I’ve got the pizza making process down pat, maintaining a nice 650° F cooks the pizza perfectly except for the crust. 30 sec in and I can smell the crust burning on the bottom. By the time (2:00-2:30) the rest of the pizza is done, the entire bottom is charcoal and it ruins the taste of the entire pie. I have the convEGGtor, then the grate, then the pizza stone; what am I missing?
by UnimpeachableRubber
11 Comments
You need more of an air gap between the stone. Personally I turn the conveggtor legs up, and then the grate on top of the legs, and finally the pizza stone. I also use semolina flour on the peel which doesn’t burn like cornmeal, or regular flour.
I put the platesetter legs down, and then I have some 3/4 copper pipe elbows giving me an air gap between that and the pizza stone.
I also have the pizza wedge, which I don’t think is 100% necessary, but I’ve had more success with it over the last few cooks because you can see the pizza without lifting the lid. Get a cheap IR thermometer (the kind that look like a pistol and have a laser spot to show you where it’s measuring). I generally get about a 100 degree difference between the temperature in the dome and the pizza stone. Try to keep the pizza stone between 400 and 500 degrees. Move the pizza a lot because some spots on the stone are much hotter than others.
I use the pizza wedges. When the crust is outpacing the toppings, I’ll take the peel and raise the pizza in the dome until the top is done, doesn’t ever take more than a minute or so.
I’m not a pizza expert but it seems like the stone temp is probably a lot higher than your gauge is saying. You should be able to fix this. Consider getting a cheap IR thermometer gun like this so you can check the temp of the stone: https://a.co/d/4XGKqoR
What I think you need to do is create more space between the various levels. Turn the Conveggtor feet side up. Then get something to create more space between the grate and the stone. CGS makes cheap ceramic blocks that can raise it an inch. They’re like 10 bucks: https://ceramicgrillstore.com/products/ceramic-spacers-kamado-grills
Basically, the stone is getting too much direct heat.
I set my pizza stone on the top shelf of the PSWoo from the ceramic grill store…. With the deflector plate as well. Keep the egg between 550 – 600 degrees. Get great pizza with no charcoal crust.
I will just say that the egg is great for a lot of things but pizza really isnt one of them. Buy an ooni.
Air gap here too.
I put the conveggtor in normally but I put the stone on a raised grid. This gives an air gap and gets the pizza higher in the dome giving less direct heat to the bottom and more dome heat circulation on the top of the pizza evening out the top and bottom cooking time.
Air gap. I use cast iron pipe plugs. I use my heat deflectors under my pizza stone with the plugs ( they’re cheap) between.
BBQs make terrible pizza ovens. Way too much bottom heat causes the bottoms to outpace the top. Heat not evely distrubuted. Reccomend an Ooni outdoor pizza oven.
The most important change to make is to put the conveggtor legs up, as many posters before me suggested.
Not mentioned earlier, but I would also say that 650f is kind of high. Maybe try 550f next time. I understand real Italian style pizza ovens wil bake even higher than 650f, but the Green Egg works completely different, with all the heat coming from the bottom. You should adjust the process of pizza baking to fit the Greem Egg, and to me it means a slightly lower temp works better.
The temp you cook at is determined by the dough recipe. Not all flours cook well at higher temps, just as not all flours cook well at lower temps. Either try a new dough recipe that used 00 flour (good for high temp cooking), or try cooking at a lower temp.