Stone or Grates, that is the question!

[Gotbbq]

Hey, About to do my first pizza on the Bull. I have the sear grates. I also have a pizza stone from my BGE. Better on the stone or better on the grates. I've made my own dough. Thoughts? ??

 

[Blues1]

Wish I could help. I've only used the grates and have been quite happy with the results. Lots of folks use stones with good results too. Someone here will be able to help. You'll probably get mixed answers though as I think they both are adequate.

BTW, I've also done it directly on the rack. Still turned out good...

 

[Bytor]

I use a screen on my Trailblazer with good results.

 

[Buckeye smoker]

Nothing wrong imo with the grates or screens. I have and use a stone. (10$ stone from Rural King)...it works great, and keeps the pizza hot obviously after taking it out of the smoker. It has a carry rack for the stone that came with it.

 

[Roaniecowpony]

I haven't done pizza on my pellet grill. But my pizza experience tells me that a hotter, faster cook will be more tender "crumb". During the initial part of the cook, the direct heat on the bottom of a pizza from a stone, steel, grates, oven air, etc., will contribute to the rapid rising (a.k.a. "oven spring") of the dough. The faster heat is transferred into the dough, the faster the dough rises and more "airy" the dough becomes. After that, the longer the cook, the tougher and harder the dough becomes. Classic NY style is cooked at 550-600F and has a nice chewy dough, but not tough. Neapolitan pizza is cooked at 800-850F and has a very tender crumb much like the inside of a fresh loaf of french bread.

Air transfers heat slowly, a stone with direct contact on the dough is pretty quick, steel much quick heat transfer than stone, and aluminum, much quicker than steel. But the grill grates are very thin and don't retain much heat energy. I used to have a big 5/16" thick steel plate that I put in my oven to get that fast oven spring. If you own the Rectec steel griddle, it will hold more energy than the aluminum grill grates.

With the information above, you should be able to decide what you want from your pizza dough and find a path toward that goal. My wife and I like the tender crumb you get from really high temps around 800 +. So, that limits me to making them on my pizza oven.

 

[Gotbbq]

I haven't done pizza on my pellet grill. But my pizza experience tells me that a hotter, faster cook will be more tender "crumb". During the initial part of the cook, the direct heat on the bottom of a pizza from a stone, steel, grates, oven air, etc., will contribute to the rapid rising (a.k.a. "oven spring") of the dough. The faster heat is transferred into the dough, the faster the dough rises and more "airy" the dough becomes. After that, the longer the cook, the tougher and harder the dough becomes. Classic NY style is cooked at 550-600F and has a nice chewy dough, but not tough. Neapolitan pizza is cooked at 800-850F and has a very tender crumb much like the inside of a fresh loaf of french bread.

Air transfers heat slowly, a stone with direct contact on the dough is pretty quick, steel much quick heat transfer than stone, and aluminum, much quicker than steel. But the grill grates are very thin and don't retain much heat energy. I used to have a big 5/16" thick steel plate that I put in my oven to get that fast oven spring. If you own the Rectec steel griddle, it will hold more energy than the aluminum grill grates.

With the information above, you should be able to decide what you want from your pizza dough and find a path toward that goal. My wife and I like the tender crumb you get from really high temps around 800 +. So, that limits me to making them on my pizza oven.

I have a big green egg that reaches 900 degrees and makes good pizza. Just wanted to see if the Bull could be similar.