Made a Pizza Oven from my Weber Genesis grill

[coyote-1]

Any of you who grill pizza find it delicious... and maddening, as the toppings rarely cook as thoroughly as we'd like while the crust burns. The cure, as explained in many places on the web, is to get heat radiating from the top.

The Genesis, along with many subsequent Weber (and many other brand) gas grills, has a 24" x 18" grilling surface. So I purchased a like-sized, 3.5" deep steel pan at a restaurant supply. You can get them on the web for like $35 shipped. That functions as the 'top' of the pizza oven.I also purchased a dozen 1" x 4" x 8" firebricks, a piece of 12" x 24" expanded steel, a 12" x 18" weldable steel sheet, and an 8" x 24" weldable sheet. I chiseled the brick, bent the metal, and put it together and burned it in yesterday. Tomorrow will be the first experimental pizza.

I'll take some pics and post 'em to show how it's put together.

 

[alelover]

Would like to see how that "pans" out.

  Sorry couldn't help myself.

 

[SmokinAl]

Looking forward to the pics.

 

[coyote-1]

Did my thing last night. Got a 14" wooden pizza peel at BedBath & Beyond, and it worked great. Tossed a chunk of oak in the side of the grill/oven, right on the grates, and it lent a "wood char" flavor without being a 'smoked' flavor.

The pies came out pretty good! They were somewhere between pizza and focaccia. I did 4-cheese with sliced plum tomatoes, and various toppings: ham, pickled pepper, arugula, garlic, oregano, onion. I used a dough from a local pizzeria, and divided it in three. The round pizza stone is 15" diameter. I was originally gonna do only one pizza as a test, but the wife said "Do it all!" I was therefore a bit short on ingredients, but they were good anyway. The objectives of the first round were met: Great crisp crust, toppings thoroughly cooked. I also played with tossing the dough, pizzeria-style - that was fun, and it worked.

Lessons:

a) Use more toppings. As I said was not gonna do that much pizza. So I anticipated the issue.. but will ensure I have more ingredients on-hand next time.

b) Use less dough. I was seeking thin-crust pizzas, but got thick ones. I could easily have divided that dough into six, and gotten the results I wanted.

c) keep practicing the toss. :)

Pictures will be up later today or tomorrow.

 

[Bearcarver]

Looking forward to the pics.

Plus One.

Bear

 

[coyote-1]

Some detail of the sides:

[

A peek "under the hood", showing the expanded metal holding two firebricks in-place:

The oven, ready to roll:

]

Third pie, cooking!

Pieces of first two pies... the rest got consumed already  :)

 

[meateater]

Nice! I loved grilled pizza's. 

 

[Bearcarver]

Nice job!

Thanks for the pics!

Bear

 

[coyote-1]

Glad to provide 'em, and thanks for the props!

The whole thing breaks down in seconds, and stores nicely on the undershelf. Each side wall is two shaped bricks contained in steel, and the expanded steel comes off the pan - so that pan can be used for other purposes if needed. Cost of materials:

pizza stone $30

24x18 pan $35

refractory brick $12

expanded & sheet steel $22

pizza peel $10

So for a little over $100, I get a fully functional "brick oven".

 

Nice job!

Thanks for the pics!

Bear

 

[alelover]

Looks great. If you let the dough rise longer then refridge overnight then let rise one more time then make the pie. You will get a thinner crust.

 

[coyote-1]

Last batch didn't work out too well. They were delicious, but I had to hurry because we had company and were on our way to a concert. Suffice to say that one of the pizzas leaked onto the stone, which broke when I tried to scrape the muck off. That muck prevented every subsequent pizza from lifting smoothly off the stone. Fortunately, they were delicious anyway....  this is an opportunity to pick up a new pizza stone, and to refine my technique as follows: New pizzas get made on the wood peel (NOT on the counter lol), which is sprinkled with corn meal. Pizzas already in get manipulated/removed with the metal peel that came with the stone. Can only prep one pizza in advance that way, but such is life.

The compromise would be to get small pizza screens. If we end up doing this frequently enough, I might end up doing that.

 

[minden man]

Instead of buying a pizza stone, what I did was go to the Home Depot and get a 18x18"x1/2" unfinished travertine tile for $2.00 and had them cut it to the dimensions I wanted. It took two years for mine to finally crack, and for two bucks, who could complain?

 

[scarbelly]

I am building an outdoor kitchen which will include a pizza oven. I am looking forward to getting up and running in the next 5-6 months

Pizza is awesome

 

[billebouy]

Hmm, you got me thinking here.

Just what I need, another project...

lol.