on the Big Green Egg

[GotRocks]

Have any of you BGE users added a temperature controller to your eggs? Like a "Stoker" or "BBQ Guru"?

You'll need to use the optional high-heat temp probe leads, but it may cut down your time to get up to temp, and maintain temps.

Also, your choice of lump charcoal can influence the uppermost temperatures you can achieve, Cowboy lump is not what you want to be using, For the Canadians, I suggest "Maple Leaf" charcoal, For the guys in the states, I think Wicked Good may be right, also Look into Dragons breath brand, Ozark Oak, B&B, and some other quality lump producers.

You can research maximum temperatures achieved on a BGE over at www.nakedwhiz.com in their "Lump Charcoal Database" the guys that maintain the site are BGE & lump charcoal fanatics!!

[SmokinGuitarPlayer]

Hey gotrocks ....

Yes, we have tried to use the BBQ Guru to maintain temps ... a few problems ... controller only goes to 575 ... also ...with the fan and the guru running wide open flat out ....we even used the jumper thingy they sell to bypass the controller and feed the power directly to the blower full blast .... ..well the egg will get hotter just being wide open ...the fan actually holds it down ... BUT THAT BEING SAID .. sometime soon , as soon as the snow melts, we are going to test the egg setup with the MUCH BIGGER 25CFM fan and see if that will work.

We do sometimes use the eggcellerator ..
http://www.fredsmusicandbbq.com/BIG_GREEN_EGG_reg_EGGCELERATOR_POWER_ASSISTED_STAR_p/bgeec.htm

and that puppy really gets the egg rockin but there is no control ..it's either full boogie or off ... so you have to keep an eye on it or the Egg will go mega-nuclear fast! ... love those flames.

Charcoal ... ... any of the premium brands seem to work fine ..but cowboy is not worth the cheap price you pay for it ... it burns off in no time.

Happy Eggin and pizza makin.

FB/SGP

[GotRocks]

I looked at the Guru, I looked at the stoker, and I found the stoker to be a much more versatile unit, not only for the available temperature ranges, but the accessory uses too. One stoker can run 1 piece of equipment or 30 pieces of equipment at the same time, using different temperatures on each cooker. They really are neat.

Then with the addition of free PC based aftermarket software, I can monitor and change my cooker temps from anywhere in the world that I have Internet access when using my stoker, and I like that I can log my temperatures in graph formation and be able to save those graphs for insurance purposes (commercial use).
I even have alarms that I use to send me a text message if someone opens the cooker door.

If you have not tried a stoker yet, take a better look, it may just fit your unique needs better than the guru is capable of..

I am not affiliated with the stoker, or its software in any way, nor do i profit from people using them, I just love mine due to it's flexibility compared to other draft controllers available.

[seles23]

I've had my Egg for over a year now and can honestly say that I can cook a MEAN steak or tenderloin.  I've been trying to use the Egg for pizza and have had nothing but frustration.  Today, my Mom came by to visit the grandkids and to have pizza for dinner (my modified JerryMac NY pizza dough was already in the fridge).  Every pie I've cooked on the Egg includes a FULL firebox of lump (about 4 pounds), the platesetter set feet up, the grid on top of the platesetter, and the BGE stone on top of the grid.  After an hour the stone was up to 500F.  But, the dome temp was around 350F.  WTF?

What methods have you fellow BGE'ers used to get your stone to 500F+ with a respectable dome temp?  The pizzas made were very good, but had little to no topside char.

I've had my Egg over 800F dome temp many times for meat searing.  How can I get those dome temps without heating the stone too much?  Check out my blog below to see what happened when I had my stone heated to 800F.  Not good.

Do we eliminate the platesetter and raise the grid with fire bricks?  Please help.  I want at least a 600F dome temp and a 500F to 550F stone temp.  Any ideas?

Grazie.

A buddy of mine has one that we've been cooking pizza on for some time. At first we were experiencing the same results, then we introduced the leaf blower.  If you haven't tried it yet give it a whirl, it just may be your ticket.

[gtsum2]

i am surprised there is not more discussion of cooking pies on the bge?  I have a primo and have recently started cooking pies and I am still looking for the best setup

[SmokinGuitarPlayer]

I have baked some on the Primo XL Oval with pretty good success. Once I get completely satisifed with my BGE setup / etc. I will move onto the Oval. I have a couple of ideas of how to utilize it's oval shape ...I'll post here when / as I get to it. How do you setup your Primo for pizza?

[gtsum2]

I have baked some on the Primo XL Oval with pretty good success. Once I get completely satisifed with my BGE setup / etc. I will move onto the Oval. I have a couple of ideas of how to utilize it's oval shape ...I'll post here when / as I get to it. How do you setup your Primo for pizza?

currently I have the d plates in, then main grate feet down, then extended cooking racks with the primo stone on the ext racks.  This gets the pie up into the dome more and so far is working well for me.  I tried the d plates on the ext racks and then the stone directly on top pf the d plates, but I had troubles with burning the bottom.  I still dont have my temps dialed in either...my last couple have been at 450 and have worked out well, but this is with a store bought dough ball...I am going to start trying to make my own balls soon

[Jackie Tran]

Gtsum, no doubt you have many recipes in mind.  They are everywhere.  I did come up with a rather simple NY pizza recipe you can try if you don't already have one and looking. 

You can read about it here.http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,10789.0.html

[gtsum2]

Gtsum, no doubt you have many recipes in mind.  They are everywhere.  I did come up with a rather simple NY pizza recipe you can try if you don't already have one and looking. 

You can read about it here.http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,10789.0.html

Thanks Tran!  I will give this one a whirl this week and let you know how it goes.

[Bob1]

Incidentally, I tried using isopropyl alcohol to light the lump for the first time after seeing some guy's video on You Tube.  It's an awesome method if you want a quick start.  The heat that comes from the alcohol burning is insane.  Never use more than 3 ounces though.  You really want to get the liquid down into the center of the lump rather than all over the top of the pile.

After lighting the alcohol (that was injected into the lump pile) and then closing the dome lid, the dome temp went from its lowest setting to about 700F in about 8 seconds.  After the alcohol burns off the temp will quickly return to about 175F and will constantly climb up from there.  I was up to a 600F+ dome temp in about 35 minutes.

It works really good, but keep it away from children!

Here's a link to the guy's video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWZUrtaEb-U

I have had an egg for years but I always tended to use it more for special long cooks at 3 to 20 hours.  I started using the alcohol method at the beginning of the summer and it enables me to get much more economical use.  I use enough to cover the whole lump generously, about 6 to 8 oz.  It's ready in ten minutes and when you are finished you just choke it off with the vents.  I now get many great short cooks with the same lump.  Thanks for the tip


Bob

[Jackie Tran]

Bob thanks for posting your experience.  Good to have yet another tool under the belt for the ceramic cookers. 

I'll definitely give it a try next time I use the Primo.  I've been using oil soaked gauzes and it works ok but I like the rubbing alcohol idea better. 

[MilitantSquatter]

Played around with different set-ups on the XL BGE last night (unlit)

(My usual set up : plate setter legs down > ceramic feet > pizza stone (20")

 Tried BGE grid extender I had laying around instead of ceramic feet. This brought stone 5" from top of inside dome (as opposed to 9" w/o grid ext.).  However, the stone being 20+ " is very wide at that point in the dome where it narrows and may restrict airflow at top of dome which is opposite of what I want.

See picture with plate setter legs up & down: http://s700.photobucket.com/albums/ww8/MilitantSquatter/stone/

To replicate that set up but hopefully better airflow to top, I placed an order yesterday with ceramic grill store.com for the XL flip ring (that I wanted anyway) along with the 16" stone they sell.  Upon receipt, I am going to try platesetter legs down (and up), Flip Ring on top of plate setter and then 16" stone on the flip ring.  This will get the stone higher in the dome like my experiment, still give a good air gap between plate setter and stone but 16" stone will allow more air to circulate create more of a gap between stone and platesetter.

Can't wait to try it in the next week or so

[SmokinGuitarPlayer]

Hey Militant Squatter...I tried every conceivable setup using the XL Egg ...especially a lot of different ways of heightening the surface into the dome ... nothing really worked... 2 things.
I discovered that raising it only works for , maybe , early in the baking as when you lift the lid the lid (dome) cools quickly ... anyway ..the height ...it didn't seem to work as I thought it would ...and the bottom still always would burn before the top was done ...this is over maybe 6 pies .. baking time period ... I also tried 13" , 14" , 15" , 16" and 21" stones ..and a special D shaped one that you can see if you look at the bread baking vids on my website...

I eventually gave up on the XL and went back to the large because fire is "deeper" ...further away from the stone after the coals burn down a little ..
..
I have a whole technique that is repeatable .. using the "traditional " setup ..which I eventually went back to ..after a year of trying other things ... platesetter legs down , feet, stone on top of them ... as of now, this setup still works the best for me but I do a LOT of preburn to charge heat into the dome..I have videos but haven't had a chance to edit them and post them but I will ...I seem to have a really good , repeatable system and the top gets done great ... but still, after an amount of time, the stone gets too hot and the dome loses "heat charge" from being opened ...but I can get 4 or 5 perfect pies .. one of these days I'll post it all .. let me know how your experiments work ... I burned a ton of crusts using the XL...hope you figure it out and let me know etc.  .
FB

PS ..I think the BGE pizza vids on the website are using my latest setup and system

[Dan-H]

Thanks for all the tips.

I'm a new BGE owner, but a long time electric oven pizza cooker -- but still a novice.

I cooked three pies last night and these were the first on the egg.

Large BGE, platesetter legs up, grill on platesetter, pizza stone on grill.

preheated to 650 for about 40 min. I waited until the temp on my stone maxed out my infra-red temp reader at +550F.

dough was a basic all purpose flour, yeast, olive oil.

pizza 1 pepperoni and mushroom was perfect. cooked in about 9 minutes.
pizza 2 was an attempt at Emeril's three cheese pizza. very good but could have had another minute or two to be a little crisper.
The temps were dropping slightly towards the end and I was concerned the bottom was burning.
pizza 3 went on 20 minutes after pizza 2 came off. veggie with red sauce. My wife doesn't like her pizza too crispy so I pulled it off after about 8 minutes and finished it under the broiler. She really liked it. this was a thicker crust than the other two.

overall for the first try I was very pleased. I did not start completely fresh with lump which is perhaps why the temps started to fall.

I'm looking forward to more pizzas on the egg.

[tikidoc]

Does anyone have suggestions for the best brand of lump charcoal for getting the really high temperatures?  I have read there is a pretty big difference, and with our current brand, I have been able to get air temp to about 700F briefly, but have not been able to get a stone temp much over 550.  Then air temp begins to drop.  I am using a full load of charcoal, plate setter with pizza stone on top.  I'm ending up with about a 5 minute bake.  Top browning is good but I want higher temps.

[Jet_deck]

Does anyone have suggestions for the best brand of lump charcoal for getting the really high temperatures? 

It kinda seems like a local thing.  Living in South Texas, we get a good selection of mesquite lump.  Then you have the tree hugger brands of coconut, something from another country, or Cowboy lump.  I have found PVC pipe and nails and plastic Dolls in Cowboy lump charcoal.
Do you have pictures of your setup ?

Have you considered a fan forced bake ?

[Ranger5oh]

ALL:

I wanted to inform you of the setup I use, which I can consistently hit 700+ degree dome temps on my large BGE.

Here is my setup:

1) Iron grate
2) 3 bricks (normal size bricks cut in half), one each placed at 10 oclock, 2 oclock, and 6 oclock
3) plate setter, feet down on top of the bricks
4) Pizza Stone directly on top of plate setter

This setup is by far the best I have tried, and I have tried them all.  It gets the pizza up close to the dome which helps cook the top at the same rate as the crust. If you put a gap between the stone and the plate setter, the top will actually cook too fast.

Try it out and let me know what you think!

[tommy]

Ranger, can I ask how long it takes to cook the pie with this setup?

[Ranger5oh]

Ranger, can I ask how long it takes to cook the pie with this setup?

Depends on crust thickness, but my typical NY style takes about 6 minutes, give or take a minute.