Preheat Pizza Stone Charcoal Grill

[dcole]

I'm looking to use my pizza stone on a charcoal grill and I use a chimney starter to lite the coals...If i dump the coals right from the starter into the grill, put the top grates on, then the stone on, will the stone crack from too much heat at once?

Should I maybe preheat the stone in an oven starting at room temp then going up? That seems like a pain to get it from the oven to the grill once hot...Any suggestions? Thanks!

[tim irvine]

Nevr used a BGE but I have a New Braunfels Smoker. For pizza I put the stone on one side and make a fire with a chimney on the other side, using pecan...probably about 8-10"from the right hand edge of the fire to the lefthand edge of the stone. l figured starting the fire ought with the stone already there would ensure a not too rapid transition, which seemed the most likely thing to make it crack. After about 20-30 minutes when the temp was at 900 F I did the pizza, probably about 5 minutes. Perfect. No cracked stone. Maybe I was just lucky, but I will keep doing it! .

[ecwashere7]

I've cooked pizza many times on my gas grill with the stone on the grates directly. The stone actually traps a lot of the heat and gets my Weber around 700 degrees. I open the lid once to rotate the pizza near the end of the cooking and it comes out perfectly. Crispy crust with a top that cooked just enough (how I like it). I usually add a tin-foil pouch of wood chips (preferably oak) which gives the pizza a wood-fired flavor. Mmmm...

[tommy]

How long does it take for you to cook pizza in this manner?

From a practical standpoint, I don't think the stone is going to "trap" much heat in the cavity of the grill after it's opened. While the a thermometer may be giving you a 700 degree reading, the dynamics in the grill are likely proving to be something different altogether.

[ecwashere7]

That may be true, but my thermometer never gets up to 700 any other time I cook with the grill. My only guess was that the stone was trapping some heat (it takes up almost all of the grill surface).

As for time, It generally takes about 10 minutes for warming up (the wood chips I place by the burner should be smoking by this point too), and the pizza cooks in about 5 to 6. I've left it in for 7 and the top was bubbling like crazy (overdone).

[tommy]

oh there's no doubt that the stone is helping get the air in the grill hot, getting the temp up to 700; it gets much hotter than air. it's the the heat retention issue that i question, once the lid is opened. that air isn't going to be 700 degrees once the lid is opened even briefly.

i'm very surprised to hear that you've had the top get overdone with the bottom not being totally burnt well before that. but is sounds like it's working for you.

[ecwashere7]

I don't disagree with you that there is a significant heat loss when the lid is opened. I open it once to put the pizza on the stone and another to rotate it.

Think of how many times a pizza oven is opened and closed in a restaurant. The same heat loss is happening but to a lesser degree. Besides, you want the crust to cook at a faster rate than the top (hence the stone).

[tommy]

comparing to pizza cooking in a pizzeria or restaurant is missing the point, as they generally cook with lowish heat (500) for a long time (12-16 minutes). The idea here is to cook quickly with high heat.

In the case of a wood-burning brick oven, even though there's a hole at the top, and the front is constantly open, the temperature still remains 700-900 degrees, and hotter in the dome. A grill can't do that.

As I said, I'm surprised that you could cook for 7 minutes, on a stone directly on the grates, without the crust turning to carbon. With regard to cooking rates, more correctly, to my mind, you want the top and bottom to cook at equal rates. Otherwise one is done before the other.

[ecwashere7]

The pizzeria that I used to work at back in NY used to have its oven cranked almost to 1000 degrees. We'd turn out pies in about 6 minutes with a crispy (not burnt) crust and gooey top. If there were a lot of toppings we'd have it go a little longer. The bottom certainly needs more cook time than the top. At least that's how I was taught by my boss at the restaurant.

[tommy]

well there you have it.

[ted]

Others keep talking about the BGE, but I don't know that OP ever mentioned which grill. I do a good bit of indirect cooking on a Smoke n Pit. Haven't done pizza there.

Thinking in terms of how I'd do it on my grill, I'd build a rip-roaring lump charcoal fire on one side. I'd put my stone directly over the fire, maybe even dropped down to right over the coals (as opposed the the 4-6" there usually is between). I'd open the inlet and outlet dampers all the way. Then I'd close the lid and let it go for 20 min or so to preheat the stone. Then I'd move the stone to the other side of the grill (welder's gloves are your friend), leave the inlet full open, and close the outlet down to about 1/3. Add charcoal as necessary (and give it a few minutes to catch). Then cook away.

So, I haven't done that, but I have grilled pizzas before, which turned out pretty well. You basically grill just the dough, flip and top on the grilled side, then grill again. Same issue others have mentioned- not a ton of top heat. My remedy has been to put the grilled pie under the broiler briefly to finish.

[Zeldog]

I would not worry about cracking the stone. However, the stone will take a long time to heat up, even over a charcoal fire. In my oven, set at 500F it takes nearly an hour for the stone to come up to temperature, so I would expect a grill to take about the same time. To be sure you need to use an infrared thermometer (a good tool to have even if you only use the oven).

I've made pizza over a charcoal fire exactly once, and I used no stone, just a 1/4 inch wire mesh (aka hardware cloth). It was excellent and I loved the smoky taste the charcoal added, and the uneven, sometimes burnt crust. I don't see the point of using a stone on a grill, unless you can keep the coals hot long enough to heat up a baking stone to well over 500F.

[tommy]

even more important than keeping the stone over 500 degrees (which can easily be achieved in most ovens), you'd want to keep the temperature of the air in the grill well over 500 degrees, which is not very easy, as they are not insulated. once you take that lid off, the heat is gone, and by the time it rebounds, you could have cooked the pizza in the oven.

as far as heating a stone on a grill, or cooking pizza on a grill, if it's high-heat cooking you're looking for, i think an oven can provide that, provided you let it preheat for a long time, occasionally opening the door to get the stone as hot as possible, and by using the broiler to blast a bunch of heat on the pizza. you can cook a pizza in 4-5 minutes by getting the most out of your oven, with very good results.

[duck833]

Might want to put some tiles or something between the coals and the stone. On my BGE I use the plate setter and put the BGE stone on top of that. I usually cook pies at around 600-650, it recovers within minutes of opening the lid.

[dcole]

Great Idea, thanks. I'll pick up some tiles to place underneath.

[tommy]

i suspect the stone will be fine. however your pizza will likely be burnt on the bottom and uncooked on the top.

[chipman]

Not if the stone is placed away from the direct heat. I cook pizza on my BGE all the time, and have never had a problem.

[tommy]

the biggest BGE is 24 inches in diameter. so you'd need a pretty small pile of coals or a small stone.

the OP wants to put the stone above the heat source. i suspect if he wanted to offset it, the question wouldn't have been asked. I was trying to explain that if you have it over the heat source, you're in for trouble.

how hot does your BGE get, and after the lid is opened how long before it recovers?

[chipman]

On the BGE, I use a plate setter which creates an indirect heat. As far as how hot mine gets, I 've gotten it up to over 700*. As far as recovery, I really haven't checked that closely. Probably a few minutes.

You are correct about having the stone in the heats line of fire though.

[tommy]

ah that's right, the plate setter. that's a great advantage of the BGE. i was considering getting one if only for pizza, but had second thoughts. maybe i'll revisit that idea.