Anyone ever made Weber Grill Pizza on a Stone?

[C5dad]

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

I prefer Z's pizza (over by campus) in Tucson - great chicago style and an excellent supply of beer. Back in the late 80's I lived there.

As for El Charro - blah - too yuppy puke. I liked going to Crossroads - yep the place where you could get drive up service with a beer!!

[tpd]

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

http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f43/...zza-14670.html

[cerreta]

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

Oops, just realized a mistake. The Weber was designed to run on NG, Natural Gas, not LP. It is connected to the gas line coming from the house. I converted the NG grill to run on Propane which makes it burn much hotter.
Cheers

[cerreta]

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

Thanks Ed. I'll check into the floating stone idea.

As for El Charro, I've never been a fan. Everyone else raves about it, but I prefer other restaurants.

Vero Amore just opened up about two years ago, as did a gelateria. Both are good, but still no comparison to Naples. Both are on Swan near Ft Lowell area.

My wife does not like going out for Italian cuisine with me, because I'm too critical and never statisfied. Bella Napoli

[EADavis]

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

Cerreta,
One thing you may try is to introduce a radiant heat source from the top. I did that when I modified a pair of charcoal grills, and added a gas burner. In my case, I mounted a second pizza stone to the lid, so it heats up along with the bottom pizza stone. This provides a more consistant heat source from above, and more simulates a real WFO. By the way, this is an idea I got (i.e. stole) from this forum. It seems to work well.

For the Genesis grill, you may be able to jury rig the upper stone to the wire warming shelf (that grate that pivots up and down when you open the lid).

On a side note (since I see you are from Tucson) - a number of years ago, I saw a magazine article, listing (what they thought) were the top 10 pizza places in America. The usuals were on there (Pepe's, Sally's, etc.), and one place in Tucson - El Charro's. This I found interesting, since El Charro's (for those not from Tucson) is a MEXICAN restuarant. A little more investigation showed that they considered El Charro's Cheese Crisp not only a pizza, but one of the 10 best in the USA!

Good luck with the grill,
Ed

[cerreta]

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

I love the Weber grill. No other like it. I use a Genesis gas grill. I made a discovery that needs more exploration of cooking the perfect Neapolitan pizza.

First, my quest has been to replicate the margherita pizza that so many people covet. I lived in Naples for three years, so memories of this wonder have elluded me for the past ten years after leaving Italy. I have tried many Margherita pizzas in America and found a few goods ones, but most don't even come close to the Original.

I recently discovered this wonderful site and learned about the importance of the dough and Caputo flour. I am brewing my fist dough batach right now. However, in the past few days during this experimental phase, I learned that Vero Amore, a local italian pizzaria (unable to reproduce the perfect Margherita pizza, does have a wonderful dough). They use Caputo flour too. So, I have bought their dough balls for $3. A bit pricey but these are really really good and close to the real deal.

The Grill:
1. Weber Genesis Gas Grill connected to LP gas (house gas).
2. Built in Thermometer range 150-600 deg.
3. Has Wood Chip attachment (using Alder wood chips)

The Stone:
1. Williams and Sonoma Pizza Que
2. Stainless Steel Base with built in thermometer range 200-600 deg, but needle goes to about 700 without a number in this extrapolated position

The Pizza:
1. Margherita pizza with dough ball using Caputo 00 Italian flour

The Goals:
1. Recreate a genuine Neapolitan pizza
2. Crust should be slightly charred on bottom
3. Must add wood chips to get the smokey flavors
4. Pizza should be firm on outer edges and flimsy in the middle (all Naples pizza were like this, and it is an essential component to getting it cooked just right)
5. Temps must be about 700 degrees in the stone and around 600 or higher in the surrounding air.
6. Cook time should be about 2 minutes, no more! This is another critical piece to the perfect pizza.
7. Italian pizza ovens allow frequent entering to turn and move pizzas without losing heat. A Gas grill loses about 100 deg in air temp after opening lid for about 5 seconds.

Results:
1. All burners on high. Preheat for 45 minutes. Stone temp reached 700 deg
2. Air Temp reached 450 deg.
3. Pizza cooked for 6 minutes.
4. Pizza was delicious! Bubbly on top, lightly browned on bottom, no charring.
5. Dough was crispy and delicious, just like naples flavor, but the crust was firm throughout. It did not have a flimsy center as required of the original.

The Bottom Line:
1. Stone temp was good, but air temp too low. It must get over 600 deg
2. Cook time too long. Six minutes is too long.
3. Dough from Vero Amore was awesome. I hope mine comes out as good.


The Breakthrough That Will Have Everyone Rushing Out to Buy a New Grill!!!
1. As mentioned above, this Weber runs on LP. LP gas is denser than Propane. Therefore, the burners have large jet holes.
2. I converted the Weber to a Propane tank without changing the burners. Now, the grill will reach higher tempuratures as the thinner Propane propels through the larger jet holes in the LP burners. Very Cool!!!

Results:
1. All burners on high. Preheat for 45 minutes. Stone temp reached 700 deg but you can tell the stone was hotter and discolored too.
2. Air Temp reached 600 deg.
3. Pizza cooked for 3 minutes. Then I checked it.
4. Bubbly on top, scorched on the bottom, beyond typical charring.
5. Despite being scrorched, the pizza tasted great. Wife thought it was too black on the bottom but she ate it anyways. I liked the flavor, but it is not ideal. The center was crisp and firm, not the desired flimsy center.

The Bottom Line:
1. Stone temp was almost too hot, but air temp was about right at 600 deg for a gas grill.
2. Cook time too long at three minutes. I actually cooked another one at 2.5 minutes and it was still scorched on the bottom, but had that desireable flimsy center. Teo minutes with these grill temps should be perfect! I hope.
3. Converting an LP Webber grill to Propane is rewarding!!!

Pics to come tomorrow, maybe.

[Nabber86]

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

I have had a Big Green Egg for many years, plus a Weber Smokey Mountain, and a really big wood burning off-set smoker. Any of them can do a decent pizza in the following order (from best to worse):

1- Big Green Egg (almost as good as a wood-fired pizza oven)
2 - Weber Smokey Mountain (without the water pan)
3 - Off-set smoker

No matter what apparatus you use, the real trick is to loose the expensive yuppy "pizza stone" and use thin fire bricks (the ones that are about 1.5 inches thick) to line the cooking surface. It's all about getting the proper thermal mass to cook the crust.

[md.guthrie]

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

I use a forno stone in my big green egg and it works great. I can maintain 600 degrees and the pizza takes 3 to 4 minutes depending on the toppings....It's not a wfo but will do until I build my oven....My key to success ids the stone. The regular stones would crack if the temperature exceeded 500 degrees......

[heliman]

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

It appears that the egg man is using a gas version of the Webber. Mine uses heat beads to drive it. Probably not as reliable as gas though for maintaining the heat.

[Stan]

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

I recently saw a pizza stone somewhere that was designed for Weber grills. It was a circle that had a flat side cut onto it for air circulation above the pizza. It was a fairly thick pizza stone; it was probably something like cordierite. Buying a cordierite kiln shelf and cutting a flat side into it with a masonry saw might not be a bad way to experiment.

As to the Egg, I've heard lots of people melt their gaskets when trying to get it up to a sustainable pizza temp.

As for dough, I've never used a higher hydration than when cooking in a WFO. Frankly, I'd be amazed if you could get any kind of grill near the sustained heat of a WFO. Cooking with fire next to the pizza is a different world than cooking with the fire under the pizza.

Stan

[TheFreemason]

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

I'm seeing all this stuff on the Little Black Egg, which looks really good.

How comparable is this to the Weber?

Secondly, I'm just going to try the Forno Bravo dough recipe and I'm wondering if anyone is modifying their dough recipe based on the heat levels they are exposing it to a grill.

[heliman]

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

I was wondering about this very topic recently - and was in fact asked by someone if it would work. My thinking is that the BBQ is indeed capable to get the stone up to a reasonable cooking tempertature, but the minute the hood is opened all the heat escapes and the cooking chamber would need to heat up again to do a proper job of cooking the pizza.

This is pretty much the same as for an electric oven though I try to keep the door opening process to a minimum. The pizza is checked for slidability, corners are placed on the loading board so it only takes a quick flick to position it on the stone.

From what I gather, uniform heat is a key ingredient that goes in to making a good pizza. It would seem that the delay in getting the heat back up on a BBQ would mean a longer cooking time with a risk of overcooking/drying out the base.

I see some pretty good results posted here so it looks like a good pizza bake is definitely possible. I would be keen to hear how BBQ pizzaiolas address the hood heat loss issue though.

Rossco

[Stan]

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

I've used granite in a Weber. I've cracked granite in a Weber. It heats up well, but the grill just goes too fast.

Stan

[Alfio's]

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

Big fan of firebrick splits. Cheap, versatile. I'd try granite if someone gave me a slab, but agree that it might crack especially if not heated to temp very slowly.

[larrya1049]

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

I cook my pizza's on a stone in my Webber gas grill now and have been doing it that way for years. The pizza turns out much better than in our oven. I got the pizza stone as a gift. I think that you could buy some fire bricks and lay them on the grate and cook the pizza on there. They are cheap at around 1.20 each. I think granite would crack.

Regards
Larry