KevinD

Hi Bruce - though I live in SoCal, I get up your way at least once a year. Not sure when I will next be up there but if you're open to it, I wouldn't mind buying some of each from you in the future. thanks!

Timing is everything - yesterday Tucson Arizona was being slammed by torrential monsoonal rain and flooding in low-lying areas which I believe included parts of interstate 10. I'm pretty sure interstate 10 is going to be the major route taken by your truck so let's hope that having dodged one natural event, that it will not run across any others, nor those man-made…

A thing of beauty to be sure!

Charles - go for it! Walls are ivory in color, platter is white. Complicating (?) the issue are energy saver bulbs throwing light through alabaster colored shades... Lastly - calzone was brushed with extra virgin olive oil (EVO) before going on Pele for the bake.

Ok, so here is my 2nd Calzone on "Pele", though I expect my next attempt at a bake will be a deep-dish trying to live up to that epic recent bake done by CKREEF at the Bistro... The only issue with this one as I've not yet tried attempted to assemble a pizza or calzone directly on a peel is that I didn't have the dough enough towards to top of the parchment paper, allowing it to be centered when I picked up the paper to flip the dough over the topping placed into the bottom half of the dough circle. So not wanting a potential repeat of oozing innards flowing directly onto the baking stone, I slid another piece of parchment paper under to compensate. I didn't bother to trim the paper as I had a few things happening at the same time so in it went. First shot is 8 minutes into the cook at an indicated 600°F, calzone then rotated 180° for an additional four minutes then pulled out…

In my situation Dennis used a third party to coordinate between his warehouse and the end shipper. You may want to check with him to find out if that is the case for you. While I was that the "victim"of an unfortunate set of circumstances let's hope you are not in the same situation but it never hurts to check, correct?

We've got a lot of memories tied up in our fathers "Epi" - he used to wait and wait for it to bloom and as already noted, it typically does so only once a year. When I was responding to MacK, I could hardly believe it was that old - time goes by so fast… Here's to many happy years and memories for you and your entire family!

Epiphyllum is the name of the flowering cactus... My brothers and I each have a piece from a cactus that my father once had and the plants are probably along the line of 35 years old . We each get a bloom or two each season, here is mine from earlier this year... It is time to replant mine in a new hanging basket and I have to admit I rather neglected it lately so it has been in my backyard in a corner getting rehydrated...

Looks pretty darned good to me! Drooling in appreciation...

Thanks for the suggestions Aussie, CKREEF & Steve...there are a couple hobby stores around me that sell powered model planes so I'm not anticipating issues getting a silicone line to fit once I have a pump in hand. I guess I've been too hung up on trying to find a pump matching Dennis' recommendations. In retrospect I guess any pump that would support a 40 or more gallon aquarium is likely going to meet the liter per minute flow we want...

I've had a hell of a time easily finding a pump. My biggest challenge has been the lack of adequate documentation on packaging in the stores and even to the extent of poorly detailed specifications online by the various manufacturers which then reflects in the information also lacking at the reseller level. For instance, one of the dominant pump makers that supplies Petco & PetSmart tells you that the pump will serve 10, 20, 50, 100 etc. gallon aquarium tanks. No mention of the air flow rate, nor is it adjustable on the pumps. Of course the help in these stores don't have the in depth knowledge to bridge the gap. Dennis and perhaps other may disagree with me but I would've have been more than happy to pay Dennis more for the convenience of a "complete solution" that included a suitable pump and an appropriate length of silicone hose. Even so, I'm betting that Dennis choose not to do this thinking that we would rather have the ability to completely customize the solution to our own specific need/desire. Maybe this is an issue in only the U.S. since we aren't on the metric standard? Clearly I need to do a little bit more research online to try to find a pump that fits the need, but I've been distracted by other things and will get to this later.

Thanks for the kudos on the calzone...it was my first one ever and as I mentioned, I committed the error that many have before me...I overstuffed it thinking it was "just a little bit", but not so - LOL! The bread turned out to be better than I expected as the part that looked the most overdone/burned, really was nothing more than a bubble that rose away from the bulk of the loaf and it took the brunt of the higher heat in the dome. As mentioned before I will take MacK's suggestion and go for a cook at 450°F and that should be just fine…

I was thinking along the same lines given the efficiency of our refractory cement...the stone wasn't an issue since it would be slow to react to a changing temp, but not the case high up near the top of the KK...

So then, 1 for 2 on the success factor of today's bake... Bread wasn't an epic fail but an unexpected rise of 40°F after I'd stabilized (or thought I had) Pele partially burned the top of the bread. The bottom crust was fine so I know my fail was totally temp control related. I will slice the burned part of the loaf and cut off the top crust hoping the flavor of the bread is ok. If not, the other half does appear to be salvageable. Unfortunately I forgot to cut the top of the bread dough prior to placing in Pele so that as well didn't help the final results. The calzone would have been an unqualified success but for the leakage caused by my minor over-stuffing that stretched the dough too thinly along one small portion along the fold. But for that leakage everything was great, the crimped crust was wonderfully crunchy and chewy at the same time and the bottom crust was thoroughly cooked as well. I used a combination of previously cooked pork and beef sausages, prosciutto, roasted red peppers, onion, pimento stuffed green olives, capers, Gruyere & mozzeralla cheeses, topped by the last of my pizza sauce. - YUM!!!

Hi MacK - I have an IR temp gauge that I did use on my first pizza cook and found the stone about 75°F below dome temp gauge even though the stone was in Pele the whole time. I'm pretty sure that part of the difference was my temps fluctuated during the last 45 minutes of heat soak due to my top vent adjustments and dying fuel. I don't know why but I forgot to check the stone on 2nd pizza cook though suspect subconsciously it was due to even temp levels during my last hour of heat soak. I will be sure to check it for today's cook . Just lit Pele about 15 minutes ago and have a target bake start time in @90 minutes.

2nd cook... For the second cook I added a little bit more fuel but rather than start everything wide-open, I set my bottom vent halfway open while giving the top vent four complete turns. That brought it up to 500° over the course of one hour, and the 2nd hour gave the top vent two more turns which is almost wide open for Pele. With the cotter pin in the top vent shaft I get about 6 1/3 turns to complete open The bottom vent left control was set to 80% open and the right control was open to the largest aperture. getting two more turns which is why that for and open the top vent for turns. During the last half hour of my two hour heat up/soak, brought the temperature to roughly 650° and then put my pizza on for the cook. I used a reduced moisture mozzarella on this pizza and found that it was just right.

The following are pictures from Saturday which was my first cook of pizza on Pele. The next post will have my second cook from today, Sunday... The first cook was was just OK and I'm sure it was the way I started the fire and the fact that the fuel/fire was on the decline by the time I put the pizza on. I used fresh mozzarella on the first pizza cook and I found it made the top of the pizza just a bit too moist when combined with the grease rendered from the pepperoni. Lastly you will see no side shot of the cut pizza slices because I got too close to the edges and that prevented a nice crunchy puffed up crust on the outside rim. The taste was fine but from an overall perspective the pizza could've been better...Though what else are first attempts for, if not for learning?

It could've worked for the BB32, but perhaps better saved for the soon to be available 42?

Yes, one end is the hex side the other square... Dennis provided a picture of it so if you look at earlier posts in this topic you can see it...

I canceled out on a trip to Milwaukee (in part) related to my Bricklin car club to be home for the arrival and subsequent first cooks on Pele... The resulting cooks on Pele were undoubtedly better than the fish fry that was to be the food highlight at the car show I ended up missing... Sometimes tough decisions have to be made!

I will have to give Fruita a look when I next order wood chunks. I obtained mine through Ceramic Grills and they will sell you your choice of wood by the pound… https://ceramicgrillstore.com/collections/lump-charcoal-smoking-woods-fire-starters-pellets They also sell the pink unwaxed butcher paper if you don't already have a source...

There are rumors of an imminent work slow-down (best case) or work stoppage due to some disputes at west coast ports. Any chance that ship is going through the Panama Canal towards New Orleans - or is Xraydoc SOL? Rumors, rumors? Need to be clear that I picked those up whilst wearing my tin foil hat with antennae extended for maximum reception... The end is nigh - waiting that is...

LOL - and...I just finished speaking to Dennis about a few things and the carbon steel (he corrected me from SS) baking plate was discussed. He mentioned that SS really has poor heat retention whereas carbon steel is superior when also taking into consideration its heat conductivity. I told him my favorite pans to cook with indoors are my three forged carbon steel pans from Blu Skillet Ironware...LOVE THEM! Anyway...then the discussion turned to his teak cabinets. I'm pretty certain I will end up ordering a left side table, deep configuration though I'm waiting on some pictures of the interior layout of the tables to make final decision on what I wil do.

Between this topic and my seeing the latest S.R. project smoke with the cold smoked salmon, it pushed me over the edge and made me order the KK Cold Smoker accessory NOW! I had always intended to buy one, but was in no hurry to do it... It was a mildly expensive weekend as in addition to the cold smoker I also went online and reviewed Sous Vide products on the market and ended up ordering the Anova Wifi version. I'll have the lay the responsibility for the Anova purchase squarely at MacK's feet... She has tempted me too many times with her posts!