620658 Sun May 17 20:11:20 -0700 2009 26 31 Home Cooking 0 4692801 Summer's come to Sacramento; it hit 103 today. Pizza was on the menu for dinner, but there was no way we were going to fire up the oven. So I put the baking stone on the gas grill and turned it up to high. After a while the thermometer was pegged out at 650F. Slid a pizza onto the stone, closed the lid, and waited 5 minutes. The top was underdone and the bottom was black. Turned the burners off and left the top open for a while, slid on another pie, and turned the burners back to high. Same result. Has anybody here successfully made traditional pizza on a gas grill? If so, did you run into this problem? And were you able to overcome it? Thanks in advance for any suggestions. Alan Sun May 17 20:11:20 -0700 2009 58743 alanbarnes 1 4692829 I do pizza all the time on my BGE. I have a plate setter and the stone sits on top of that. I run the temps around 550-650, works like a charm everytime. I wonder if you are running the temps to high? I know the wood fired pizza ovens at commercial places are running around 850-900. You might want to put some fire brick underneath the pizza stone to act as an additional heat sink. Sun May 17 20:23:55 -0700 2009 4692801 148886 duck833 2 4692942 how tight does the lid close? I use a charcoal fired round Weber which has a really tight seal - depending how I arrange the coal and the vents I can manipulate all sorts of effects. between a slab of granite and tightly (almost) closed upper vents, it can do a fairly good oven. I believe it really comes down to venting, since your top was undercooked. so many, esp. gas don't seal well. saw your weather, isn't 103 a little early for the year? (ex-SF person) Sun May 17 21:35:56 -0700 2009 4692829 163722 hill food 3 4693978 How do you arrange the coals in a charcoal grill for pizza? Mon May 18 09:52:56 -0700 2009 4692942 220914 krisrishere 4 4694722 if you have a kettle-style charcoal grill (weber or bge) and a stone, lay a full bottom of charcoal. i strongly prefer lump charcoal to briquettes and avoid squirty starter fluids. i also prefer to use a stone, but then i like a bit of heft and chew to the crust--the sense that it has been baked, not grilled. Mon May 18 12:53:31 -0700 2009 4693978 270283 silverhawk 5 4694875 Sorry, I neglected to say that I don't have a kettle-style grill and I definitely use lump. Mon May 18 13:33:06 -0700 2009 4694722 220914 krisrishere 6 4695142 mine's a kettle, but FWIW I spread a thin, even layer across the entire bottom. Mon May 18 14:44:13 -0700 2009 4694875 163722 hill food 2 4694734 What is a plate setter? I have put the dough directly on the grill, it was ok. Mon May 18 12:58:31 -0700 2009 4692829 21396 normalheightsfoodie 1 4692979 I do it all the time, but on the grills instead of on a stone. The thermometer on my hand-me-down Weber doesn't work any longer, but I just put it on H-H-H, keep checking till the bottom is done, then flip, top and close the lid till the thing's done. Times are impossible to quantify, since I do it by feel. But I'd suggest 86ing the stone, myself. Five minutes seems a bit too long, too. Sun May 17 21:58:33 -0700 2009 4692801 130151 dmd_kc 1 4693044 I would not use a pizza stone. Roll out your dough, preheat the oven, then oil one side of your dough, place the dough (oil side down) on the grill until firm and a bit browned, flip, add toppings and ingredients, turn off gas, close lid for several minutes (depending on toppings). Serve. Sun May 17 22:53:46 -0700 2009 4692801 11583 ipsedixit 2 4693647 Exactly. A pizza stone is not required to grill pizza. Commonly, people think that the dough will fall through the grates of the grill but that's just not the case. Mon May 18 08:22:04 -0700 2009 4693044 283259 SQHD 1 4693500 surely the problem is caused by the fact that the stone is hotter than the air above it. the gas weber is designed to cook stuff from below. neither its weight nor design will optimize baking. still, you should be able to cook a decent pizza. you might start by checking the temperature of the cooker above the stone--the temperature the pizza cheese would feel. perhaps put a standard oven thermometer on a trivet on the stone and see what you get. it might be quite different from the temperature registered on the hood thermometer. presumably the best results will follow when the surface temp is as close as possible to the cooker air temp. the stone might well be baffling heat from the air above it. (this is why the "no stone" guys are having some success.) heat variation caused by direct baffling is less likely with a kettle weber or a bge because of their design. of course, the bge has the additional advantage of greater mass. if your stone has a very large area, consider a smaller one. alternatively, try a somewhat lower heat and longer pre-heat period. this should reduce the difference between stone temp and air temp--on balance a good trade off. you could also use a commercial wire mesh pizza pan instead of a stone. this would allow a more even--and hotter--pre-heating, but you'd need to dial down the gas when you put the pizza on the pan to avoid burning the bottom with the direct heat from the cooking bars. if you want pizza to become an important part of your outdoor repertoire, however, consider going back to a kettle weber or joining duck in using a bge. i've cooked pizza on a 3-bar gas weber, a charcoal kettle, and a bge. the bge is the best. on the other hand, if you like the convenience of gas and make pizza only as a change-up, the thoughts above might help and should yield good pie. Mon May 18 07:41:37 -0700 2009 4692801 270283 silverhawk 1 4693589 I don't use a stone but I imagine it would work roughly the same with one if you flip it. I usually have the burners full blast on one side and off on the other. Put the dough on the hot side for a few minutes, flip it to the cool side and top it. You might need two stones, but I love the char on the bottom from being right on the grills. Mon May 18 08:07:36 -0700 2009 4692801 69452 jzerocsk 1 4694530 You don't need a stone on a grill. Open grill is better than closed. You DO need Thin Crust dough - not 1/2" or 3/4" thick stuff. Mon May 18 12:11:00 -0700 2009 4692801 225234 KiltedCook 2 4695039 I never use dough that thick on my grill. I make the dough translucent and spray it lightly, cook it on that side until it's firm but not really cooked, spray the top and flip. I can cook it longer by barely cooking the first side and get it very crispy but not burnt. Mon May 18 14:16:24 -0700 2009 4694530 71350 lergnom 1 4694998 I can make grill-style pizza just fine; it's traditional pizza that's giving me fits. The dough is way too wet (70% or so) to put on the grates. And the grill-style pizza I've made doesn't have the same bottom crust or the browned and blistered top of a Neapolitan-style pie. I think hill food and silverhawk hit the nail on the head. Too much heat is escaping out the vents and through the steel of the lid. Something that seals up tighter (eg a Weber Kettle) and/or has more thermal mass in the lid (eg a Big Green Egg) could address this problem, but there's no way another cooking device is going to find a home on my patio. I'm thinking the solution might be to build a faux brick oven inside the grill - one layer of fire bricks on the grate and another 8" or so above it. The upper bricks should have enough thermal mass to cook the top properly. But I'll have to find some kind of a sturdy rack to hold them. Any brilliant thoughts or other input is welcome. Mon May 18 14:02:28 -0700 2009 4692801 58743 alanbarnes 2 4695299 well, you could put down a pizza stone, put a brick--or split brick-- at each end and a second pizza stone on top of the bricks. sounds kind rube goldbergy, but it might work, particularly if cooking pizza is a novelty and not a routine. if you want to cook pizza with a hefty crust frequently, you should consider a cooker better suited to the task--ie a bge. i agree with duck--though i must admit that until i got one some years ago, i thought the bge guys were pretentious blowhards fixated on ceramic jimcracks. the thing is--that cooker really works. actually, i'm curious now about how an internal oven might work on the gas weber. if you give it a go, report back if you would. Mon May 18 15:46:21 -0700 2009 4694998 270283 silverhawk 1 4695037 POP for a large BGE and be happy!!! Slow smoker, pizza oven, high temp steaks, it has it all for the hound that wants good backyard food. Only hurts once when you buy it and will give you dividends for years. Cheers!!! Mon May 18 14:16:04 -0700 2009 4692801 148886 duck833 1 4695235 Hmmm, lots of interesting opinions and differences. I get excellent results using a pizza stone, high heat and a good preheating period as well as a closed lid. I always make the pizzas thin and probably no larger than 10 to 12". Also, while I add toppings, I don't overload them. In about 5 to 6 minutes, the pizzas are done. IMO, the key is the thickness of your crust. Mon May 18 15:15:14 -0700 2009 4692801 41679 Den 1 4696891 I make pizza on my gas two burner grill using 12 clay tiles from Home Depot. I preheat on high, add pizza, turn down to medium or lower and watch carefully. I also set the two burners to different temps, which I speculate creates a bit of convection making the heat circulate. I have great success with this. I usually have to rotate the pizzas once or twice. Tue May 19 08:00:18 -0700 2009 4692801 123480 scuzzo 2 4699170 I'm too lazy to search earlier posts, but when I use a stone, the dough does not go directly on it, just used to create a more homogenous heat between the coals and the grill. Tue May 19 20:01:19 -0700 2009 4696891 163722 hill food 3 4701474 If using clay tiles or stones, make sure they are WELL oiled. After a few times, you won't need to add any more oil. Wed May 20 13:46:27 -0700 2009 4699170 123480 scuzzo 1 4699671 Elevate Mr B. Jfood makes pizza on his weber all the time, the first few were a disater. He places two brick on the grates to elevate the pan away from the heat. He also just uses a rimmed cookie sheet instead of a stone. Butthe key was seaparation from the grates. Good luck Wed May 20 04:53:47 -0700 2009 4692801 11290 jfood 2 4700934 Now there's a thought. Certainly easier than the Rube Goldberg oven I was envisioning. I'll have to give it a try. Thanks! Time for some trial and error. I wonder how many nights in a row I can feed the kids pizza before they start to complain? Wed May 20 11:24:48 -0700 2009 4699671 58743 alanbarnes 3 4700967 If you have kids that complain about eating pizza every night then your problem lies with your kids, not with the pizza. :-) Wed May 20 11:34:31 -0700 2009 4700934 11583 ipsedixit 4 4701015 Something tells me the bathroom scale will tell me to quit long before the kids do. Wed May 20 11:48:35 -0700 2009 4700967 58743 alanbarnes 3 4702127 Here's a link with one example to use fire bricks to elevate the stone. With the BGE it's just as easy to over cook the top before the crust is done. Same problem reversed. You may want to consider pizza screens. Readily available on eBay and a lot easier to move your pie from point A to B. You may want to consider a double pizza stone as well. This would lower the temp under your pie and elevate it a bit at the same time. http://www.nakedwhiz.com/pizza.htm Wed May 20 17:35:25 -0700 2009 4700934 253154 Fritter