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Barbecue/Smoker
- Thread starter ThudThudThud
- Start date
D
But there are some accessories that can help. I apologize for not remembering the name of this product. I bought it from the guy in Casa Grande, AZ who made it. It was amazing. Used in the way shown in the first photo, with the narrow end up, I could get very high heat in the kettle. Great for wings and chicken pops (legs) cooked indirect. Flipped over, with the wide side up, you could create a briquet snake around the outside and put something like a whole chicken in the center or ribs or a small brisket (again, indirect) for a low, slow cook. Or you could use it wide side up with heat in the center for focused direct heat. I don't have any pictures of it with a briquet snake. Sorry. I loved my YS-640 pellet grill, but sometimes a kettle works wonders.
And a third one with ribs because RIBS! I had two kettles and cones, one for low and slow and the second for a high heat finish after foil removal.
I couldn't find a photo with the snake, but here's what a small spatchcocked turkey looked like after it came off the kettle.
Last edited:
But there are some accessories that can help. I apologize for not remembering the name of this product. I bought it from the guy in Casa Grande, AZ who made it. It was amazing. Used in the way shown in the first photo, with the narrow end up, I could get very high heat in the kettle. Great for wings and chicken pops (legs) cooked indirect. Flipped over, with the wide side up, you could create a briquet snake around the outside and put something like a whole chicken in the center or ribs or a small brisket (again, indirect) for a low, slow cook. Or you could use it wide side up with heat in the center for focused direct heat. I don't have any pictures of it with a briquet snake. Sorry. I loved my YS-640 pellet grill, but sometimes a kettle works wonders.
And a third one with ribs because RIBS! I had two kettles and cones, one for low and slow and the second for a high heat finish after foil removal.
I couldn't find a photo with the snake, but here's what a small spatchcocked turkey looked like after it came off the kettle.
Nice. My son had a different accessory that divided the kettle in half for indirect heat. The direct side had a hinged grill so you could add charcoal or wood chips during the smoke.
D
Found it! It's called the Vortex. Really happy to see that the inventor was able to turn it into a business. Several different sizes now. Mine were one-offs that he made for me and my Weber kettles. The last time I saw him (about nine years ago), was at a grill-out at his place in Casa Grande. We had nine different grills going...a bunch of different types. Really good eats. And really good peeps.
Vortex (in)direct heat
Vortex (in)direct heat
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Doing some wild caught ahi tuna steaks on the soapstone for dinner tonight. Hope everyone is getting some good cooks in. Im doing a turkey breast tomorrow.
There's no way this hasn't been recommended already (haven't read through all the comments), but my most favorite smoker ever is my Weber Smoky Mountain. It's crazy efficient with lots of control, and if you do it right you can easily get 10+ hours of smoking before needing to light new coals. It holds temps really well.
I think the only mention may be by me, as I used one and still have one. I use it much less than the kamado I now have, but those smoky mountains are great smokers. Many use them in competition and they are solid. Has a nice drip bowl in them and I have done 2 butts and 4 racks of baby backs in one cook on a smokey mountain. Great smoker for sure.
Kamado Joe makes a pizza insert too. I just wouldn't use it enough to justify the expense.
I'd rather spend the money on meat!
Indeed. Ive seen the kamado pizza stone and the dojoe pizza insert at atlanta grill company. The dojoe seems to leave the face open and doesn't have a door like the pizza port. always wondered if it made a difference or not. anyone got a dojoe and can comment?
DoJoe Pizza Oven by Kamado Joe
I don’t have one but 400-700F is not adequate for Pizza Napoletano. 750F minimum, 900F is preferred.
Yes sir. That's one of the biggest things I run into with folks, not having hot enough ovens/grills to do pizza right. When the oven is too cold, it sit's in there too long, gets soggy, the crust doesn't cook right, then you open yourself to burning the toppings.
Waving your hand over the grill and saying 'Whoa, that's hot' is most of the time not hot enough for pizza done right.
-Mike
Wood fired pizza ovens tend to have a big opening in the front too. I think the important thing here is to keep all the heat circulating in the dome.
This makes me want a charcoal grillBut there are some accessories that can help. I apologize for not remembering the name of this product. I bought it from the guy in Casa Grande, AZ who made it. It was amazing. Used in the way shown in the first photo, with the narrow end up, I could get very high heat in the kettle. Great for wings and chicken pops (legs) cooked indirect. Flipped over, with the wide side up, you could create a briquet snake around the outside and put something like a whole chicken in the center or ribs or a small brisket (again, indirect) for a low, slow cook. Or you could use it wide side up with heat in the center for focused direct heat. I don't have any pictures of it with a briquet snake. Sorry. I loved my YS-640 pellet grill, but sometimes a kettle works wonders.
And a third one with ribs because RIBS! I had two kettles and cones, one for low and slow and the second for a high heat finish after foil removal.
I couldn't find a photo with the snake, but here's what a small spatchcocked turkey looked like after it came off the kettle.
We finally got a day with little to no rain and even a sunbreak, so it was time to grill pizza. I ended up using a Kitchenaid propane grill that the friends who invited us over had. All in all, it turned out fine, but definitely missing that wood or charcoal flavor I like so much with grilled pizza. Propane is fine, but I won't do it that way again unless it is absolutely our only option. It just doesn't go right in my opinion.
I got the temp up to 650 then slid the crust on the grill with sauce and cheese only. Once on the grill, I added the toppings. This step I learned the hard way after watching my first try at this ever have all the toppings go flying off into the back of the grill when I went to slide it off the peel. I need to perfect my technique so I can get a fully loaded pizza to slide right off the peel and not lose any toppings. I'm thinking more corn meal on the peel and a better angle will do that for me.
Two and a half minutes in, we had this.
2-3 minutes later I pulled it off the grill. The crust was almost just right, but could have been a little crispier (not crunchy). It was well received by the guests, some of them having grilled pizza for the first time. Although I always love the look of disbelief when I tell people I am putting the raw crust directly on the grill. Quite often there are skeptics in the crowd who tell me its not going to work since it's going to sag between the grill bars and turn into a mess that no one can eat. That has yet to happen to me since I started grilling pizza like this around 2015.
-Mike
I got the temp up to 650 then slid the crust on the grill with sauce and cheese only. Once on the grill, I added the toppings. This step I learned the hard way after watching my first try at this ever have all the toppings go flying off into the back of the grill when I went to slide it off the peel. I need to perfect my technique so I can get a fully loaded pizza to slide right off the peel and not lose any toppings. I'm thinking more corn meal on the peel and a better angle will do that for me.
Two and a half minutes in, we had this.
2-3 minutes later I pulled it off the grill. The crust was almost just right, but could have been a little crispier (not crunchy). It was well received by the guests, some of them having grilled pizza for the first time. Although I always love the look of disbelief when I tell people I am putting the raw crust directly on the grill. Quite often there are skeptics in the crowd who tell me its not going to work since it's going to sag between the grill bars and turn into a mess that no one can eat. That has yet to happen to me since I started grilling pizza like this around 2015.
-Mike
If it tastes half as good as it looks, I'm already jealous... And I made some pulled pork today since my folks came up to see the new place.We finally got a day with little to no rain and even a sunbreak, so it was time to grill pizza. I ended up using a Kitchenaid propane grill that the friends who invited us over had. All in all, it turned out fine, but definitely missing that wood or charcoal flavor I like so much with grilled pizza. Propane is fine, but I won't do it that way again unless it is absolutely our only option. It just doesn't go right in my opinion.
I got the temp up to 650 then slid the crust on the grill with sauce and cheese only. Once on the grill, I added the toppings. This step I learned the hard way after watching my first try at this ever have all the toppings go flying off into the back of the grill when I went to slide it off the peel. I need to perfect my technique so I can get a fully loaded pizza to slide right off the peel and not lose any toppings. I'm thinking more corn meal on the peel and a better angle will do that for me.
Two and a half minutes in, we had this.
2-3 minutes later I pulled it off the grill. The crust was almost just right, but could have been a little crispier (not crunchy). It was well received by the guests, some of them having grilled pizza for the first time. Although I always love the look of disbelief when I tell people I am putting the raw crust directly on the grill. Quite often there are skeptics in the crowd who tell me its not going to work since it's going to sag between the grill bars and turn into a mess that no one can eat. That has yet to happen to me since I started grilling pizza like this around 2015.
-Mike
Thanks buddy. It was quite tasty.
The tomato sauce was made from scratch earlier in the week. We use Boar's Head mozzarella that we get freshly sliced about the thickness of a dime, and the sausage was made that morning by our local neighborhood butcher along with the pepperoni he smoked earlier in the week.
We've tried a few different mozzarella's and different ways of prepping it. The Boar's Head is the best in our opinion since it's low moisture and whole milk. It gives you that nice stretchiness without being rubbery or greasy, and it tastes great. Big slices is actually something I learned from the cooks at Grimaldi's and Sal's in Brooklyn.
The dough we always make a day or two ahead of time as well with fresh milled flour or sometimes we use an Italian 00.
We don't have any expensive hobbies between the wife and I, so it affords us the opportunity to splurge now and then on meals we prepare.
-Mike
D
I knew a guy who worked for the company in Elgin, IL that made/makes industrial pizza ovens for pizza chains. The chain that was heavily advertising 10-minute pizzas on TV wanted to put even more pressure on their competitors by offering 8-minute pizzas, so they asked the company to design a faster pizza oven. No matter what the company tried, they couldn't do it. Any increase in cooking speed required fan speeds so high (those belt-driven ovens are convection, to get sufficiently high effective cooking temps) that they kept blowing the ingredients off the pizzas. That's why you never saw a TV ad for an 8-minute pizza.We finally got a day with little to no rain and even a sunbreak, so it was time to grill pizza. I ended up using a Kitchenaid propane grill that the friends who invited us over had. All in all, it turned out fine, but definitely missing that wood or charcoal flavor I like so much with grilled pizza. Propane is fine, but I won't do it that way again unless it is absolutely our only option. It just doesn't go right in my opinion.
I got the temp up to 650 then slid the crust on the grill with sauce and cheese only. Once on the grill, I added the toppings. This step I learned the hard way after watching my first try at this ever have all the toppings go flying off into the back of the grill when I went to slide it off the peel. I need to perfect my technique so I can get a fully loaded pizza to slide right off the peel and not lose any toppings. I'm thinking more corn meal on the peel and a better angle will do that for me.
Two and a half minutes in, we had this.
2-3 minutes later I pulled it off the grill. The crust was almost just right, but could have been a little crispier (not crunchy). It was well received by the guests, some of them having grilled pizza for the first time. Although I always love the look of disbelief when I tell people I am putting the raw crust directly on the grill. Quite often there are skeptics in the crowd who tell me its not going to work since it's going to sag between the grill bars and turn into a mess that no one can eat. That has yet to happen to me since I started grilling pizza like this around 2015.
-Mike
D
Grimaldi's! Coal-fired brick ovens! A Grimaldi grandson went to ASU (Arizona State University) in Tempe...and stayed in the valley. He opened several authentic Grimaldi's around the valley, including one across the street from Grayhawk (where I lived) in DC Ranch. They were SO good. One thing you had to get used to...no pizzas from 4pm to 5pm, when they were refiring the oven after lunch service.
