For a while I've been reading about people who use their grills to cook pizza. Here are a few articles on the subject:
I also read an article about this in the Cooks Illustrated Grilling cookbook.
There are a number of strategies for cooking pizza on the grill; one approach is to grill the dough on the grates and add toppings after. Other recipes call for using a pizza stone on the grates. I chose to try the pizza stone method. I used a the directions from the MSNBC link above. Here are some pictures and comments;
- I started the grill about a half hour before cooking. I put the stone on half way through. Before I put the stone on, the temp was over 600°. After the stone went on, the temp decreased to under 500°. This was certainly due to blocking airflow in the grill (and probably caused problems later on).
- I made the dough recipe from the MSNBC link, hand kneading till I had a soft dough (not stiff). It was supposed to make 3 12" pizzas, but I couldn't get that mileage. My 3 pizzas were more like 8 inches
- After rising I tried to form the dough. I have a new found respect for those guys who can spin dough. This dough was elastic. The first pizza was oblong.
- The first try was a simple tomato, olive oil, basil, mozzarella and sea salt. Here is a picture from the grill:
- The crust on this pizza was very thin and crisp. More like a cracker on the bottom. The bottom was not burnt, only a few scorch marks. The top was pretty well cooked. The crust was pretty bland.
- The second try was with sauce, sausage and cheese. I didn't stretch it as much as the first (more like 8 inches rather than 10 inches) it also had a chance to sit for 10 minutes on the counter before forming. This pizza puffed up and had a nicer crust. The downside to this pizza was that it burnt on the bottom before it had a chance to really cook the top.
- The third attempt was better, more evenly cooked. Part of the reason for this is that I turned the dough a few times (cooked faster when it was closer to the lid/walls).
This could be a fun meal for a group... but you would need to have a good handle on the mechanics of the process... getting things ready to cook in advance.
Several posts talk about how to manage the heat for a more even cooking. This will be my next effort. I may buy some firebricks and raise the pizza stone up higher to get closer to the lid and into the hot air at the top of the grill. Here is an article that was my original inspiration... this is something I'd eventually like to try:
