Chris Topher 150 Report post Posted September 14, 2018 14 minutes ago, smokincat411 said: I just got my Akorn and really want to try my luck on pizza soon. Can you put the pizza directly on the smoking stone under the grate, or should you put it more on top like this? Could you just put the smoking stone on some kind of rack and get it up off the grates and have the same affect? Thanks for any suggestions. Under the grate will be too close to the fire, and you will end up with a burnt mess. You really need to get the pizza up in the dome or close to some other radiant heat source (hence a stone on the warming rack) to cook the toppings while also cooking the crust via the pizza stone/steel. It’s really a balancing act of time, temp, dough, and set -up. 2 smokincat411 and TKOBBQ reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fbov 157 Report post Posted September 15, 2018 (edited) For pizza, you want to heat the pizza stone to the temp reading on the dome - air temperature under the lid. The pizza stone should not "see" the fire at all. The deflector has to block it. How best to do so? Standard deflector position and stone on grate works very well, but the crust will be done before the top browns. It still wants a few minutes under the broiler. That's the basis for @Chris Tophercomments about a second radiant heat sources to increase top browning. Another popular option puts the deflector on the grate and spaces the pizza stone an inch or so above it with metal spacers (pipe fittings are popular). This gets the pizza in the hottest part of the rig, but it was never enough to brown the top for my taste, either. I never tried a second stone on the aux grate, though. HAve fun, Frank Edited September 15, 2018 by fbov Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
