Anyone ever made Weber Grill Pizza on a Stone?

[BarbaraC]

James et al I thought about a year ago I read somewhere here you could put a pizza stone on a BBQ. So I have this extra stone and I'm thinking about trying it.

My question is has anyone ever tried it? I'm curious if they have how they arranged the coals and grill and stone.

Let me know. Many thanks for such a great lot of info.

[sssmasi]

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

This is my opinion... and my opinions are always right.

When using a stone the best way to get results is indeed in the BBQ. Nobody seems to know this! I would not suggest using a old fashion coal BBQ... I don't think they get hot enough.

I simply put the stone on top of the grill... nice and easy.

When I'm cooking pizza on my BBQ I heat it up to around 550 - 600 degrees. I put the stone in the BBQ about an hour before I start putting pizzas in. My BBQ has infrared as well which I believe is essential to cooking pizzas in the BBQ. This way you can burn the crust a little if you want (at least make sure it is cooked properly, similar to an actual forno oven).

There are a couple reasons a BBQ is better than a conventional oven in your kitchen. 1) a BBQ can get much hotter than a kitchen oven (generally) and 2) the heat of a BBQ is underneath the stone which really seems to heat up the stone... better! With a BBQ you should be able to achieve a little bit of a "burnt" bottom of a pizza (something that you want). Its much better than having a soggy, non crisp pizza bottom that I experienced when cooking in the kitchen oven.

If you are like me and you are going to wait a while to get an forno oven the ONLY way to cook your pizza is in the BBQ. I know it sounds weird and all of my friends think I am crazy when they find out that I cook pizza in a BBQ but it truly delivers the closest thing to true Italian pizza.

I will upload some pictures next time I make pizza and share my technique. So people can see whats I am talking about!

[CAM]

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

Another way and the only way I have made pizza, since I haven't built my oven yet, is to do it directly on the grill with no stone. Sounds wierd, I know, but done properly, is pretty effective. Cast iron grates are best. It's actually the best pie I and many of my friends and family have ever had. Again, I don't have a brick oven and the few places I've found in my area aren't great at it. I expected the dough to drop through the grates, which doesn't happen. Takes about 90-120 sec. and the overall approach is the same to normal pizza. Strange, but true.

[BarbaraC]

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

You both give me a lot of encouragement - I can't believe the dough didn't go through the grates!

I am going to try a standard round charcoal Weber BBQso I can test the dome shape. I think what I will do is build a coal fire from mesquite wood charcoal, or I will build up a fire from logs. My concern is getting the stone hot enough and running out of hot fire, but I think if I use enough coals it will work.

Like everything about making pizza and food it will be a fun adventure. I will unfortunately have to wait a couple of weekends as I am off out of town this weekend.

[Johnny L]

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

I like what sssmasi was saying about the temp. and heat times with a stone on the BBQ.
I had nice success this last Sunday heating my 13 5/8" round stone on my BBQ for about an hour.
The infrared thermometer helped me determine when the heat was right. I let the stone heat up for a while after it hit the 550 mark.
It's funny how fast the heat drops on the stone when the lid is open. It sounds too simple, but to take a photo of a hot stone I had to shoot the picture withing a few seconds after opening the lid. Ver quick heat loss.
I took one of the grates out of the BBQ and centered one grate to allow room for my wood chip box.
My Caputo & High Gluten with Marzano tomato pizza tuned out nice.
This was done with a gas grill and I just wanted to start sharing my experiences.
Thanks
Johnny

[james]

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

Welcome aboard John,

You can become our resident pizza stone expert. I am attaching a couple of photos you sent me that I think are really good -- including the one showing the pizza stone at 552?F. Not bad.

How long is your pizza bake time?

Keep the ideas coming.
James

[Johnny L]

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

James,
Thanks for the positive comments.
Based on the temp of the stone (552) I set my digital timer to 5 minutes.
I wanted to force myself to leave the cover on the grill especially since I don't have the infrared heat option for the top of the pizza.
Yes, I was pacing!
After 5 minutes I took the photo and removed the pizza, probably a just shy of 6 minutes.
Since this was my 1st attempt at the BBQ my pizza was smaller than usual.
I guess that you can say that this was a "Test Pizza".
I am documenting my efforts by making notes for improvements and taking photos to keep getting "dialed in".
The three pizzas that I made last sunday was with your Caputo recipe, but I cut the Caputo in half and used Sir Lancelot (High Gluten) to make the dough easier to handle. Plain Caputo flour seems to be the favorite so far.
Thanks
Johnny

[BarbaraC]

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

Hi there,
that "test" pizza looks yummy! I have been out of town on a project and am impatiently waiting to test my own Weber stone. At least I can watch here - looks great!

[Johnny L]

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

Barbara,
Thanks, yes it turned out a bit on the "chunky side".
I wanted to make a smaller sized pizza for the first test, but didn't reduce the size of the dough that I would normally use for a 12-14" pizza.
So that little pizza sprung right up. It was very tasty though.
I'm getting a 5 pound block of Grande Mozzarella today from Wisconsin. I'm told that it won't brown as much.
It's nice to be able to eat as I go forward and experiment.
Welcome back from your trip and please share how things work out for you.

[Villa Roma]

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

I'm new to this forum but I have been making pizza on a Weber kettle grill with a stone. I fire the grill with a propane burner and toss in a little cherry wood to add a subtle smoke flavor. I had to tweak the setup a bit but it makes pretty good pizza and it's portable. Here's some of my latest pizzas.

Villa Roma

[maver]

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?

[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

[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,

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?

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