Turn Your Weber Kettle Grill into a Kettle Pizza Oven

Paulmark said:
Last pizza I did worked out very nicely. I have a weber with a rotisserie ring on it. The ring comes in two pieces that you bolt together, I added another set of SS bolts 90 degrees to the originals and this allows me to use another rack obove the original. I build up a charcoal base, then put a large pizza pan on the lower rack to act as a diffuser(thank you green egg) then use a pizza pan on the top grill.

MOINKBALLDAYetcetc035.jpg

You can see one of the added bolts in this pic, sorry I'm too lazy to do the whole pictorial thing, right now. Next time I do pizza I will. Looking at the pic. you can see on the left side the original bolts, bottom one is outward and the top one is mounted inward to provide a mount for the grill, and on the right side is one of the additional ones.
Click to expand...
Nice idea for a ring mod! :clap2:
 
Saiko said:
I'd love to get a report from a Brethren when they try it out, this looks interesting.
Click to expand...

Yup, me too! I checked his website and he's claiming he gets temps of 800+...
 
The Pizza Hacker is San Francisco, have been following this guys efforts for a couple of years. I thought he was nuts with the mods, but, his product and rep is great.
pizzahacker.jpg
 
Pizza Hacker does his pies in like 90 seconds..he has quite the operation going on. I actually started my weber kettle pizza cooker build tonight. I had a 22 inch weber lying around so I cut the bottom out tonight (it took 2 jig saw blades, but it is done!). I have a 180k BTU burner already. I will be using the original coal grate to hold a diffuser (maybe a pan of sand), and then get HD "food grid" and will place my Primo D plates on that (as I do not have a 19 inch round pizza stone which would be IDEAL), and then my Primo stone on top. I will be cutting a 1 1/2 inch by 8 inch wide hole in the front of the lid - this is the exhaust to force the air over the pie instead of having it go out the top. I will drill a hole in the lid and affix a large aluminum lid or pick up another pizza stone - this will drilled through and then bolted on (loosely so it can expand with heat). This helps cook the top as well. I have seen several of these made on another site and the pies are fantastic looking - they are called mini black eggs (if using smokey joe cooker, medium black egg if 18 and then the big daddy that I am trying)..they are cooking at 750 degree stone temps and 800 degree top stone temps (or thereabouts) and are done in about 3 minutes - with very good top and bottom cooking...something that is a challenge on a ceramic cooker..I will have mine done in a few days
 
SmokeInDaEye said:
No offense to anyone but this looks like a waste of time and money. Why is making pizza on a grill so hard? Like that guy on food network says, don't invest in uni-taskers.
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LOL...no offense taken partner, but you can't properly cook a NY style pie (much less a Neo style pie) on any grill not named a wood fired oven - ceramic or not.....these converted kettle cookers (for lack of a better word???) work and work well....I have made at least 50 pies on my Primo Oval XL...and while they are great cookers, they are not ideal for pizza cooking - a gasser or weber grill far less so. 99% of home ovens cannot get to high enough temps to even attempt it (unless you hack them and use the clean cycle). I will know for sure in a day or 2 as mine will be done and I will give it a whirl and report back...if nothing else, I will use it as an outdoor fryer!!


Go to youtube and search for little black egg - you will see an old vid (3 years or so) of a guy cooking pies on one of these...these are first versions..they do not have the front vent in them yet...
 
SmokeInDaEye said:
No offense to anyone but this looks like a waste of time and money. Why is making pizza on a grill so hard? Like that guy on food network says, don't invest in uni-taskers.
.
Click to expand...

I thought the same thing.

I see gtsum is knocking one out, which is cool, but I hope no one is paying for these.

Pampered Chef Pizza Stone was like $18. Empty a lit chimney around the outside edge of the entire kettle, center the stone so coal are not directly under it, put on lid for 20 min to heat stone, and you have a pizza making machine (I use this at least once a month when cranking out bigger pizzas)

Yes, this device looks neat, but as SIDE repeats, why invest in a Uni Tasker
 
gtsum said:
Pizza Hacker does his pies in like 90 seconds..he has quite the operation going on. I actually started my weber kettle pizza cooker build tonight. I had a 22 inch weber lying around so I cut the bottom out tonight (it took 2 jig saw blades, but it is done!). I have a 180k BTU burner already. I will be using the original coal grate to hold a diffuser (maybe a pan of sand), and then get HD "food grid" and will place my Primo D plates on that (as I do not have a 19 inch round pizza stone which would be IDEAL), and then my Primo stone on top. I will be cutting a 1 1/2 inch by 8 inch wide hole in the front of the lid - this is the exhaust to force the air over the pie instead of having it go out the top. I will drill a hole in the lid and affix a large aluminum lid or pick up another pizza stone - this will drilled through and then bolted on (loosely so it can expand with heat). This helps cook the top as well. I have seen several of these made on another site and the pies are fantastic looking - they are called mini black eggs (if using smokey joe cooker, medium black egg if 18 and then the big daddy that I am trying)..they are cooking at 750 degree stone temps and 800 degree top stone temps (or thereabouts) and are done in about 3 minutes - with very good top and bottom cooking...something that is a challenge on a ceramic cooker..I will have mine done in a few days
Click to expand...

Glad you posted this. Further research led me to how to's on building a LBE (little black egg) Most of the ones I've seen are for 18.5 inch kettles, but I see you are going to use a 22.5 inch, which is what I was thinking about. I hope you'll post pics and instructions - from what I can see, next to a wood fired pizza oven, this is the next best thing...and a heck of a lot cheaper!
 
Why not just get one of these? It'll withstand something like 2300*, and even
accommodates hinged Weber grates. Sure, some of the heat will escape when
you open the lid, but that stone is a serious edge-to-edge heat sponge. The
heat recovery time with a good fire should be seconds.

31mbI9lJKjL._SL500_AA300_.jpg


John
 
PatioDaddio said:
Why not just get one of these? It'll withstand something like 2300*, and even
accommodates hinged Weber grates. Sure, some of the heat will escape when
you open the lid, but that stone is a serious edge-to-edge heat sponge. The
heat recovery time with a good fire should be seconds.

31mbI9lJKjL._SL500_AA300_.jpg


John
Click to expand...

John,

I have one of these. They work fine. The problem is the bottom of the crust cooks far faster than the top. With the LBE Weber mod, you have a heat reflector on top, in addition to a side vent on the the cover of the kettle which duplicates the convection style heat you get from a pizza oven. This method allows for even doneness on both top and bottom of pizza , plus very short cook times, plus, super crispy outer crust.
 
Moose said:
John,

I have one of these. They work fine. The problem is the bottom of the crust cooks far faster than the top. With the LBE Weber mod, you have a heat reflector on top, in addition to a side vent on the the cover of the kettle which duplicates the convection style heat you get from a pizza oven. This method allows for even doneness on both top and bottom of pizza , plus very short cook times, plus, super crispy outer crust.
Click to expand...

Ah, gotcha.

Thanks,
John
 
PatioDaddio said:
Why not just get one of these? It'll withstand something like 2300*, and even
accommodates hinged Weber grates. Sure, some of the heat will escape when
you open the lid, but that stone is a serious edge-to-edge heat sponge. The
heat recovery time with a good fire should be seconds.

31mbI9lJKjL._SL500_AA300_.jpg


John
Click to expand...

Nice find..I might need to look into one of those...the old stone brand of stones is supposed to be pretty good. I do know that pampered chef stones and any stone you get at wal mart, target, bed bath and beyond, etc are junk..I have cracked several of them. BGE or Primo pizza stones are very good though...picey, but mine are still going strong with no cracks
 
willkat98 said:
I thought the same thing.

I see gtsum is knocking one out, which is cool, but I hope no one is paying for these.

Pampered Chef Pizza Stone was like $18. Empty a lit chimney around the outside edge of the entire kettle, center the stone so coal are not directly under it, put on lid for 20 min to heat stone, and you have a pizza making machine (I use this at least once a month when cranking out bigger pizzas)

Yes, this device looks neat, but as SIDE repeats, why invest in a Uni Tasker
Click to expand...

"Pampered Chef Pizza Stone"
Not to hi-jack this thread, but, is this stone ware any good?? At a thrift store I found a pizza plate, a small and large shallow rectangular pans, they have been used. No price yet.

Thanks,

Paul B
SS UDS
 
Paul B said:
"Pampered Chef Pizza Stone"
Not to hi-jack this thread, but, is this stone ware any good?? At a thrift store I found a pizza plate, a small and large shallow rectangular pans, they have been used. No price yet.

Thanks,

Paul B
SS UDS
Click to expand...

no..not good at all..I have 2 of them and they are now used for indoor use for fries, bread, etc. For pizza, they do not have enough mass in my opinion. I have much better luck with my Primo pizza stone (BGE stones are good too). Or, look at a soapstone.
 
My Pampered Chef stone (gift) seems to be the exception to the rule as when I tell people I use it in a 650* egg they say that it should crack and break but it never has.

All I know is it works, but I don't have anything else to compare it to.

Yet. :p

.
 
willkat98 said:
My Pampered Chef stone (gift) seems to be the exception to the rule as when I tell people I use it in a 650* egg they say that it should crack and break but it never has.

All I know is it works, but I don't have anything else to compare it to.

Yet. :p

.
Click to expand...

I have to say I have not broken a PC stone (they seem to be good in that regard). For me, they did not have enough mass and I ended up with a lot of burned crusts. Using thicker, ceramic material stones seems to work better for me
 
Mark said:
Take a section out of a 55-gallon drum, make a opening to slide the pizza in and out of and I should be good to go; right?
Click to expand...

You could do that, yes. No reason why it wouldn't work.The opening in the sleeve seems critical to achieve the convection effect. I see the guy who makes these uses wood logs on top of the coals all banked to the back of the grill. Also, you could go a step further and do one of the little black egg mods and attach an 8 inch pizza stone or metal pan to the inside top of the kettle lid, as well as line the inside of the cover with HD foil...

I may actually try this as I have as section of a drum I had planned to use as a rotisserie sleeve for my drum...
 
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