Breadhead : Thank you for the awesome pizza kamado post. You and Mr. C Chef, among many other great folk, are awesome mentors to many of us. Yoda has nothin' on you two.
Not arguing nor advocating but only wondering, please: if you want to foster temps of approx 650 to 800F, then what benefits do you get from the platesetter in your pizza setup, and does the PS restrict your air flow to make more difficult generating such higher temps?
Thank you and may you always buy low and sell high.
John Henry ... That's a great question. Thanks for asking.
There are cooks that I don't use my plate setter. On the reverse sear I don't use my plate setter at all. I do keep the top vent on and barely open. I start a SMALL fire in my firebox and use a grate that elevates my steak up high in the dome, for the baking process, so it won't be browned by the small direct heat from the fire. When your fire is small enough to maintain a 225° cooking temp up in the dome, with the dome closed, there will be no flames at all, just red smoldering lump. Once my steaks get to 120° I remove them from the grate and blast my lump with the BBQ Dragon to get to Warp 10 heat to sear the steaks.
The key there is there's no flames, just smoldering lump. Plus the fire is very small. That same dynamic will continue at higher temperatures as long as your top vent is on and barely open, your dome is closed and you're starving the lump of oxygen to control your temperature. However the higher your cooking temperature gets without a heat defector the greater impact it will have on the surface of your meat.
Now let's move up to 650° with the top vent totally off and you are controlling your temperature with just your bottom vent. At that high temperature there are raging flames shooting off your lump, even with the dome closed. The reason you need your plate setter for that cook is to protect your pizza stone from those direct flames. If your pizza stone was exposed to those flames it would get so hot you would burn the bottom of your pizza crust before your toppings were done. Plus the plate setters shape forces the airflow to the outer wall so it travels up the dome on the outside, gets directed by the shape of the dome downward over the pizza and back up and out the top vent.
I hope that clarifies it for you. Feel free to ask any other questions regarding your Kamado to me or CeramicChef ... We love question.👍
When applying your sauce, less is better. If you put on too much sauce your crust can get soggy.
Toppings... Less is better. If you load it up your crust might finish before your toppings. If there is lots of water content in your toppings that can effect your crust too.
I pretty much cook to color. When my crust starts to brown I'll open the dome and squeeze the edge of the crust. I want it to be slightly crispy, but not too crispy, and soft under that crisp feel.
00 flour... If you don't have the ability to bake it real hot you will find it difficult to get it to brown. They reduce the natural sugar out of the flour to allow it to take real high heat without over browning. With the reduced sugar content the crust needs hotter temperatures to caramelize.
When applying your sauce, less is better. If you put on too much sauce your crust will get soggy.
Toppings... Less is better. If you load it up your crust might finish before your toppings. If there is lots of water content in your toppings that can effect your crust too.
I pretty much cook to color. When my crust starts to brown I'll open the dome and squeeze the edge of the crust. I want it to be slightly crispy, but not too crispy, and soft under that crisp feel.
00 flour... If you don't have the ability to bake it real hot you will find it difficult to get it to brown. They reduce the natural sugar out of the flour to allow it to take real high heat without over browning. With the reduced sugar content the crust needs hotter temperatures to caramelize.
Craigar ... Par baking a pizza crust is like par-boiled ribs.😡 The terrorist win! Don't do that. In the bakers world you would be laughed out of town.😎
Breadhead helped me a lot a few weeks ago. I took his thoughts to the WCS. Not much different in set up except that I use kingsford blue and sometimes add a big chunk of oak. I certainly would not listen to the fine folks at Weber on their pizza recommendations. Excellent thread, Breadhead. Well done...
Pequod - thats the exact same set up I've been using on my new Joe. Good to know I'm doing it right. By the way, after looking at Breadhead 's earlier pizzia cooks, when I bought my Joe at Costco I immediately went to Ace hardware and bought the stone and extra grill lifter. Working great!
Breadhead - this exact same post by Pequod was posted over at KamadoGuru.com and was met with great acclaim. Your thread here and you were mentioned as the inspiration. Here's the link:
This website is for sale! kamadoguru.com is your first and best source for information about kamadoguru. Here you will also find topics relating to issues of general interest. We hope you find what you are looking for!
Thanks for the link CeramicChef ... I'm pleased that Pequod is spreading the word. It took me a long time and lots of trial & error to figure that out. I would love to see it become a standard practice in the Kamado world.😆
Thank you CeramicChef ... You're to kind.🤔 I've been waiting for this moment to happen. I was hoping someone would duplicate my process and flat out nail it.👍 All credit goes to Pequod !!!
Woohoo... Pequod !!! Don't ya love it when a good plan comes together.👌 It looks like you nailed it man.🤔 Does your wife worship you now? You're on your way to becoming a Pizza Guru!😎
Now for your Graduate degree in Pizza baking. Make the Neapolitan Pizza dough I posted on here earlier and crank the heat up to 800°.😆 Once you pull that off we will ALL bow down to a BBQ Pizza Master!!!
I doubt you will burn your gasket at 800° but if you do... The bragging rights associated with being the ONLY other member of the Kamado (cap off) 800° club will be well worth it.😆
Put bricks over your GrillGrates to elevate your pizza stone so it doesn't over heat and you just might be able to pull it off.😎. Preheat that pizza stone for a minimum of 1 hour.
If you can get to 650° cooking temperature... Open the lid and put your pizza on extremely quickly. Close the lid and don't peek for 6 minutes. Open the lid check for even browning and if it's browning unevenly, spin it 180° and close the lid quickly. It will take about 10 minutes to cook that pizza just right at that temp.
Give lots of consideration to where your IR burner is located, if you have one. The side of the pizza closet to it will cook faster.
I'm curious to see how that works for you. Take pictures.😆
Note... If you can only get your cooker to 500°, you can still bake a pizza on it. It will just take longer. Try it.👍
Breadhead - Buddy, you're knocking this deal out of the park! There are some real pizza pie chefs here by the looks of things.
Breaded, touch 'em all and take a bow! Very nice done.
CeramicChef ... My assumption is that there are many, many pizza pie wannabe's in the Pit that have been led to believe that making the dough is just way, way to complicated, to technical, over my head.😡 Exactly the way we all thought smoking a brisket was when we bought our first smoker. My goal with this thread is to make our fellow Pit members believe beyond a shadow of a doubt, that making a kick ass pizza... Is much easier than smoking a brisket!!!😎
Breadhead - absolutely agree with you on the dough. Great pizza starts there, not with overwhelming toppings. Been doing my own pizza - in the oven - for decades. Your Kamado techniques have taken it to another level. Now to try Neapolitan... 🤓
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