Weber Pizza Oven - Build and first cook pics

This weekend I finally put all the parts together and made my frankenweber/little black egg/weber pizza oven. The build was surprisingly easy, except for my kids yelling that I was making too much noise with the power tools.

Here is the donor kettle. It was in sorry shape and ready for some new life. I found it on the side of the road for free.



Drawing my lines to cut out the bottom. This is the second jig I created to make the circle - you can see the first one didn't work out so well... It was a piece of yarn, and stretched and was not controllable. I never claimed to be much of a builder or handyman, but I get by.



Ugliness removed from the kettle, ready to move on to the lid.



Lid taped up and ready for cutting.



The opening is a little rough. I will clean it up, but I had pizza to cook so no time for that on this day...



One part you don't see in the pic above is the installation of the 16" pizza pan inside the lid. I didn't have my camera available at that stage, so everyone can use their imagination. If someone wants to see it, I can upload some later. Below is the burner I used. It's the Bayou Classic SP 10 that I have seen a lot of others use.



Kettle bottom set in there with bottom grate. Four firebricks set on the bottom grate for the heat shield.



Top grate and pizza stone in place.



Lid on and pre-heating...



Getting close to temp... My thermometer only went to 699º or something like that. If it got above 700º it just said "HI" so I don't know what temp I ended up at...somewhere in the 750º-850º range I guess. I may need to get a new thermometer.



Finally cookin'



Up close and personal...



Some final product...



This one was mangled by a giant bubble during cooking...



One last pie...



A couple of thoughts and observations about the build/first cook: My toppings were not done enough when the crust was done. I actually burned the first pizza that I made while trying to get the top cooked. As you can see from the first two food pics, the cheese isn't quite done. I like mine with a little brown. The 3rd pic shows it after I put it under the broiler in the oven. Not the way I really wanted to finish off the pies, but it worked, and they tasted great. I don't know if the temp was too high (I wasn't sure that would really be possible) or if I need to foil the lid. It seems that there is not enough heat swirling above. Maybe the stone is too large and not enough heat is getting around it. I'm not quite sure where I am going to go from here to remedy the issue. If anyone has suggestions, please let me know.

And I've got to hand it to my wife for the dough she made. It was perfect! (She seemed a little irritated while kneading it by hand for 15 minutes before letting it rise.) Just wait 'till I ask her to triple or quad the recipe so I can do a little more testing.

landarc said:

maybe just scoot that stone to the front of the kettle and that might open up the back opening enough to create the draft.

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I think I'll start with this - as it requires no new parts, and see how it goes. If I have to go to a smaller stone, that's not really a big deal, as I am making 9 or 10 inch pies. I guess when I was ordering the 16" stone I said, "yeah, that'll fit" and didn't consider the other issues. I'm pretty new to pizza making - as far as a pizza oven works - but I have plenty of experience eating. At least the testing is yummy.

Zippylip said:

Bob, another thought, if you can fit it, add an additional stone, that will slow the cooking from the bottom and get the pizza somewhat closer to the metal allowing the radiant heat to finish the top, Marc

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I have some additional fire bricks i could put under the stone. Thanks. It gives me something else to try.

mikeTRON said:

Be sure to post photos of your next "tests" :-D

Is that an 18.5" or 22.5" weber?

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It is an 18.5" weber. The stone in there is 16" - which might be just right for the larger 22.5" kettles, but appears to be too large here. I will post new pics. Planning on cooking on it again this weekend.

Smiter Q said:

Thanks for sharing. What did you use to cut through the bottom and the top?

Also... this is a stone I see a lot of folks use for WEBER kettles.
It is shaped like a " D " .. which would allow more airflow.
http://www.amazon.com/Stone-20-5-Inch-Pizza-Grill/dp/B002JPJ078/ref=pd_sbs_ol_5

Click to expand...

I used a jigsaw to make the cuts. The doohickeys that were welded on to the bottom to insert the legs in were kind of a pain, but I got around them. The grill was in such bad shape that one was already missing, and another mangled. I could have made the circle a little larger and they would have been easier to get by.

I like the "D" shaped stone idea...Moose suggested the same. Unfortunately they are too large for this grill. If anyone sees one that will fit in an 18.5" kettle, let me know!

UPDATE. Made some suggested modifications.

I tried it again this Sunday. I made 3 modifications from the last cook:
1. Raised the pizza stone up on 2 refractory bricks (so it is maybe 1.5 inches higher)
2. Moved the stone all the way to the front of the oven
3. Added foil to the inside of the lid
Bonus: I also took the advice of several and kept the volume of toppings down

This worked a bit better than before. I was not able to get browning on the cheese in the oven, but it was getting close. I still finished them under the broiler. I had a little bit of trouble with the foil - a large bubble formed and stuck to it. It happened a second time after I fixed it, so for the last pizza, there was no foil - I just got rid of it. I also think i had the lid off too much on that last one, or it might have turned out even better. I was a little gun shy on burning the crust, so I was checking it, so maybe things would've worked out better if I could keep the lid on at the end. I may still be trying a new, smaller stone.