Anyone ever made Weber Grill Pizza on a Stone?

[james]

Re: Anyone ever made Weber Grill Pizza on a Stone?

Hey Villa Roma,

Can you describe how flour works in Germany? We've had input on American, Canadian, Italian and French flour, and it would be good to learn how the German system works. German bread is wonderful, and I am guessing there must be a connection between the bread and the flour you can buy.

As an aside, we just ran out of our French crepe flour (it is ground very finely), and it is so good, I think we are going to have to find a long-term source for French flour in the states. Does anyone know of a supplier?
James

[Villa Roma]

Re: Anyone ever made Weber Grill Pizza on a Stone?

I made pizza this weekend and for this batch I used a dough made with 50% whole wheat graham flour. The other half was GM harvest king flour. Still wating on the IR thermometer.

Villa Roma

[Villa Roma]

Re: Anyone ever made Weber Grill Pizza on a Stone?

I ordered an IR thermometer yesterday. It's the Raytek MT6. There was a cheaper one made by Mastercool but I went with the Raytek because it's the same model Fluke chose to brand. I'm familiar with Fluke brand test equipment and they're among the best.

I'll take some temperature measurements of the grll next weekend if it arrives by then. I'd also like to try a couple of test batches of Neapolitan pizza. I lived in Italy for 5 years and the pizza there was most excellent. They had brick pizza ovens everywhere, even the bowling alley had one in it! One place mounted a wood burning pizza oven in a truck and would go to a different town every night, park the truck in the town square and make pizza to order right in front of you. Saturday the "pizza truck" would come to my town and I would walk or ride my bike to the square and get a pizza. I wish I had a video camera back then cause it was pretty neat.

Villa Roma

[Villa Roma]

Re: Anyone ever made Weber Grill Pizza on a Stone?

The insulation idea is good. I'd like to try lining the inside of the grill with some high temp morter. Put down some foil first and then at least 1/2" of the HT cement. Some reinforcing wire would also help prevent cracking. Right now I'm pretty satisfied with the results I'm getting so I'll probably let sleeping dogs lie for the time being.

I don't have an IR thermometer so I don't know how hot the grill gets. I have a regular thermometer in the lid and if I crank up the heat I can get it over 700 degrees. I never tried cooking pizza at those temps though. I use olive oil and sugar in my dough and it would turn to charcoal in about 30 seconds at those temps.

Here's couple more experimental pizzas. One got a little toasty but it was real good anyway.

[james]

Re: Anyone ever made Weber Grill Pizza on a Stone?

All of this without a power tool. As someone who installed a precast oven with cardboard and duct tape, I appreciate the job. Thanks Villa Roma.
James

[maver]

Re: Anyone ever made Weber Grill Pizza on a Stone?

Villa Roma, you are a pizza crazy genius. I love what you've done. I agree with James that it would be interesting to try insulation to shorten the baking time, although I wonder if it would be of value without more mass than the two baking stones in there. Do you know what temperatures you are at? An infrared thermometer aimed at the stone would be good.

[Villa Roma]

Re: Anyone ever made Weber Grill Pizza on a Stone?

Too good. Do you have more photos of how you rigged the burner. I think other folks would want to see that. Maybe Weber will offer it as a standard option (LOL).
James

Cutting the hole in the bottom of the grill is pretty straight forward but there are a few tricks that might make it easier. I attached some pics to illustrate the process. I used a bare hacksaw blade wrapped in duct tape to prevent blisters. I cut the hole 11 1/2" but you can cut it anywhere from 10"-12" depending on the burner you use. I marked the circle using a plastic storage bowl centered on the grill. It took about an hour to complete. If you have power tools you could do it in a few minutes. The cutting blade will try to run in a straight line which is why you have to push down and shim the metal. This allows you to tilt the blade and follow the circle as you cut.

That's how I did it.....Villa Roma

[james]

Re: Anyone ever made Weber Grill Pizza on a Stone?

Too good. Do you have more photos of how you rigged the burner. I think other folks would want to see that. Maybe Weber will offer it as a standard option (LOL).
James

[Villa Roma]

Re: Anyone ever made Weber Grill Pizza on a Stone?

Here's another little trick. Form a resivoir out of foil and stuff it between the stone and the grill. Poke a small hole in it with a toothpick. What do you have? A low buck steam injection. When you place a pizza on the stone just pour some water in the resivior and it will drip down the side of the grill creating steam.

Don't forget to add some small fruitwood chips to the grill for an authentic wood fired oven flavor. Ssssmokin!

Villa Roma

[RTflorida]

Re: Anyone ever made Weber Grill Pizza on a Stone?

I really like this concept. Great job VR.
Having always been a big proponent of gas grills (I've grilled, baked, smoked, and rotisseried virtually anything edible since installing my Lynx in my outdoor "kitchen"); pizza being the one thing I have stuck to traditional cooking methods, never giving much thought to a way to make good pizza portable.
This may be something many may be willing to try - instead of burgers, hot dogs, or steaks (the usual boring fare) at the beach, party in the park, or tailgate party; now there is an easy, inexpensive way to do good pizza

Looks like 'another' project after I complete the finishing touches to my pompei oven...my wife won't be happy

RT

[Villa Roma]

Re: Anyone ever made Weber Grill Pizza on a Stone?

Excellent! Does the Cajun burner seem safe? How hot does the outside of the weber get?

I wonder if you could use some Insulfrax around the kettle. That would really keep heat in.
Jme

The Cajun burner is safe but I would keep children and pets away from it when cooking as would be the case with any grill. The outside gets about the same temp as a regular charcoal grill. Cooks pizza in 3 1/2 minutes, give or take.

The foil does a pretty good job of keeping the heat in and it only uses about 1 lb of propane for a pizza asession. 30 minutes to preheat and another 25 minutes to cook six pizzas.

Villa Roma

[james]

Re: Anyone ever made Weber Grill Pizza on a Stone?

Excellent! Does the Cajun burner seem safe? How hot does the outside of the weber get?

I wonder if you could use some Insulfrax around the kettle. That would really keep heat in.
Jme

[Villa Roma]

Re: Anyone ever made Weber Grill Pizza on a Stone?

Villa Roma,

Good looking pizza. Can you tell us how you rigged up your weber kettle with a gas burner? Sounds interesting.
James

I like to keep things simple so I took a 18" Weber kettle grill and cut an 11 1/2inch hole in the bottom. Mount the grill on a gas fired cajun cooker and put a 16 inch pizza stone on the top grate. I lined the inside of the grill with heavy duty aluminum foil, both top and bottom. This made a big difference with the heat retension and cooking quality. The gas burner will kick out 180,000 BTUs but I only run it at about 25%.

I use two stones on the top grate. I had one crack after 10 years so I use it on the bottom to buffer the flames from the burner, the other stone sits directly on top of the cracked stone. You can use tiles for the lower layer also.

I use an 8 inch stone mounted to the lid suspended with electrical wire. This helps cook the top of the pizza. Again you can use a tile.

You can use a 22" grill with a 19" stone also. I've used a 22" grill with a 16" stone and it worked nicely but it did use more fuel. The 18" grill is very portable and doesn't take up much space. The 22" grill will do bigger pizzas and also had the extra lid height for roasting chickens etc.

Villa Roma

[james]

Re: Anyone ever made Weber Grill Pizza on a Stone?

Villa Roma,

Good looking pizza. Can you tell us how you rigged up your weber kettle with a gas burner? Sounds interesting.
James

[Villa Roma]

Re: Anyone ever made Weber Grill Pizza on a Stone?

Villa Roma, that's a fine crust with nice char. What's with the scary face under the pizza?

Thanks for the compliment. The scary face is the Quaker Oats guy. I used a Quaker Oats box to prop up the pizza during the photo shoot. Quaker oats, it's the right thing to do!

Villa Roma