Just thought I'd post a few pics of some pizzas we made last night on our BGE. Great project for any aspiring chefs in your house! My 10 year old future "Chopped" champion (his aspiration--not mine for him!) made all these, with just a little help here and there... Here's a plain 6 cheese pizza after only 5 minutes on the BGE. You can see my setup--I use a plate setter with feet down and a second pizza stone on top. Cooking temp for these is 600F.
Here's a time lapsed photo set of a BBQ Pork and Caramelized onion pizza. Pulled pork made on my pellet smoker...
After 2 minutes at 600F
After 6 minutes at 600F
And, finally, a pepperoni pizza, right as it was coming off the grill. We didn't take shots of the pesto pepperoni pizza, but it was my favorite!
Just fixed the photo for Tennessee Jed's post. Thanks for sharing Jed, +200 Stella Stars.
PS: Forum editor is up and working again. If anyone has any questions on how to post pictures to the forum, I have a brief video tutorial here (ignore the fact that it was demonstrated on an older version of the site).
I'd love to see your BGE setup for baking pizza. I'll be patiently waiting for Chef Jacob's computer nerds to fix the download process. There is lots to discuss while they are repairing the software,
I'm going to my local Ironworks today to have them fabricate a custom pizza steel for my Kamado. I'm going to get it 3/8 thick so I can use it as a plancha too. I'll update this thead wth pics when its finished. I wonder how high I could get that stone. I'm hoping for north of 700. I prefer my Neapolitan pizza's to cook up in under two minutes.
So I spoke with my machinist this afternoon. I gave him plans for a 3/8" pizza stone that will replace the cooking grate on the Akorn Kamado. It will be about 17.75 inches across and will be made of high carbon steel. If he gives a good price, I may manufacture several for sale.
Nice looking pizza Mucho...
Jed... Great looking pizza's. Baking pizza in a ceramic oven is much better than your oven in your kitchen, as you already know. Pizza bakes much better at 650° to 750°. This is the setup I use for baking both pizza and bread in my BGE. I prefer to have them elevated up high in the dome. The heat rises up from the fire box and bounces back down off of the curve in the dome and then circulates back up and then goes out of the top vent. This setup maximizes your air flow I find.
Mucho... You can get your ceramic cooker up to 1000°. Enough heat is never a problem. Too much heat can be a big problem though. I'm wondering how much hotter that steel plate is going to get compared to a ceramic pizza stone. I'm wondering if it might burn the bottom of your pizza crust before the top of your crust and toppings are done? I don't know the answer to that thought but that's the first thing I thought about when thinking pizza steel vs pizza stone.
Here is an interesting article about pizza steel, etc..
@MuchoBocho are you willing to mention what type of steel the iron works is offering for your pizza steel ..? is it blackened or shiny, etc?...
http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/10/pizza-hack-baking-copper.html
Looks like a steel would actually be a good version for a regular oven, however I am also curious at what temp would be the tipping point of too much heat mass in the steel when used in a high heat grill to cause possible burning of the bottom crust? Thanks/Blessing, jcbaum
Whoops, I now noticed you mentioned high carbon steel...JCB
As I understand it, what makes a good cooking surface comes down to the relationship between thermal mass (ability to store and release heat) and specific heat (relationship between heat and temperature change).
At a given thickness, a carbon steel (CS) plate has a higher specific heat and thermal mass than a ceramic plate. CS also has more thermal mass at a given thickness it takes longer to heat (the ability to store and hold on to energy/heat).
I'll use the train analogy. A locomotive needs lots of energy (heat) to get its thermal mass going but because it has so much mass, it doesn't need to be moving fast to be able to release huge amounts of energy (specific heat).
In the real world this relationship between thermal mass and specific heat is manifested in how evenly our food cooks. The main reason why I prefer a baking steel (BS) to a stone is that the BS releases heat (specific heat) so much quicker than a baking stone. Also because a 1/4-3/8" BS has more thermal mass than a 1" stone, it will cook the food faster and more evenly.
Wart, As you said, there is such a thing as too much heat energy in a system to be optimal for cooking pizza. I find a cooking surface temperature of 600 degrees Fahrenheit on a 3/8 inch carbon baking steel to be adequate to cook a Neapolitan pizza in less than two minutes. This is true only if the surface your cooking on has enough thermal mass and a high specific heat. A baking stone would have to be 2" thick or more to have the same thermal mass as a 3/8" of high carbon steel at a given temperature.
Happy Pizza Making
MB