pizza on a bge
 

i recently talked my wife into getting a large green egg by telling her how great the pizza would be. while she generally is very weight conscious and doesn't generally eat pizza, she has asked me to make pizza as an appetizer this sunday. i do have a place setter that i have not used yet and a bge pizza stone which i haven't used as well. any advise would be appreciated as we are having my daughter and some friends over and i feel a lot of pressure. i will be smoking ribs and chicken as the main course ( on my other bbq's). please any advise will be appreciated.:
what temperature should i cook at? the bge book i have says 600 degrees but that seems too hot, is it? also, how long should i cook it?

A couple of brethren that have been cooking some nice BGE pizzas are Groundhog66 and Ross in Ventura. Here's some of their posts and most include cooking temps and some times:

Groundhog66
http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/sh...ad.php?t=99289

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/sh...d.php?t=103261

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/sh...d.php?t=103535

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/sh...d.php?t=107761

Ross in Ventura
http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/sh...ad.php?t=81103

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/sh...ad.php?t=76060

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/sh...ad.php?t=70460

You'll see the most common Egg pizza set up in these threads (plate setter in with legs down, ceramic feet on the plate setter, and then the pizza stone on top.

If you use premade dough from Trader Joes, I think most people have the best luck cooking in the 500-550 range. I made a couple of pizzas last weekend with premade dough from Safeway and cooked at the recommended 425 in my XL Egg and they were not bad (I made the crust a little too thick so they took longer than the oven instructions said).

Good Luck!

It might also be a good idea to do a test run on Saturday to get comfortable with the process a little before Sunday :)

The best piece of advice I can give is to use parchment paper. After you roll out your dough, place it on a piece of parchment cut to the basic diameter of your stone, this makes transferring the pie from board to stone much easier. After a few minutes of cooking, the parchment will slide out with no problem and you will have a beautiful crust.

As far as temps go, 600f has been way to hot for me, I always shoot for 475-500f. I think it depends on the type of pizza you are cooking, a traditional "American" pizza with lots of toppings and a hand tossed crust will be burnt on the bottom at 600f by the time everything is cooked. Now if you're doing the traditional Neapolitan style pizza, which in Italy has a very thin crust and few toppings, 600f is the way you want to go.

I shoot for 550°F on my lg bge. Seems to make the crust get done as the same time as the toppings. Here's a shot of my setup.

http://www.smugmug.com/photos/i-2Mxn...-2Mxng4w-M.jpg

Pull the ribs, etc. off the BGE about 30 min. before you want to start the pizza. Stir up the remaining coals to get the ash out. Add 2-3" of fresh ckarcoal on top of the remaining coals that are still burning. Open up the vent. Put the plate setter on, legs down. Put the stone on top of it. Close the lid and don't put the top vent on it. Give it about 15-20 minutes at 450 to 550 before you start cooking, otherwise the bottom won't brown. 500-600 is ideal for cooking. I sprinkle corn meal on the stone before putting the pizza on it. You can add the vented lid, but watch the temp, because sometimes the temp starts dropping, even with it open, must depend upon the charcoal. If you plan to cook more than 1 pizza, be sure to sweep all the corn meal off and add fresh with each pizza, otherwise everyone will think you added sand to the recipe. Good luck, I suggest doing one in advance so that you'll look like a pro in front of the guests. If you do it right, your wife will want pizza more often!

thanks john, this is a big help.