Pizza @ 900 Degrees Safe?

[Graham 25]

Morning Joe's,

 

Been watching John's Pizza 101 tutorial and have successfully made my own dough and cooked a few great pizza in the 400-450 degree range with no issue. I am now looking to cook 3 - 4 pizzas on the bounce for a few friends and i wanted to know peoples experiences / opinions on getting a Big Joe III up to 900 degrees (F). I am slightly concerned that this is literally as hot as the grill goes and i don't want to damage anything. 

 

Any advice / experience people could share would be great.

 

Graham.

 

PS, some picture from a few recent cooks to get everyone hungry for the weekend. 

[John Setzler 14,888]

I don't recommend it.

 

[TKOBBQ 5,836]

Tasty looking food.

[Gebo 37]

3 hours ago, John Setzler said:

I don't recommend it.

 

I second that remark.

 

 

[Brandon Store 197]

Awesome cooking area. I wouldnt recommend it either. If Neapolitan is important to you, a pizza oven would be a good thing to get. On the kamado joe you can get pizzeria quality pizza though. Ive made great pizzas at 550(7 minutes) and 650(5 minutes). And if your feeding some friends and want to cut down on time, make bigger size pizzas that you can share instead of personal sizes. I do 16 inches on my big joe. The pizza stone for it (20 inches round) is a whole lot of real estate 

[Buttburner 149]

I see you use the parchment paper trick

 

Once I discovered that its all I use for pizza makes things much easier

[Graham 25]

Thank you to everyone that replied, such a decent forum with knowledgeable members.

 

I think Brandon has cracked it ... just make a pizza the size of the moon and you don't need to keep people waiting. Great idea ... I tried 550 for 7 mins last night and it could have been the best pizza i have ever tasted.

 

Great look from the guy in the plumbing shop when i strolled in and asked for 5 x 22 mm copper tees. "What project you got going on?" ... "Pizza ..." .... "Whatever, weirdo .."

[Gebo 37]

My problem is using the DoJoe properly.  I had one of those wooden peels and about 1/2 my pizzas hung up and ended up

folded upon insertion.  The wooden peel was too thick for me to pick up the pizza after cooking and I ended up pushing the pizza to the back of the KJ making mess number 2.  My pizzas had become Calzones.

 

I started using parchment paper and it burned and little burnt pieces stuck to the bottom of the pizza.  So, I ended up raising and lowering the lid to have better access to my pizza cook.  That sorta defeated the purpose of the DoJoe. 

 

 

Anywho, I just got me a thin aluminum perforated Pizza Peel made in Italy with a 24 inch handle. I am expected more professional looking results in my next cooks.   

 

Nothing like experience....

Edited August 29, 2020 by Gebo

[John Setzler 14,888]

@Gebo

 

 

excellent choice

 

[Gebo 37]

16 minutes ago, John Setzler said:

@Gebo

 

 

excellent choice

 

Pretty sexy...Yeppers!  That be the one. Well, your handle may be a little longer.

[John Setzler 14,888]

33 minutes ago, Gebo said:

Pretty sexy...Yeppers!  That be the one. Well, your handle may be a little longer.

 

I think i might buy the matching turning peel also.  I cook most of my pizza in this oven and I like the 48" handle.

 

[adm 422]

6 hours ago, Graham said:

Thank you to everyone that replied, such a decent forum with knowledgeable members.

 

I think Brandon has cracked it ... just make a pizza the size of the moon and you don't need to keep people waiting. Great idea ... I tried 550 for 7 mins last night and it could have been the best pizza i have ever tasted.

 

Great look from the guy in the plumbing shop when i strolled in and asked for 5 x 22 mm copper tees. "What project you got going on?" ... "Pizza ..." .... "Whatever, weirdo .."

 You CAN do pizza at 900F on the Kamado and get pretty close to wood fired oven territory with sub 2 minute cooks. The key is fill the thing with as much charcoal as you can, vents fully open and get the pizza stone up as high in the dome as you can. Then you have to be really quick getting the pizzas in and out, so you need a bit of practice. It's also easier if you have somebody else shaping and topping the pies (so teach your wife how to do that!)

 

It gets a bit frantic and stressful to be honest. And you also run the risk of sacrificing your gasket - although that KJ gasket looks like it would hold up well.

 

For all these reasons, next time I do pizza I am going to aim for the 500-600F range and just let each pizza take a few minutes longer. Slightly higher hydration dough and all should hopefully be good....

[Gebo 37]

14 minutes ago, John Setzler said:

 

I think i might buy the matching turning peel also.  I cook most of my pizza in this oven and I like the 48" handle.

 

 

That's on my wish list as well.

[fbov 336]

15 hours ago, adm said:

You CAN do pizza at 900F on the Kamado ...

But it's easier if you only go to 850F. Remember, this is a target temp you're going to try and hold while the stone and lid warm up. Be happy if it recovers to 800F between pies. 

 

16 hours ago, adm said:

... get the pizza stone up as high in the dome as you can ...

And you really need to do this to get the proper balance of top-to-bottom browning. Otherwise, a pizza oven may serve you better.

Frank

[Red&Blue Kamado 7]

On 8/30/2020 at 2:52 AM, fbov said:

But it's easier if you only go to 850F. Remember, this is a target temp you're going to try and hold while the stone and lid warm up. Be happy if it recovers to 800F between pies. 

 

And you really need to do this to get the proper balance of top-to-bottom browning. Otherwise, a pizza oven may serve you better.

Frank

I totally second that, spot on advice IMHO: I have done tons of research about the original recipe of true Neapolitan pizza (which is my personal favorite) and while the “correct” oven temp that the recipe calls for is indeed 900F, I have also settled to a target of 800/850F in my Joe Classic II (with a temp of the pizza stone of at least 750F) which results in perfect pizza in about 2 to 2 1/2 minutes with a 55% hydration dough. I have made dozens of delicious pizzas that way and (so far, knock on wood!) I have never had any issue with the mesh gaskets or anything else in the Joe.