I did it!!!!! Pizza on the Weber Kettle!!!!!

[veryolddog]

  I finally did it. I made a decent pizza on the Weber Kettle!

After Friday night, where I burned the crust on 2 pizzas, I quit the kettle and retreated where I made a substandard pizza in the home oven. I was crushed. A total failure. Dang! I had one dough left as I had made enough for four pizzas. So, I froze that dough thinking that I will use it in the future. Well, the future is now. I do not take a set back lightly, and I have a lot of determination to be on the right track. Today, I decided that I would have another go at it. So, I took out the dough last night and it had thawed by this morning. So I put the dough in a bowl and let it go to room temperature. At 4:00 PM today. I started the Weber using that little side char basket holder. I filled and started one. I was hesitant to use two, but I think that I may do that the next time. I was able to reach 400 degrees at which time I put the pizza on the cast iron grill. With a great deal of intrepidation, my wife and I waited patiently to see what happened. After 15 minutes, I checked and I could see that the crust was becoming tight but not brown. After a 1/2 hour, the top was really starting to cook and crust was really becoming a "crust". At 45 minutes, the top was pretty much there and crust was turning light brown. At an hour, I had a light brown crust. I then removed the pizza and served it for dinner.

So, I went from burnt crust in 5 minutes with direct heat to one hour and a nice light brown crust and indirect heat. I had a winner.

Well, an hour seems a little long to cook a pizza. So here's what I am thinking: if I use side charcoal baskets, I will create a hotter oven and a better opportunity to have the crust brown much quicker. That may be the experiment the next time I decide to make pizza on the kettle. A third option and I have to think this through is take a little bit of lump charcoal and put this between the two side charcoal baskets. I am hesitant about this approach as I know that the indirect heat will provide me the best result. I am only trying to figure out how to accelerate this process so it won't take an hour.

Here's a little video of my effort to make my first successful pizza ever.

Ed

[TMB]

Niced looking pizza.  Soon you will be cooking all kinds of pizza in that thing

[smokeasaurus]

Way to go Ed!! 

[drholly]

Yo, Ed - nice job!

[UWFSAE]

Outstanding video and pizza, Ed ... glad you got right back on that horse.

[Northshore]

Great job, looks delicious .

[hikerman]

Ed, I knew you would get where you wanted to be. Life is a series of steps and missteps.  Once you step into something bad, you figure out a way to NEVER step back in that sh*%.  Good job sir!

[Pappymn]

Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try.

Homer Simpson



Nice job VOD

[fishingbouchman]

pizza.  I will take the last two slices. 

[Dakota Don]

Nicely done ED!     Glad to see you are having success and a lot of fun with pizza. I need to get to a point where I can do that. What did you use for a dough recipe?   By the way... Nice job on the video, you've kind of raised the bar a few notches on posting pictures of the cook. Was that all You Tube, or did you produce it on other software and then upload to You Tube? (Pictures and Video are another hobby I am starting to dive into (I'm about 2 steps below 'newbie' status at this point, but right now i am spending most of my time and energy on cooking (and come Winter, baking as well).  Don

[Chili Head]

Excellent! And kudos for not giving up!

[Sam3]

Nicely done Ed!

[africanmeat]

Man that is a good looking pizza .

[veryolddog]

Nicely done ED!     Glad to see you are having success and a lot of fun with pizza. I need to get to a point where I can do that. What did you use for a dough recipe?   By the way... Nice job on the video, you've kind of raised the bar a few notches on posting pictures of the cook. Was that all You Tube, or did you produce it on other software and then upload to You Tube? (Pictures and Video are another hobby I am starting to dive into (I'm about 2 steps below 'newbie' status at this point, but right now i am spending most of my time and energy on cooking (and come Winter, baking as well).  Don

I have a very simple video camera made by Samsung. It cost less than $100.00 from Dell on sale. I purchased a fairly good software product from Corel called Video Studio Pro 6. They have one called the "Ultimate" which has a few more bells and whistles that I don't even know what they are. I picked this product after searching on google for the "top ten video editing software". It rated it as number 2 and it was best for fairly easy to use. The highest, I think was Roxio NXT. I did not know it but I have that product as well on the same desk top. And after looking at it, I am glad that I did get Corel's product for ease of use. I edit the software, optimize it, and upload to YouTube. This process now takes me about one hour to complete from the time that I load the video from the camera to the completion of the YouTube upload. I also load the software on a 3 terabyte network drive attached to my router for backup and safe keeping. Since I have a Samsung Smart TV with "AllShare" on it, I can network the TV wireless, through the Router and pick up all network attached drives with the data. I then select the drive, the video, and hit play. Then I can playback any movie that I have stored on any of the network drives including these videos that I create. It is nice to see them on a 55 inch screen. And, I do not have to leave my chair. Good stuff, huh? Who'd a thought that this would be real, 25 years ago, except a guy who was deploying technology all over N. Viet Nam, S Viet Nam, Laos, Cambodia, and Ho Chi Minh Trail 46 years ago.

I am looking at a more sophisticated camera at this point. The color on this small model is not accurate. Inside the house, with flourescent lighting, everything is yellow and sometimes this occurs outside as well. I am looking at a Canon HF 40 or 42. When I was able to walk, my wife and I, video taped all of hikes and travels across northern New Mexico and the rest of the Rockies. Today, I pull up those videos and we watch our walks through some of the most beautiful country in the world. I hope to do this again in one year.

Ed

[Keymaster]

Great looking Pizza and video!!