I tried making a home-made pizza in my Kamodo today and it didn't go well. The pizza was placed on the plate when the temp had just reached 600 F. When I checked on it after 2 minutes and 40 seconds the bottom was burnt to the point of being inedible despite the dough near the top not being fully cooked. What am I doing wrong?
by FlippantBuoyancy
9 Comments
Pizza needs to go as high up in the dome as you can get it – not low down by the coals. If you put it right on top of the coals, even with a diffuser, you’ll get exactly the result you got: burned bottom, raw top.
Raise your rack to the highest level and then get an expander – like this one: [https://www.bbqguys.com/i/2854904/kamado-joe/stainless-steel-grill-expander-for-classic-18-inch-grills](https://www.bbqguys.com/i/2854904/kamado-joe/stainless-steel-grill-expander-for-classic-18-inch-grills)
Heat your grill to 600-650 and the pizza will cook perfectly.
Are you cooking it on the deflector plates or are you using a pizza stone?
Smoking dad bbq has a good method that is inexpensive.
Buy 3 or 4 large (.75 to 1 inch) diameter nuts from a hardware store. Put them on your heat deflector. Then put a separate pizza stone on those to air gap it.
X accessory rack in highest possible position.
Leave your pizza stone in kamado for 30 min to a hour to allow it to heat soak.
High up on the dome will cook the top at the pizza at the same rate as the bottom
Besides all the other responses- Learn about the dough you are using for starters. They are not all the same and don’t cook alike.
https://preview.redd.it/417ry15p8hjf1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=650392d7d117a4630669100233b94bb949ee0ecb
Here’s my pizza setup. Deflector plates on the second level, grill grates on the top with Lodge steel pizza stone on top. We use parchment paper to keep the dough from sticking to the peel or stone. If we’re cooking with a really hot fire, hotter than parchment is rated for, we’ll pull the paper out shortly after putting the pizza on the stone.
Frist, congratulations on choosing the Joe and welcome to the group. Second, cooking competently on the Joe is not as easy as it looks. Takes practice. There are hundreds of yootoobie clips for any kamado project, any meat, any veggies, any baked goods, any maintenance issues. YT is your go-to for instant advice and guidance. However, you want to watch at least two clips on any topic to see if the authors know what they’re doing.
The other thing, in addition to all the other good suggestions about moving it up, using a stone and separating the stone from the deflector – USE PARCHMENT PAPER on the stone to bake the pizza on – not cornmeal (which burns, and tastes sandy to me) Roll it out and make the pizza inside on the parchment paper, take it outside on a pizza peel, slides off instantly, no sticking.
I’m still perfecting my method, but I’ve had good results so far with Neapolitan style pizza cooked really hot and fast. Like 800+° … but you need to follow a recipe specifically for Neapolitan dough. I’ve also just bought some ceramic bricks to use as risers for my pizza stone to get it as high in the dome as possible.