FINALLY! By Popular Request! How To Build The FrankenWeber Pizza Kettle!

If I still had a bunch of kids and relatives who were into pizza, I'd bust out with one of these. The Blackstone IS a better pizza machine- but isn't it not being made anymore? Yep, you can do pizza on the kettle- firing up multiple chimneys of coal to do 1 or 2 pies- not. Love to have a wood fired oven- who wouldn't? Except for the expense and the fact that you have to fire the sucker up for about an hour so you can crank out a few 2 minute pies. Yep- you can use steels or stones and get an "ok" pizza out of your kitchen oven- after you heat up the house and let the stone/steel soak heat for 45 minutes plus. Dunno seems to me the FrankenWeber still has a place.
 
So, pizza stone was placed on a pizza pan with holes in it which was on top of a rack. Both from Goodwill for a buck each, which held up the pizza stone. Fit nice in my gasser. I used (sorry guys, don't be mad...some "nice" frozen pizzas) to cook tonight. I used them as a trial run to see temps and for a trial run. The stone got up to about 500 degrees on my Weber with the bottom pizza pan over 650 degrees. After the bottom started to get crispy, I dropped the heat to brown up the top more. Turned out a pretty good pizza - all things considered. I took a picture of the pizza, except that I have like an iPhone 1 (not really, but almost!) and the picture does not do it justice.

Btw, if anyone wants a infrared thermometer - keep an out at HF I bought on a super sale for like $5 regular price $30ish, cool toy to have!
 

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Oh Nuco, I love your quote, I personally started with half of nothing and have about twice that left, lol.
 
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I picked up a used weber rotisserie ring for $20 and modified it to work exactly like the Kettle Pizza. I used a 1/4" x 16" diameter piece of steel ( $18 ) to use as my stone. 55gal drum lid (free) for the ceiling. Once you figure out the fire, you can easily cook several pies on one load of fuel.

30152366574_d2bd7d4305_c.jpg


I'd say fire management is the most challenging part of the whole process, no matter what cooker/method you use. Well, handling the dough can prove to be challenging too lol... :mrgreen:
 
Jason - I like it!

Question for you guys, based on Jason's build, what if you took a 22" Kettle and placed a 55 gallon drum lid on top without the rotisserie insert? There would be be about 2" on clearance - would that be enough distance if you weren't doing a deep dish? I'm wondering if there would be enough oxygen flow over the top?

I'm wondering if you could run gas underneath with the setup discussed above?
 
Nuco59 said:
If I still had a bunch of kids and relatives who were into pizza, I'd bust out with one of these. The Blackstone IS a better pizza machine- but isn't it not being made anymore? Yep, you can do pizza on the kettle- firing up multiple chimneys of coal to do 1 or 2 pies- not. Love to have a wood fired oven- who wouldn't? Except for the expense and the fact that you have to fire the sucker up for about an hour so you can crank out a few 2 minute pies. Yep- you can use steels or stones and get an "ok" pizza out of your kitchen oven- after you heat up the house and let the stone/steel soak heat for 45 minutes plus. Dunno seems to me the FrankenWeber still has a place.
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Unfortunately, the Blackstone Pizza oven is now discontinued. I've been in touch with the manufacturer, and they are coming out with a new and improved version sometime next year.



As to the Frankenweber, if there were no Blackstone Pizza oven, I'd still probably be using it. The only drawback is like with a wood fired oven, you have to do several rotations of the pie so it cooks evenly, but with the Frankenweber, you will need to lift the kettle lid multiple times to do so, which causes massive heat loss to the cooker.



Also, to the OP, the opening in the front of the lid on the kettle is for venting purposes ONLY. You cannot fit a decent size pizza through that vent, and it wasn't designed as such. Please read my original post on this so you understand exactly what I'm saying.

That said, I'm wondering if there's a hybrid solution using the best of both worlds, i.e. Frankenweber + Kettle Pizza sleeve? All you would need is a basic Kettle pizza sleeve, plus a D-shaped stone and follow my instructions on the construction of the Frankenweber cooker.

Of course, this is all theory at this point, but it does seem possible...
 
Moose - the largest pizza pan that I was able to find to mount in the Kettle lid was 16" at Walmart. Would that be too high up in the dome? In your instructions you listed using at 18". If the larger size is needed would probably need to order from Amazon.
 
Jdawg said:
Moose - the largest pizza pan that I was able to find to mount in the Kettle lid was 16" at Walmart. Would that be too high up in the dome? In your instructions you listed using at 18". If the larger size is needed would probably need to order from Amazon.
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I would stick with the 18 inch for sure. If you go with the 16 inch, less heat will flow over the top of the pie as there will be more room from the ceiling to the top of the pie.
 
That's makes sense - with that being said, I know you retired your frankenweber, but about how much distance was there between the TOP of your front vent to the bottom of the 18 inch pizza pan attached to the lid? I'm thinking maybe only a couple inches? Please correct me if I'm mistaken.
 
Being just me and with wife and grown kids who are trying to "be good" with low carbs- I have NO use for a pizza cooker.

But GOD- I love to tinker and this has my head spinning with how to go about it.

Why not have a larger opening consisting of a flap door wide enough to spin the pizza but having a slot sized to channel the hot air across the top of the pie? Taking the lid off multiple times to spin would suck even if you did not lose heat.

Maybe leave the slot the same size and have the pizza stone on a lazy susan so you could spin the stone with a tool thru the slot?

No- I do not need a pizza cooker- but...
 
Thanks guys for sharing your thoughts.

Dadsr4 - that was an interesting read, good thing about that build is you don't have to do any cutting in the bottom of the kettle, but it would burn a ton of charcoal. I don't mind burning some coals since I stock up on blue bag when it goes BOGO. I feel like you would only have a limited amount of time before the coals cool off and then you probably would have to dump more hot ones on to keep the temps up.

I still am thinking about figuring out a way to put some smoke flavor while using gas. I need to build it and then do the fun part - experiment!
 
Also, I have been thinking about what else could be cooked in the frankenweber. Obviously, bread, pies, etc would probably turn out nice on top of the pizza stone. Has anyone tried chicken wings? I was thinking you could could smoke some on another rig and then throw on the hot pizza stone to crisp up the skin. Anyone try this? Or, have any other cooks to share?
 
Jdawg said:
Thanks guys for sharing your thoughts.

Dadsr4 - that was an interesting read, good thing about that build is you don't have to do any cutting in the bottom of the kettle, but it would burn a ton of charcoal. I don't mind burning some coals since I stock up on blue bag when it goes BOGO. I feel like you would only have a limited amount of time before the coals cool off and then you probably would have to dump more hot ones on to keep the temps up.

I still am thinking about figuring out a way to put some smoke flavor while using gas. I need to build it and then do the fun part - experiment!
Click to expand...


One thing I have to say about getting smoke flavor into pizza, if you can taste it, it's going to be very subtle at best, but most likely, not detectable at all simply due to the fact that the pizza has been exposed to smoke for such a short period of time.
 
I agree Moose, I was thinking about that as well. When you only cook some for minutes, only so much smoke can get into the food. Plus, wife might like a meal that isn't smokey, lol! We eat a good amount of BBQ in our house:biggrin1:
 
Jdawg said:
Also, I have been thinking about what else could be cooked in the frankenweber. Obviously, bread, pies, etc would probably turn out nice on top of the pizza stone. Has anyone tried chicken wings? I was thinking you could could smoke some on another rig and then throw on the hot pizza stone to crisp up the skin. Anyone try this? Or, have any other cooks to share?
Click to expand...


Behold:


https://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=264543


S5mRJVgh.jpg



Don't see why this isn't doable in the FW(FrankenWeber)...you'll need to really crank up the heat, though. I would guess a stone temp of about 700 degrees F+...
 
Nice Moose!

Looked kind of like our dinner tonight. I used the 2 zone method to cook a tri-tip and finished it off with a good sear. We had grilled asparagus, sautéed mushrooms, and the wife's garlic mash potatoes. For about $20 and some charcoal and wood we had a great dinner with leftovers. This is why I don't go out to eat often when I can make good meals at home for a fraction of the cost.

Moose - I wish you lived closer, I'd buy you a beer (or whatever you choose) for all your guidance and help!
 
I'm bumping this as there's been a number of posts about modding Weber kettles for pizza ovens. This was my workhorse pizza oven till I got my Blackstone, which I've been using ever since.


Even so, the Frankenweber was a GREAT pizza oven. Lowering the ceiling of the dome by installing a pizza pan underneath the lid really helped cook the top of the pies more evenly.
 
Thanks for giving this thread a bump. I wasn't a member here back in 2012 when you did the initial thread.

This is a great idea! Thanks! I have the Pizza Kettle insert. Actually I have two of them. One time I stumbled across a whole pallet of them at Wal Mart for $49 each. So I bought a spare :wink:

Anyway, I will keep using the Pizza Kettle insert,and incorporate your idea of the pizza pan screwed to the top of the lid. Great idea to reflect heat back down. Thanks!
 
Blizzard said:
Thanks for giving this thread a bump. I wasn't a member here back in 2012 when you did the initial thread.

This is a great idea! Thanks! I have the Pizza Kettle insert. Actually I have two of them. One time I stumbled across a whole pallet of them at Wal Mart for $49 each. So I bought a spare :wink:

Anyway, I will keep using the Pizza Kettle insert,and incorporate your idea of the pizza pan screwed to the top of the lid. Great idea to reflect heat back down. Thanks!
Click to expand...


Thanks! Lowering the ceiling of the kettle lid for those using a Kettle Pizza insert is why I bumped the thread.
 
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