Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Any pizza tips?

Gonna try some homemade pizza tonight for the first time on the BGE. Any tricks or tips to make it better? Do I want it hot as it will go or not?

I am interested in this as well along with any dough and sauce recipes!

Can't comment on the egg aspect, but have made quite a few pizzas. The key to good pizza is the dough. There is definately a big difference between starting the dough in the morning, letting it proof all day and then making the pizza at night vs. a simple quickie dough.

You'll also want to use a pizza stone so you have a thermal mass under the dough to get that quick cook.

Have the pizza stones.

i use those little bags of crust mix and let it rise all day. it takes about 2 bags of mix for a decent pizza. i don't use a BGE, i use a Kettle Pizza insert in my weber. you want 600-700 degrees and to get that in my weber i use a wood/charcoal combo. they cook quick at 700.

Does a guy want to preheat the stone or build the pizza on the stone and put it in the Egg?

The stone should definately be pre-heated, unless you want a soggy crust, 30 minutes should be enough for the stone to get up to temp.

You make your pizza on a peel and then slide it onto the stone. The challenge is not having the pizza stick on the peel, as good pizza dough has a high moisture content.

Place your platesetter legs down like this.



Place spacers on top of the platesetter (I use four 1/2" nuts) to create a barrier between your platesetter and stone so that it is just a little above the gasket level.



Stabilize your BGE at 500* letting the pizza stone heat up with the egg. I build and bake all of my pizzas on parchment paper as it make it much easier to get them on and off the pizza peel. Mine go in for 12-13 minutes turning 180* at the half way point. Hope this helps.

Mike

Thanks to all who have replied!

Tried making my first pie last night and it was only so-so. I couldn't seem to get the Egg up to a high enough temp -- only got to 400 or so. I'm thinking I didn't have enough lump in there. Other than that, and using whole wheat flour, yuk, it was ok. Went with the classic fresh mozzarella and basil and sauce. Definitely needs work. The Egg was clean, and I just installed a stainless charcoal grill for more air, so the only thing I could think of was I didn't use enough charcoal.

When you were getting it up to temp did you have the daisy wheel on top? If so take it off to get it going. Doesn't take long to get to 600� F here that way.

I don't use the daisy wheel for any temp over 300*. You can control it perfectly with the lower vent. For 500* fill your fire box to the top, light and keep the lid open until you have a good fire going. Close the top (with no daisy wheel) and adjust the lower vent to approx 2" open. Fine tune as it nears 500* trying not to over shoot. It's much easier to heat them up then cool them down.

Mike

As I said, a good dough is key. Here is a good recipe:

http://www.fornobravo.com/pizza/pizza_dough.html

I haven't used Caputo, but flour is very important. Costco carried an organic bread flour briefly that was very good, their sacks of all purpose flour just aren't the same.

It is a high moisture content dough so you'll think it is too sticky and likely be tempted to add flour. Resist this temptation.

Yes, high heat is essential. I max out our oven at 550F and give the pizza stone 30 minutes to warm up. Pizzas cook in about 8 minutes.

A couple things I forgot to mention. If you are doing a bunch of pizzas back to back it helps to wipe down the stone with a wet bar towel to cool it a bit after about the third pie.

Sooner or later when doing pizzas you will burn out your gasket from the radiant heat off the pizza stone. No worries, just replace with a Rutland and move on.

Mike

Thanks for all the tips. I'm going to give it another try later this week. I'll use more lump and get rid of the daisy wheel -- and get some white flour!

Make pizza all the time.

Make some dough in the bread machine

Get your largest cast iron skillets piping hot in a 425 degree oven. I usually make enough dough for 3 pizzas.

Roll the dough out, and place it in the skillets. Put the skillets back in the oven for 5 minutes.

Take skillets out of the oven, and place the pesto, minced garlic, then the sauce, then the toppings of choice, then the cheese. Don't forget the feta cheese.

Cook in the oven for 15-20 minutes.

Take out, put fresh basil on the pizza, slice, open a beer, and enjoy heaven.

For camping trips and simplicity, we have used Bridgefords self rising dinner rolls. Thaw, let rise, punch down and coat with evoo. Makes nice little five or six inch personal pizzas that everyone can "decorate" themselves. Put out sauce, cheese, and all the meat and veggie fixins and let them have at it.

Traditional, probably not. But no one can bitsh if its not what they wanted, and it all taste good at 6000 feet or more.

Thanks for all the tips. I'll keep working on my pies.

if your dough ain't got Semolina flour in it ....u are still at square one ....imo