Ceramic egg pizza ovens - WFO & coal cooking?

[bbq870]

Re: Ceramic egg pizza ovens - WFO & coal cooking?

regardless of price this oven has NO TOP HEAT !! this kills every pizza...
the stone is ok, the heat also, but the top heat is missing
nogo!

I guess the "pizza-egg" needs a DIY tuning which would be like this:
[Fisch & Meeresgetier - Sonntag] Seeteufelfilets in der Kugel gratiniert - Grillforum und BBQ - www.grillsportverein.de

"Jack the Ribber", from a german BBQ-community invented top-heat for bbq.
he?s an awesome guy cooking incredible food on a bbq grill

the Pizza-egg needs to be tuned like this
I see no other way.

[Ricklesss]

Re: Ceramic egg pizza ovens - WFO & coal cooking?

bbq870,
You don't have an egg, do you?
No heat in the dome? Really?
There is a thermometer in the dome, and you can easily get it to 700 degrees, so I don't understand what your trying to say.
Where do you think all the heat from the hardwood lump goes? Out through the walls of the cooker?
It goes UP.
It get's HOT HOT HOT, trust me....you should try it...
To bad that was a German website....who here reads German?
That method of cooking would be ok, if you like ash's in your food.
(though the photos looked good) Still, completely unnecessary way to cook Pizza, that's for sure!
RicklessssssssssssS in Oregon

Cookin' pizza pies all night long at 550, to 700 degree's....

[Archena]

Re: Ceramic egg pizza ovens - WFO & coal cooking?

1) He's grilling, not barbecuing - Monkfish wouldn't survive barbecuing.

2) Putting coals on top of things is an ancient technique - but he's adapted it nicely. Oh, and he shakes the coals off before placing them to cut down on the ash issue.

3) I'm not clear on why it was a problem (he doesn't say) but he's trying to make up for having too small a grill.

4) My guess is that he's trying to even out the heat just like you would when baking in a dutch oven. He's got a heavy breading to cook through and fairly sizable fillets so that would make sense.

5) I'm extremely dubious that this would work for pizza. Although he isn't barbecuing, grilling something that massive is gonna take longer than a 90 second pizza.

6) The grill is ceramic and retains heat much better than a metal grill so there might well be enough top heat as is.

7) I haven't spoken German seriously in over 20 years so without pulling out a dictionary and spending some time at it, I can't give you a true translation, but I think I covered the gist.

8) If you just feel like reading some silliness try using this: Free Translation and Professional Translation Services from SDL
It's not a bad little program - but it doesn't often guess well. I retained enough German that I can make sense of it - helps if you understand what order the words are supposed to be in - but I wouldn't suggest using it to talk to your German friends unless they already think you're insane.

9) In the interest of full disclosure, I needed some of the nouns and a few verbs translated as my Ger/Eng dictionary is a three hour drive away and I don't like you guys - or anyone else - enough to drive that far for one book!

10) I got all the way to 9 so I figured there should be a ten, despite the fact that I have nothing else pertinent to say.

[Archena]

Re: Ceramic egg pizza ovens - WFO & coal cooking?

Um, having looked again, he's gratinating it - he didn't dredge it, he just piled it on top. That's why the coals are on top. (Dumb me, I was thinking 'gratin' as if it were always with cheese.) To gratinate something takes longer, more even heating so it makes a lot more sense now.

[bbq870]

Re: Ceramic egg pizza ovens - WFO & coal cooking?

@ Archena ...I couldn?t say it better


@ Ricklesss
you have a green egg?

honestly, I love the green egg !!!! it combines all benefits of grill, bbq, oven...

in my post I was just referring to the pizza egg, where everybody here said it looks too small and too expensive. but you?re right...the heat goes to the dome.

so you would say, the pizza egg is comparable to the green egg?
I have no green egg but if you say the pizza egg is good I believe.

at home I have a electric powered pizza maker which is great for it?s speed, small size and the stone, but really sucks because of poor top heat. the stone is hot but the cheese is NOT sizzeling (!) very mushy. and if I turn up the bottom heat the dough gets black and the cheese still doesn?t melt. OK, there?s no radiation heat from the thin sheet metal-dome.

I do not have experience with the post-starters pizza egg ...to me it looked like top heat would be a problem (?)

the german forum I just showed for the pictures. to show how I would solve the top heat problem. (if there was one)

honestly I would build a device which holds cole and place it over my food to gratinate for 1-2 minutes. why not? burgers also need top heat after putting the cheese on the patty.
eg. pasta, or other food NEEDS 60 sec top heat to finish. so my "DiY-top-heat" you could grab like a pan full of cole and place it over the food for 60sec. (ok, this would be more for grilling than for a wood fired oven)
my2?

peace

[SCChris]

Re: Ceramic egg pizza ovens - WFO & coal cooking?

Look at the book "Seven Fires: Grilling the Argentine Way" by Francis Mallmann, to get a feel for top and bottom fires. If you have a spare head of cattle and you're ever in need of a way to cook it, he's got your recipe.

Chris

[Ricklesss]

Re: Ceramic egg pizza ovens - WFO & coal cooking?

Greetings to Germany, bb870!
Yes, I do love my big green egg! I use it at least 4 times every week. It is so easy, and gets to whatever temperature that I want, so fast.
I have discovered (through the wonderful Big Green Egg Forum, at the company's website)
that a way to "cheat", to get to a high temp even faster, is to use a propane or MAP gas powered torch or weed burner...
I have been using one I bought very cheaply, and can easily get the oven to 700 degrees in about 15 minutes, though I do wait another 20 minutes, just so the mass of ceramic, the pizza stone, etc. all soak up all that heat...
Trust me, the cheese (and everything else, melts JUST fine!)

Hey, check out one of my current favorite videos!
It's real "American" type music (bluegrass...) I hope you enjoy watching it!!!!
Let me know!
RicklessssssssS

Check it out here: Fred's Music and Barbecue Supply

[3fingerbill]

Re: Ceramic egg pizza ovens - WFO & coal cooking?

I just came across this thread and had to comment on my experience with cooking pizza on the Big Green Egg. About ten years ago, I fell in love with pizza cooked in a WFO and very quickly decided that I had to have my own WFO. This was well before the FB forum was available to offer insight and guidance. I used the resources available at the time and built a very versatile and efficient oven. It has served me well over the years and provided the setting for many fine pizza parties. About two years ago I got my first ceramic cooker, a BGE. It did not take me long to start cooking pizza in the egg. I have to tell you that the quality is fabulous. I can cook a pie in less than 2 minutes and it tastes just as good as the ones I cook in the WFO. However, it just is not as sexy to cook in the BGE. There is nothing like the atmosphere around cooking for a crowd in a WFO. As a result, if I am cooking for my wife and myself, I use the egg. If I am cooking for a crowd, I use the WFO. Both pizza are great.