Earlier this year I bought camp chef explorer 2 from Cabela’s when they had a good sale.   I also bought the Camp Chef italia Artesian pizza oven 60 accessory.   I have practiced using the pizza accessory the past 2 months making pizza on it, to understand how to use it effectively to get my desired look.   I wanted a portable option for making pizza while going car camping.
 
On a cold day with high winds I made some calzones and I  struggled to keep temperature over 350F in high winds with single degrees C temperature while keeping setting of burner at medium.  I didn’t take any pictures because although the calzones tasted good, I didn’t have the colour on top that I wanted,    Yesterday was also single temp C temperatures but this time no wind, I was able to use same settings and maintain 600F temperature.    The Pizza was hit at the lake with my friends.  
 
Photos I have attached are from tonight’s run.   Today one of my sons requested pork lovers sourdough pizza.    I used  fried up medium Italian sausage, chopped up Black Forest ham and chopped upApple smoked  Bacon which I had crisped up.   The cheese I used was extra old cheddar cheese with my homemade crushed tomato pizza sauce.    It turned out as good combination.   
 
I would highly recommend the camp chef oven with the pizza accessory.  It is a nice option if you like pizza.    I still have to try planked fish on it.     
 
 I recommend practicing with it to understand how to get results you desire for pizza before taking it camping.   One of the things I need to do to get cheese browned was after bottom of pie done, that I had to lift pie up close to  dome for a couple of minutes.    I never had to do this in my kamado.      Glad I now have pizza option for car camping and that I practiced using it to understand how to be successful.     Here are some pictures from tonight pizza.    

Below are the results of my first cook on the DoJoe. Did two pies, the dough was the Ken Forkish 24 hr dough. No real modifications except i combined the initial dough in the food processor. 
 
The grill toped out at about 575. 8 min cooks. 1 rotation half way. 
 
Lessons learned: I used some leftover charcoal (maybe 1/4 basket) from a previous cook. Going to try to ramp the heat to 650 by using all new lump. I also lit in a single spot from below like i normally do using a couple of KJ starter cubes.  I think next time im going to try to light in 3 spots up top. 
 
Also going to back the hydration down to 65% to try and get some more lift in the crust. No undercarriage pics. That’s my bad. If anyone has any suggestions would love to hear them. Happy to answer any questions. Not a bad first cook overall, but more to be desired. 

Hi all, I was in love with my Akorn rotisserie setup but bored with birds, I decided to put some SLC ribs on a rotisserie setup. Ribs came from Costco pre-dry rub. Had three chunks of Kiawe wood on top of a snake of charcoals. No drip pan but the fire is on the side. Grill was around 350-400 degrees most of time and only took two hours for the ribs to be done. The rotisserie eliminated the under/over cooked spots and from now on I'll always do ribs on a rotisserie!
Check out the video I made and enjoy the weekend 
 
 

As the title suggests, I am looking for help getting my Akorn to act the way I want it to for smoking purposes. 

I have the smoking stone, use a water pan, and lower my dampers until it basically snuffs out my fire, but I cannot seem to keep my Akorn at 225. 

Now, I will admit that I am new to smoking and that there is a lot to be learned, but I have read tons of guides and watched videos and replicated them to my best ability, but still cannot get it to work for me. 
 
Currently, my process is this:
 
Open dampers all the way Fill bottom of grill full of hardwood lump Light with cotton balls soaked in alcohol Toss in a couple chunks of hickory Place my smoking stone Place my water pan Close lid and let set until 150 Close dampers halfway until 180 Close dampers again halfway until 210 Close dampers halfway one last time to about .5 on top and bottom.  
1 of 2 things happens here. Either the temp keeps building to nearly 300 or the fire dies. 
 
I play with the dampers making very small .5 adjustments to try and finagle it, but I cannot seem to get it right. 
 
When I do seem to get the temps in a semi stable range around 230-260 (after LOTS of adjustments), after about an hour I go to spritz my meat with some apple juice and the temps take off again (Obviously because I just fed it a lot of oxygen) and never seem to come back down. 
 
I have read about this "volcano" method of lighting the coals, but I literally have not found any videos or pictures on how to set that up. 
 
Basically, I have no idea what I am doing wrong and I could use someone being critical of my process to give me some advice and direction. 
 
Thanks for any feedback!

 
 

Finally I got around to finish this idea I had for a long time, ever since I made the pizza ring. I picked up a set of Weber Rotisserie and lathed part of the shaft round to fit the Akorn. I cut two little "V" on the pizza ring and the drive motor sits perfectly on top fo the side table - lucked out on that one! The chickens were marinaded with Hawaiian Huli Huli Sauce for two days, with some Hawaiian Salt Seasoning, freshly ground pepper and they turned out amazing. I gotta thank my neighbor who worked at a construction site and got me a tuck load of dried out Kiawe wood. It burns really hot and long lasting. I'm starting to put a kit together and will report back on the progress.