Pizza issues cooking on UDS

C

cmwr

is Blowin Smoke!
Joined
Sep 17, 2012
Messages
1,238
Reaction score
262
Points
0
Location
Villisca Iowa
I am having issues getting the tops of my pies to cook or brown on the top. While everyone loves and raves about the pizzas I have cooked on it, the cheese and toppings just don't get browned or fully melted. I have only been able to get my temps to around 450-500 using lump so I cannot get those 3-4 minute cook times but heck I don't care as long as they will cook. I tried cooking on a pan to slow down the crust browning so the top can get cooked and still the crust is getting well browned on the bottom before the toppings are. The other day I burnt the bottom of the crust and the top was still not browned. I tried foil under the lid for reflection and it did not make any difference. Is there a different mod I need to make to get even temps on the top as well as the bottom? Could my 16" pizza pan be restricting the amount of heat that gets around the edges and over the top? My grate sits 7" below the lid. I have thought about double grating it so I can do 2 pies at once but not sure how they will cook stacked one over the other. Any tips would be appreciated..
 
When I do pies , I cook right on the grate. I won't say the top gets brown but the cheese melts nice.
 
The best looking pie I ever did was my very first one. Direct on the grate, straight wood, 600+ temps, and it was golden brown on top and bottom. Picture perfect. Tasted like crap. I don't understand why people cook in wood burning pizza ovens yet when I did it ranked the pie of smoke.
 
Pretty sure wood pizza ovens use wood mainly for heat with very little smoke hitting the pizza. I could be wrong thou.

I use lump with no smoke wood.
 
You're probably right. Would direct grate cook slower than on a steel pan or stone? I would think it would cook the bottom faster and since I am having issues getting the top cooked I don't wanna speed up the bottom. On the other hand the last 2 pies took around 15 minutes a piece or a few minutes more. At one pie a time thats almost 40 minutes to do 2 pies. Not acceptable in my book. That's why I am thinking about dual racks.
 
Keep I mind, I am not a pizza expert.

I use lump. Run the uds has hot as it will go.

I keep the lid half off.

Cook on the grate.

Takes about 20 mins per pie.

We love them. Not much smoke on the pizza. Nice and melted too.
 
Bare in mind that with wood burning pizza ovens, the fire is next to the pizza rather than underneath it. So it won't pick up any real smoke flavour
 
I got to thinking about something too. In pizza ovens I always have several pieces of wood completely burning when they put the pizza in. When I did it in my UDS I had a basket full of wood chunks. It may have been a raging fire on the top but the fire was burning its way down to the bottom which would have gave me too much smoke. Maybe if I just put a few pieces of wood in the bottom of the basket so that the whole basket could have been burning solid, I wouldn't have got all the smoke on my pizza.
 
I cook mine from 650 to 800 degrees depending. I have not tried 2 levels/2 pies at once. I do use chunks of cherry or apple wood in with the lump as I do like a bit of wood smoke flavor in the pie. I use a deflector just above the coal basket ( bottom rack of a 3 rack set up) which will stop the bottom of the pie burning and even out the heat. If your using a Weber style lid, you have to raise the grate higher into the lid for the top to brown at the same time for even cooking. One reason I prefer a flat lid for pie's. This same added rack works in the UDS as well as my Acorn.





 
I use my deflector in the past but the last two times I did not use it I was experimenting so maybe if I had used it it would have made a big difference. I'm running a flat style red with the great 7 inches below the top.
 
If you find the top is still not cooking fast enough, that 17 inch grate with either 3 or 4 inch carriage bolts should do the trick. My top grate is just over 6 inch down from the lid. I use the 16 inch aluminum pizza pans with the air holes. I have a couple of them so I can do multi-pies. For me I prefer how they work but I do use the regular 16 pie pans when required.
 
so in a nutshell you're saying to raise my grade up to half the distance to the lid? I wondered that myself maybe putting the great just two or three inches below the lid. I wouldn't mind just raising the great that's in there instead of using a second great with carriage bolts. I already have another UDS that I use for all my smoking so this one was primarily but for hot and fast cooks like pizzas.
 
pardon my spelling I'm using voice text on my phone lol it doesn't know which great I'm talking about haha.
 
by the way do you need to preheat the UDS with the lid on to get a brown top? Or can you just put the lid on cold and get the same results? if it was said Before I apologize I must have missed it.
 
I get the UDS up to temp to make sure I have the heat/temp required, lid on. I don't rush as once your coal basket is cooking hot, it only takes 2 or 3 minutes to come back up to temp for me. Now when it is 6 degrees out side it takes around 10 to 12 minutes to get back over 650 degrees after cooking the first pie.
 
I'm going to have to try some of these tips all experiment in one way or another I will succeed lol
 
I think the inherent problem with cooking pizza on a BBQ is that the moment you open it you lose all radiant heat (with the exception of ceramic cookers) which is required to thoroughly cook the top at the same speed as the bottom
 
In regards to YetiDave's comment about losing all the radiant heat when you lift the lid has anyone here tried using one of these:

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/KettlePizza-18-5-Inch-22-5-Inch-Kettle-Grills/dp/B005SFJLOI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411136548&sr=8-1&keywords=pizza+kettle"]Amazon.com : KettlePizza Basic Kit for 18.5-Inch and 22.5-Inch Kettle Grills : Grill Rotisseries : Patio, Lawn & Garden@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41dFvn1DNsL.@@AMEPARAM@@41dFvn1DNsL[/ame]

I just built my drum smoker and would like to get the basics of that down before I start branching off into pizza, but I've been eying this as a future experiment.
 
I think the basic construction of the UDS works against top-notch pizza, at least in terms of getting the top of your pizza as evenly cooked as the bottom. These are some recent pies I've cooked, and basically what I'm looking for in terms of finished product:

IMG_0832_zpsb0548ed2.jpg


6252014BlackstoneMargheritaPeezza_zpsc0af5291.jpg


Granted, I cooked these on my Blackstone Pizza oven, but my feeling is that getting pizza anywhere close to this on a basic UDS just isn't possible.

That said, I've seen excellent results using kettles with a pre-heated stone on two bricks, in addition to the pizza kettle kit.
 
cmwr said:
so in a nutshell you're saying to raise my grade up to half the distance to the lid? I wondered that myself maybe putting the great just two or three inches below the lid. I wouldn't mind just raising the great that's in there instead of using a second great with carriage bolts. I already have another UDS that I use for all my smoking so this one was primarily but for hot and fast cooks like pizzas.
Click to expand...
You could raise the grate using bricks, or anything nonflammable such as a cast iron fry pan. Empty tin cans filled with sand, maybe.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

NCGrimbo
Question for the pizza oven guys and gals.
Replies
12
Views
675
NCGrimbo
NCGrimbo
Moose
• The OTHER Chicago Style Pizza – The Pizza Locals Eat
2
Replies
33
Views
2K
LYU370
LYU370
W
South Shore Bar Pizza
Replies
18
Views
1K
cowgirl
cowgirl
B
Testing-does a steel plate help the ooni Koda 16 retain heat?
Replies
8
Views
393
Jason TQ
Jason TQ
Jason TQ
Trying new Pizza Dough Recipe
2
Replies
26
Views
1K
Big George's BBQ
Big George's BBQ
Back
Top