Dan Diamond

Wow..."poor intellectual form".  Not sure that was quite necessary in the pizza forum.  Putting that out there might make it look like you simply have poor manners.  You're right, I oversimplified the range.  The precise range for those knowledgeable about Neapolitan pizza is  430-480 Celsius which is 806 - 896 degrees Fahrenheit.  These ranges are actually set by the AVPN (Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana).  For true Neapolitan pizza, there are rules.  Feel free to review them here https://www.pizzanapoletana.org/en/ricetta_pizza_napoletana. 

Can you make good pizza following numerous other methods.  Absolutely.  I made some fantastic pizza's on the KK.  I just needed to adjust the hydration level of the dough to the oven I was using.  However, would they be considered true Neapolitan pizza...nope.  Would they be considered some damn fine pizza...yep!  

On more fun notes, George, damn fine purchase.  Enjoy the journey and share some pictures of the new oven and new pizzas.  

1 hour ago, Syzygies said:

My neighbors have a wood-fired pizza oven. It's wonderful.

I took some cooking classes with an Italian "engineer" (actually Silicon Valley upper management) who retired wealthy at forty, and now teaches as a hobby. She took temperature readings at many of the best pizzerias in Italy, to understand pizza for herself. 900-1000 degrees is a simplistic myth. Yes, if your life depends on finding that reading somewhere in a wood-fired pizza oven, you could manage. If you instead read on the internet that this is the ideal temperature, and try to replicate it indiscriminately, you'll make suboptimal pizza.

Where I grew up, I'd hear people say "ASSUME makes an ass out of you and me". They're still saying it fifty years later. I observe something similar in mathematics: It's human nature to clamp down for days, weeks, months, or years on a catchy idea. It's also extraordinarily poor intellectual form. For comparison, competitive swimmers are in great physical condition, but they excel because of ideal form. It is simplistic to believe that our best scientists excel because of raw intelligence. Generally, from what I've observed, they too have better form. They encounter a catchy idea, and their reaction is "I want that experience again in five minutes, with another new idea!" They don't get stuck on single ideas.

I've seen many people get stuck on the single idea that a pizza oven should be 900-1000 degrees.

The KK is not as nimble as a wood-fired pizza oven at making pizza, though both respond to careful attention. I'm sure that you know that 900-1000 degrees is an oversimplification. The state of any cooker is a high-dimensional time-evolving slurry of information we barely take in, poorly captured by single numbers. I cringe when these numbers are repeated, for I've seen how people take them literally.

Wow..."poor intellectual form".  Not sure that was quite necessary in the pizza forum.  Putting that out there might make it look like you simply have poor manners.  You're right, I oversimplified the range.  The precise range for those knowledgeable about Neapolitan pizza is  430-480 Celsius which is 806 - 896 to degrees Fahrenheit.  These ranges are actually set by the AVPN (Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana).  For true Neapolitan pizza, there are rules.  Feel free to review them here https://www.pizzanapoletana.org/en/ricetta_pizza_napoletana. 

Can you make good pizza following numerous other methods.  Absolutely.  I made some fantastic pizza's on the KK.  I just needed to adjust the hydration level of the dough to the oven I was using.  However, would they be considered true Neapolitan pizza...nope.  Would they be considered some damn fine pizza...yep!  

On more fun notes, George, damn fine purchase and fine looking pizzas.  Enjoy the journey and share more pictures of the new oven and new pizzas.  

George - I have the 23" ultimate and I'm putting in an outdoor kitchen with a built-in pizza oven and my KK of course.  Let me give the KK some kudos first.  The KK makes some damn fine pizzas.  If I only had one piece of cooking equipment, its a Komodo Komado hands down. However, if you're making a true Neapolitan pizza, then ideally you need an oven that will get to 900-1000 degrees...which the KK will do but not easily and then the oven and the handle is hot to the touch.  If you're just cooking one pizza, then this works alright.  The issue with all kamado style cookers is that you can't see the pizza and every time you check it out, you're letting out the heat.  If you adjust your dough recipe, you'll make damn fine pizza's at 500-600 degrees but the same issues persist and each pizza takes a bit longer which dries out the pizza a little more.  Gas grills are for people in a hurry.  The one thing I've learned about cooking is the best stuff, takes a little longer, which gives you more time to enjoy the process, your friends and a good drink...or more.  In the end, I ditched the gas grill and I'm doing the KK and wood fired pizza oven for me...and a pellet smoker for my wife because its idiot proof.  This way, everybody is happy except for my wallet.

No idea.  I would think if you don't screw up like me...quite some time (i.e. many many years) but experienced KK folks...feel free to chime in.

Follow this link:

• The quick answer is that you should have two gaskets if you have the 23" ultimate.  There is a fat one flat around the perimeter of the grill and a thinner one right next to it at a slight angle.  There are sort of instructions with the link below.  However, since I literally just replaced mine an hour ago, here's what I suggest.
• I'd recommend taking a picture of your grill so you know how its supposed to be.
• Remove the old gasket, it should just pull off
• Clean the surface with Simple Green and a scrubber/sponge/rag etc.
• use PERMATEX ULTRA BLACK GASKET MAKER 3.35 OZ TUBE, you can buy it on Amazon.com and this will be your adhesive
• I started at the back of the grill so the seam would be in the back not the front
• Use a small paint brush to apply the Permatex
• I put on the smaller angled one first, making sure that it doesn't ride higher than the lip by using the long end of the paint brush (per the link).
• Then I added the thicker one.  It came with wooden spacers but none of the instructions referenced them and I didn't see how they were useful so I filed them in the circular file.
• Put  on the gaskets about a foot at a time and have paper towels on the ready to wipe off the excess.
• Have a pair of scissors handy to cut off the end to match up where you started
• Once the gaskets are staying put, I put the lid down to the first position (i.e. NOT all the way closed) just to keep everything in place. 
• No idea how long you're supposed to wait before using the grill but I'm gonna wait 24 hours
• Side note, so you don't have to replace them as quickly as I did, if you're running your grill at a high heat like (over 900) like I was for a pizza, and the Komado is hot to the touch...don't leave the lid up!  It will torch your gasket.  Whoops.  Lesson learned.  Grab some gloves and close the grill!