It's Pizza night - first time on a Kamado

[bberg100]

We do pizza on the BGE several times a year. Pick up a Papa Murphys take n bake, heat the stone to 400+, takes about 20 minutes at 700 degrees, toss it on for about 8 minutes. A little corn meal to "lube" the stone.

For special occasions we do a make your own. Pick up some small Boboli crusts, set out some oil, sauce, cheese, toppings. Everyone make their own. Can fit three at a time in the Egg (large). With the stone around 400 it takes about 5 minutes to fire off a batch, just long enough for the next crew to sauce up.

 

[oc_in_fw]

I keep walking past the Kamado grill in Sam's club, secretly longing for it. These things are a big investment. If you can smoke meat on them as well as grill, I may be severely tempted.

 

[brucered]

I keep walking past the Kamado grill in Sam's club, secretly longing for it. These things are a big investment. If you can smoke meat on them as well as grill, I may be severely tempted.

Smoke, grill, bake, sear, cold smoke, pizza oven....they pretty much do everything.

I picked up mine when my wife was working nights, out it together when she was sleeping.

 

[garyg]

The sauce recipe sounds like it needs re-testing, but in a BGE Nice stuff.

As Brucered indicates, the Kamados' do it all - from 1200 F steak searing to 20 hours of low & slow. And unless you drop it the Big Green Egg has lifetime warranty on ceramics.

Pizza takes a couple extra tools (plate setter & stone) but makes a great pie.

 

[brucered]

As Brucered indicates, the Kamados' do it all - from 1200 F steak searing to 20 hours of low & slow. And unless you drop it the Big Green Egg has lifetime warranty on ceramics.

Pizza takes a couple extra tools (plate setter & stone) but makes a great pie.

The Vision has a lifetime warranty on the ceramic as well. Both Vision and BGE have a lot of limits and exceptions to warranty. I'm not sure how either work as far as sending back, bring to dealer or send in photo for warranty claims.

 

[jasonb8736]

I cracked the fire ring on my BGE shortly after buying it a couple years back. I took a picture, emailed it and received a new fire ring, no problem. It was my fault because I didn't need the "break in" process and cranked the heat immediately. They were gracious and easy to deal with. They may have become a bit stricter in the warranty department since.

My pizza setup is with a Woo Ring, plate setter (legs up) and a grid extender. The pizza stone sits on the extender. I have found that my pizzas cook perfectly even with a crisp (not burnt) crust and perfectly cooked top when cooked higher up in the dome at higher temperatures.

 

[oc_in_fw]

I cracked the fire ring on my BGE shortly after buying it a couple years back. I took a picture, emailed it and received a new fire ring, no problem. It was my fault because I didn't need the "break in" process and cranked the heat immediately. They were gracious and easy to deal with. They may have become a bit stricter in the warranty department since.

My pizza setup is with a Woo Ring, plate setter (legs up) and a grid extender. The pizza stone sits on the extender. I have found that my pizzas cook perfectly even with a crisp (not burnt) crust and perfectly cooked top when cooked higher up in the dome at higher temperatures.

View attachment 571821

Good looking pie. I didn't know these things had a break in process.

 

[jasonb8736]

Good looking pie. I didn't know these things had a break in process.

Apparently, yes. I was told by the vendor to keep the temperature under 375* the first dozen or so cooks.

 

[garyg]

The Vision has a lifetime warranty on the ceramic as well. Both Vision and BGE have a lot of limits and exceptions to warranty. I'm not sure how either work as far as sending back, bring to dealer or send in photo for warranty claims.

The charcoal grate, which is cast iron as original equipment on the BGE cracked after about a year of pretty steady use, including molten hot (don't recall warning about break in temps, could have been). I stopped at the dealer, without the part, he just handed over a new grate and asked only that I send him an email picture of the cracked one so he could recoup the replacement cost from BGE . Mine's about 5 years old and other than frying the first gasket, or dropping the first plate setter 3 feet onto stone, no worries.

 

[brucered]

That sounds pretty good. Nice to hear a company do this.

I had a cracked wood side table, sent an email off to Vision and had a new one mailed immediately. Hopefully I never have to test the ceramic warranty.

 

[jasonb8736]

The charcoal grate, which is cast iron as original equipment on the BGE cracked after about a year of pretty steady use, including molten hot (don't recall warning about break in temps, could have been). I stopped at the dealer, without the part, he just handed over a new grate and asked only that I send him an email picture of the cracked one so he could recoup the replacement cost from BGE . Mine's about 5 years old and other than frying the first gasket, or dropping the first plate setter 3 feet onto stone, no worries.

Out of curiosity, do you have the large BGE or the XL? I only ask because anytime I've heard about the charcoal grate cracking, it's been the XL.

 

[garyg]

Out of curiosity, do you have the large BGE or the XL? I only ask because anytime I've heard about the charcoal grate cracking, it's been the XL.

Mine's a large, and the crack in the grate stopped expanding right about when I got the replacement, so the new one is still a "spare". I have been expecting the old one to fall into two pieces for a couple years now

 

[jasonb8736]

Mine's a large, and the crack in the grate stopped expanding right about when I got the replacement, so the new one is still a "spare". I have been expecting the old one to fall into two pieces for a couple years now

Cool. Same here for my cracked fire ring. The service guy at BGE said that the cracked fire ring works just as well and as long as I leave it in the BGE, there's no need to replace it. He sent me the replacement one as a spare. It's still in the box in storage should I need it someday.

 

[Tim_McD]

I snapped these on Friday evening; the cellphone pics are OK, but they dont quite capture the moment. They took between 6 minutes and 8 minutes to cook on my lrg BGE; Royal Oak natural lump charcoal burning for 30 minutes until it reached a stable 625F. The first pizza was Pepper & Onion and took the least time. The mushroom took the longest because even though I sauteed them first - there is a lot of moisture to cook off.

Here is a before and after picture of the capicola pizza





This is the mushroom - I left it for another 30 seconds (lid down) to get a touch more color



Finally, here is a pepper & onion.

 

[oc_in_fw]

I'd eat all of that pepper and onion myself (I don't do mushrooms)

 

[jasonb8736]

I snapped these on Friday evening; the cellphone pics are OK, but they dont quite capture the moment. They took between 6 minutes and 8 minutes to cook on my lrg BGE; Royal Oak natural lump charcoal burning for 30 minutes until it reached a stable 625F. The first pizza was Pepper & Onion and took the least time. The mushroom took the longest because even though I sauteed them first - there is a lot of moisture to cook off.

Here is a before and after picture of the capicola pizza

View attachment 572196

View attachment 572197

This is the mushroom - I left it for another 30 seconds (lid down) to get a touch more color

View attachment 572198

Finally, here is a pepper & onion.

View attachment 572199

Nicely done! I had a pizza request yesterday fro. My kids, their friends, the inlaws, even a neighbour. All in all, I did 13 pizzas and used an entire bag of lump charcoal. Lots of variety, but I was too busy to take pics.

I chopped up some Caliente salami, homemade soppressata and some other fresh toppings. Great day for pizza.

 

[PhilC]

Wow guys! Those pies look awesome!

I just received some Caputo OO flour and the 7/11 tomatoes and Grande 50/50 cheese will be here by the weekend. Game on! Going traditional NY this weekend. I'll post updates. Got to get the dough rising but I have a job interview in the morning and I forgot to get it going before everyone went to bed. Guess it'll be Sat.

BTW, still loving the humble Acorn! I did a 9 hour smoke of brisket, ribs, burgers. It does it all and does it well. It's going to be a great summer of grub!

 

[mdex]

Tried the modernist cuisine pizza recipe on the BGE this weekend. Key differences from my normal was the addition of a little vital wheat gluten to the dough, pressure cooking the sauce and drying the fresh mozzerella by wrapping it in paper towel and then vacuum sealing it. Egg was over 800 and they came out amazing perfect mix of crisp crust and chew.

Unfortunatly I wasn't taking photos but the teaspoon or so of the wheat gluten made an unbelavable difference in the crust I recommend everyone try!

 

[DCRIII]

That's great looking pizza. I'm so hungry now. Aside frome the garlic, shallots, and tomatoes, what spices did you add to the sauce if I may ask?

 

[PhilC]

That's great looking pizza. I'm so hungry now. Aside frome the garlic, shallots, and tomatoes, what spices did you add to the sauce if I may ask?

For the first run, dried oregano and basil. Our herb garden is too young to be scavenging fresh herbs this early in the year.

I've had several pizza nights since that night but they were thin and crispy so I did those in the regular oven using 2 kiln shelves as the "deck" so I haven't posted pics. For those I just used 7-11 tomatoes straight out of the can and a sprinkle of salt. I preferred that since the roasted sauce was more like putting spaghetti sauce on pizza. I'm going to do the roasted sauce again this weekend and use it for baked ziti.

I also have a mellow mushroom type dough slow rising in the fridge for Friday. That's my wife's fav.