First try at Pizza, questioning my setup

[LarryR]

I did some pizzas on my ceramic the other day and was a little disappointed with the crust near the center of the pizza. I think it could have been one of two things; my setup or too low of temp, 450. I'm thinking maybe I should have run her closer to 600.

My setup from bottom up is a 14" foiled clay saucer, 16" foiled pizza pan, lower grate, upper grate, foiled 16" pizza stone. I let the cooker (and stone) warm-up for approximately 45 minutes and put pizza on for approximately 18 minutes or until the crust was a dark golden brown and cheese was starting to brown. Outside crust was great, near the center wasn't doughy but was not quite done. Was short on time so the pizza was a Papa Murphy's take and bake and still on their paper tray, but I don't think that would make a difference, would it?

PICTURES For review.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

[Firemonkey]

I would start by losing the paper tray, and maybe even the foil on the pizza pan the pizza actually goes on. The pizza stones are designed to be used with the food directly on them. I would bet that without the paper you will find better results at the same temps.

Some will say to cook the pizza at a higher temps, but 450 works in your oven, so it will absolutely work on your K, too. You will find that if you go with a higher temp, a pizza as thick as the one you cooked will burn on the bottom before the top is done - depending on how long you heated the stone. I have cooked more than a few pizzas on my K and there is definitely a learning curve to find what your favorite setup is. You can do a search on this forum for Pizza and find a few threads with pictures of my setup, and explanation/discussion of techniques.

One other thing to consider since you are using a K , is that maybe the upper rack is putting the pizza so far up in the top that the center vent is causing the center to be a little bit of a cool spot? Just a theory though, as I always did my pizza down on the main grill in my Kamado.

[Fetzervalve]

I have done 1 Papa M on my KK, I used the paper tray and it turned out fine. (because the pizza was a little larger than my stone...) I did use a higher temp 650+. I wonder if the Funky Munky isn't on to something with the dome.

BTW, welcome to the forum!

[Firemonkey]

I took a look at the pictures...

I dont think there was a cool spot under the vent, because the center of the cheese was browned. That wouldnt have happened if there was a cool spot there.

[tcoliver]

I too have moved my pizzas down to the main grill, have foung better results. Only use heat deflector on lump basket. No foil on pizza stone. Usually cook at 450-500 deg. for 30 mins. I have done some pizzas with the paper tray still under it only because my kids like the crust chewy rather than crispy and this definately made a difference so I would remove that from your setup.

[Fetzervalve]

Larry,

What kind of stone do you use?

I use a fibrament and higher temps, typical bake times 8 - 15 mins. I put them as high in the dome as possible. The crust is always even, sometimes the top is not, I have found if the deflector is not level you can get one side that is hotter, however a spin half way done takes care of it!

[LarryR]

WOW, thanks for all the input in such a short period of time. I'm going to do some pizzas tonight so I'll try some of these tweaks. Unfortuantly I won't have the time to do homemade so we'll be doing Papa Murphy's again.

1 - I'll try and get the pizza off the paper tray and on to the bare stone. It's a Pampered Chef stone (which seems pretty nice), I have a fibrament on order.

2 - I have found that my main grill runs about 70 - 90 degrees lower than the factory dome temp therm reads. Last night I had her running for an hour and I was 80 degrees lower at grate using my clay saucer and heat deflector (see picture below). This is why I put the top grate on to get the pizza stone in the higher heat range. A side note I've calibrated my Maverick ET 73 and the factory therm that came with my cooker against boiling water so I'm confident in my readings. Maverick runs about 2 degrees cool and the therm runs about 10 degrees cool. Should I continue to use the top grate or move to the bottom?

3 - Should I remove my clay saucer and only run with the pizza pan as a deflector? Right now the clay saucer is sitting right above the fuel basket and then the deflector is sitting on top of the saucer. I suppose I could remove the clay saucer and just set the deflector on the main grate under the top grate where the pizza stone is sitting.

4 - How long between pizzas should I give the stone to recover/reheat?

Thanks again for all the help. I'll be sure to post pictures of the final product.

[Firemonkey]

I would go with your deflector on the main grate, and the top rack with a bare stone. This will give you more even heat distribution inside the grill. With the deflector items down low, you will find that there is quite a temperature increase as you move closer to the outside edges of the grill. The heat is just rolling out from around your deflector and up to the vent at the top. Maybe thats why you have such a different reading?

You probably want to be careful doing higher temp bakes with your HD down low, too. If you feel the outside of your grill, down near the fire while you are doing that, you will see how much hotter it is than the rest. The manufacturer of your grill has told me that this causes his units to crack.

You definitely want some sort of deflector or your baking stone will get too hot and burn the bottom of your pizza. I have a smaller version of your grill (#5) and no upper bracket for it, so I put the deflector on the main grill, with just a few spacers between the baking stone and the deflector. I preheat the grill as well as the stone for about 20 minutes before putting a pizza on, and maybe 5-10 minutes between pies (adjust based on how dark the crust was on the one you remove - too dark, dont let it reheat at all. Too light, give it longer)

Here are a couple examples of my baking setup for my POSK (I hope the acronym doesn't offend you, its just what we call them around here )

http://www.komodokamado.com/forum/viewt ... highlight=

http://www.komodokamado.com/forum/viewt ... ight=pizza

[Fetzervalve]

Should I continue to use the top grate or move to the bottom?

That is a matter of preference, I go high, and have always had good results.

I suppose I could remove the clay saucer and just set the deflector on the main grate under the top grate where the pizza stone is sitting.

I use the stock deflector on the lump basket. It gets me the best control of flame, as I don't have the flame protected Fibrament.

- How long between pizzas should I give the stone to recover/reheat?

At 650+ I can reload the stone in about 3 - 5 mins, about the time it takes to take the last one and reload the peel.

[Firemonkey]

I suppose I could remove the clay saucer and just set the deflector on the main grate under the top grate where the pizza stone is sitting.

I use the stock deflector on the lump basket. It gets me the best control of flame, as I don't have the flame protected Fibrament.

Yep...quite a difference in how the K and KK perform in that regard.

[LarryR]

Success!! Removed the clay saucer, put deflector on the main grill, removed foil and bumped her up to 500. Awesome!! I didn't have the equipment or ingredients to take the pizza off the paper tray but it didn't seem to make a difference. Crust was perfect. Thanks for all the help. Next time, homemade!

2nd Pizza

[Sanny]

A thing of beauty!

Amazing what a difference even a small change can make, isn't it?

[whoodle]

I have now had my Kk for 36 days and cooked on it about 30 times, and I have been most impressed with it's pizza cooking! I just start the K sustainable and put the stone on the Main grill while it is heating(the one that is two inches below the lip) I work the dome temp up to 550-600. Pies take about ten minutes, and can be just about put on back to back. Of course, one cannot get tooo greedy with the toppings!