Been working on 22" Kettle pizza for a while, been happy with the results but starting to fine tune it now. Happy with how the the bases turn out but cooking the the toppings fully still eludes me. Have been using the welding blanket technique I have perfected on the COS to cook the toppings but it's not quite there, see below. Is it as simple as lower temps and leave for longer? Even getting good feedback from the missus but looking to really kick that goal with these
Edit: Am using a pizza stone, full chimney of coals lit up then an hour with the blanket and pizza stone in to get smoking hot
As you know you need top heat to finish your toppings. I don't know how to do that in a kettle, not sure if it's possible. Hopefully somebody has some thoughts, I'm interested in hearing a method.
For what it's worth, we use our gas grill set to WFO (wide freakin' open) and put the pizza in on a cold stone.
Takes about 13 minutes and the bottom is done and the toppings are nice and brown. Not burnt.
I would think the same would hold true for the kettle.
EDIT: I also use my tube smoker in the gas grill.
So much easier than messing with the charcoal kettle.
Last edited by Smoker_Boy; February 3, 2024, 08:25 AM.
Reason: Forgot something.
If not cooking outdoors, I am cooking on the stovetop with my 14" carbon steel wok, 12" CI skillet, or in the oven with my two Lodge CI pizza pans, or two dutch ovens. I've also got a nifty Lodge carbon steel grill pan that rocks for veggies outdoors.
I personally would not let it go an hour - you've probably lost a lot of energy from the coals by the time you put the pizza in. Go 30 minutes max to preheat that pizza stone, once the coals are lit.
How are you arranging the coals? Go to the SNSGrills website and look for their video on doing wood fired pizza on the kettle. The cracked lid technique they discuss works well for me to reach 550ish in the kettle for pizza, and I toss a big chunk of wood on right before I toss in the pizza. Pizza is usually done on top and bottom in about 8-10 minutes doing it that way, with the pizza spun 90 degrees every 2 minutes.
I believe that Kenji suggests using 2 steels - one on the bottom, and one on top.
I have been known to remove a pizza from the Kettle and place it under the broiler to finish the toppings.
As jfmorris mentioned, adding wood to one side and allowing it to burn will put more heat on the top of your pie if ya crack the side opposite the wood open just a bit.
I normally heat my Baking Steel in the oven until it's hot and them move it to the Kettle. If you do this, you need several layers of heat protection on your hands, and you need to make sure the path is clear and the doors are open unless you have a helper to open the doors.
Stuey1515 just wondering if you figured this out? I don’t cook pizza on a grill as I have an OONI pizza oven, and also use my inside oven. Not that I am an expert by any stretch, but I do notice that there may be too much toppings on the pizza and the bottom is getting done before the toppings. If your kettle is at 500, that should be good to cook the pizza, but toppings usually require a heat source that is closer to them. In my kitchen oven at 500, I can put raw sausage on the pizza and it is cooked perfectly in 7 minutes (in picture). If you must have a lot of toppings, I would definitely cook them (mostly) then put them on the grill to finish while the pizza bakes, or just to re-heat them.
Hope this helps and I am interested to see how you make out (I know this post is older, but been busy and not on here enough)
Kettle Pizza accessory has a learning curve but gets up to 700 degrees. You will be using a split on top of a bed of charcoal. Great wood flavor and on a preheated stone pies take about 5 minutes and are evenly cooked.
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