When I picked up this snazzy little rig on CL for fiddy bucks it came with a very large steel lid that fit over the entire grill. At first I doubted the utility of the thing thinking the intent was for some kind of L&S cooking, which is not well-suited to how a SMG works. The lid was left outside my shop door for a while and I figured I would re-purpose it or eventually haul it off to the scrap yard.
Then I started thinking pizza. I want to up my game so I got Ken Forkish's Elements of Pizza and started lurking around some pizza forums. We have a friend who built an awesome pizza oven and the wood-fired pies are delicious, as many of you know, but try as I might I just couldn't recreate that taste or texture in any of my other cookers (Traeger, W22, or WSCG). Then it dawned on me, would that funky lid thing trap and hold enough heat to make a truly wood-fired pizza on the SMG? The answer: Oh Yeah!!
I did a little tinkering and came up with a temporary lid holdy-uppy contraption, made up some dough, started a fire, plopped a stone on the grill, and then did my version of pizza making. I used a dough recipe from Ken's book. He designed them for home oven use so the hydration is a little higher, everything else was pretty much standard pizza stuff.
After about an hour of preheating the stone was hitting 800 degrees! I have to assume the ambient air in the chamber was going to be very hot as well, but that is purely anecdotal on my part. I might put a probe port in, but probably not because the pies turned out so well. I put the first pie on the stone and cranked the grate up into the suspended lid (I couldn't help thinking of the scene from Young Frankenstein when Gene and "The Monster" were being "elevated"). I checked the pie after 4 minutes and it was all bubbly and melty. I wanted a little more browning so I cranked it back up. After 6 mins I checked the crust and it was starting to turn black so I pulled it. It was a bit overcooked but delicious! I rearranged the fire for a bit cooler cook on the 2nd pie. When the stone hit 600 degrees I repeated the process and NAILED IT! Pie number 2 was as good as any I've had from my friend's oven. Man oh Manischewitz that grill is a fun cooker!
Then I started thinking pizza. I want to up my game so I got Ken Forkish's Elements of Pizza and started lurking around some pizza forums. We have a friend who built an awesome pizza oven and the wood-fired pies are delicious, as many of you know, but try as I might I just couldn't recreate that taste or texture in any of my other cookers (Traeger, W22, or WSCG). Then it dawned on me, would that funky lid thing trap and hold enough heat to make a truly wood-fired pizza on the SMG? The answer: Oh Yeah!!
I did a little tinkering and came up with a temporary lid holdy-uppy contraption, made up some dough, started a fire, plopped a stone on the grill, and then did my version of pizza making. I used a dough recipe from Ken's book. He designed them for home oven use so the hydration is a little higher, everything else was pretty much standard pizza stuff.
After about an hour of preheating the stone was hitting 800 degrees! I have to assume the ambient air in the chamber was going to be very hot as well, but that is purely anecdotal on my part. I might put a probe port in, but probably not because the pies turned out so well. I put the first pie on the stone and cranked the grate up into the suspended lid (I couldn't help thinking of the scene from Young Frankenstein when Gene and "The Monster" were being "elevated"). I checked the pie after 4 minutes and it was all bubbly and melty. I wanted a little more browning so I cranked it back up. After 6 mins I checked the crust and it was starting to turn black so I pulled it. It was a bit overcooked but delicious! I rearranged the fire for a bit cooler cook on the 2nd pie. When the stone hit 600 degrees I repeated the process and NAILED IT! Pie number 2 was as good as any I've had from my friend's oven. Man oh Manischewitz that grill is a fun cooker!
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