Little Black Egg Pizza Oven - How to make one at home

[jmolinari]

I've been using my Little black egg for a few years now, and i just posted instructions on how to make one on another food forum for Atlanta folks, 285foodies.com , and i thought i'd post it here too in an attempt to spread the gospel:) I didn't come up with this. Some folks on pizzamaking.com did, i just implemented the concept.

This will get you to the mythical 90 second neopolitan pie (assuming a proper dough), with proper char and flavor, for a small investment ($150 or so, possibly less). It's extraordinary. The only disadvantage is that it's 1 pie at a time, so the cook usually isn't eating, he's cooking and serving.

Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/jasonemolinari/LBE

You'll need:

18.5" weber kettle grill (standard grill at home depot)

1 6" unglazed quarry tile (home depot)

Bayou Classic Burner -

http://www.amazon.com/Bayou-Classic-SP10-High-Pressure-Outdoor/dp/B000291GBQ/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1220027326&sr=8-2

Instant non-contact temperature gun -

http://www.amazon.com/Raytek-MT6-MiniTemp-Infrared-Thermometer/dp/B000O80B5M/ref=pd_cp_hg_1?pf_rd_p=413863601&pf_rd_s=center-41&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B0002198GY&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=06JJE2PPDFZG7NV3Y3AD OR http://www.amazon.com/KINTREX-Clear-Temp-IRT0421-Non-Contact/dp/B0017L9Q9C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1220027403&sr=1-1 they seem to be pretty much the same.

15-16" pizza stone. I used the Old Stone Oven round pizza stone, 16". Google for it. It's expensive, but about 5 times heavier than the cheap ones, and i cracked 3 of the cheap ones before i bought this one. I think Gadget Geek had some links for some serious pizza stones as well.

16" aluminum pizza pan (like the ones they serve pizza on at restaurants). You can get them for about $3 at restaurant supply stores..otherwise you'll have to mail order it.

Heavy duty aluminum foil.

I think that's it. The assembly is as follows.

Cut a 10" or so hole in the bottom of the kettle grill. Use a bowl or something to give you an outline to cut to. Try to make it so the hole is "flat" relative to the grill...so it sits level when you put it on the burner. I'm not sure if I'm explaining what I mean.

Where ever you're going to cut the grill, cover it in masking tape so the enamel doesn't crack and propagate all over the grill. How you cut the hole is up to you. I used heavy duty dremel cutoff bits..it took about 10 of them! When I ran out of those I tried a jigsaw with a metal cutting blade, and it seemed to sail through the stuff like butter...but I didn't use it much as I was basically done. Wish I had!

Cut a vent like in my pictures on the side of the top, across from the premade top vent. My vent is about 1.5" by 8". I don't think size is super critical...just approximately that size should be fine. The original top vent is always closed.

Line all inside surfaces with HD aluminum foil..shiny side viewable.

Drill a hole in the center of you 16" pizza plate/pan and a hole in the center of the lid too. Try to make this centered. You can do this by taking the plastic off the handle, and using the screw hole that is on the metal handle as a guide. Mount the pizza pan to the top using a long bolt and a wingnut like you see in my pics. The goal of this is to reduce the volume of the top lid where hot air would end up. I reduced it even further but also putting in the lid the ash catcher that came with the grill. That's that weird small dome you see in my lid picture. If you want to do that too, just make a hole in the ash catcher, and use a longer bolt to go through that, then the pizza pan then the lid.

The grill comes with 2 grates. The cooking grate and the charcoal grate. Put the charcoal grate in the grill, and then put an UNGLAZED 6" quarry tile (available at SOME home depots) on the charcoal grate, directly above the burner. I'm using this so that the burner flame doesn't impact the pizza stone.

Put the cooking grate in put the pizza stone in.

Put the pizza stone towards the front/vent size of the grill, so there is a larger opening on the back side of the grill between the stone and the grill walls, which will force the hot air up on the back side, then out towards the front vent and over the pizza.

Close it up, light the fire, and on low-medium heat preheat for about 15 minutes...raise the heat a little, and keep preheating until your stone

is at about 750 deg (use the new temp. gun).

It takes a good 25-30 minutes to preheat it somewhat gently and so that the stone is pretty evenly heated and doesn't crack.

Slide your pizza on, close the lid quickly, and CRANK up the gas to max. This will create a huge roaring flame that will generate tons of heat,

that will be forced over the pizza and out the vent. Watch out...the air coming out is REALLY hot.

You'll have to turn your pizza about every 30-45 seconds to get it to char up evenly on the top. Do this by quickly opening the lid, grabbing the pie with some tongs, twisting it then closing the lid. Repeat as necessary. The pizza should cook in about 1.75-2.5 minutes. Depends a lot on your dough and your toppings. You can watch the pizza as it cooks and chars through the vent.

The goal is to get the bottom charry and done at the same time as the top. You might have to mess around with what your stone temperature needs to be before putting the pizza on. My best one has been stone temperature 700-750. I let all my toppings, cheese, tomato, come to room

temperature before baking.

I use about 220g per dough ball, spread to about 11". I use a wet mozzarella as the dry stuff would not to so well under the high temperature.

You'll end up with something that looks like this:

And produce goodies like this:

Margherita

Prosciutto:

Zucchini, ricotta, pancetta:

[catdaddy]

Sweet.

[Peter the eater]

Now that's a good egg. I think I know what I'll be doing this summer.

[dougal]

An inspired, and inspiring, bit of hardware hacking!

[Shaya]

This is beautiful Really inspiring, thanks for sharing. Now if only I could convince my sweetie to piece it all together for us...

[shar999]

Buy yourself a Big Green Egg and save yourself all that work. Plus it puts out fantastic tasting food. I though I was a great gas griller but since I've bought the egg I have given it away. Great tasting wood fired pizza. I've had my grill up to over 600 degrees. It takes less than 10 minutes for a great tasting pizza.

It is a price purchase but well worth it!

[Chris Hennes]

Considering that jmolinari's talking about a two minute pie cooked at 750°F, for $150 in construction materials, I'd say that if your sole goal is pizza, this setup is probably better than a BGE. Certainly a better price/performance!

[ray goud]

Now that you have a pizza oven, how about some free recipes? See the Brick Oven Cooking topic for a source.

Ray

Edited July 11, 2010 by heidih
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[jmolinari]

Buy yourself a Big Green Egg and save yourself all that work. Plus it puts out fantastic tasting food. I though I was a great gas griller but since I've bought the egg I have given it away. Great tasting wood fired pizza. I've had my grill up to over 600 degrees. It takes less than 10 minutes for a great tasting pizza.

It is a price purchase but well worth it!

The BGE is a great grill, no doubt, but it's no pizza oven. It may make a delicious pie, but it can't replicate a 2 minute neopolitan pie.

[HungryC]

Buy yourself a Big Green Egg and save yourself all that work. Plus it puts out fantastic tasting food. I though I was a great gas griller but since I've bought the egg I have given it away. Great tasting wood fired pizza. I've had my grill up to over 600 degrees. It takes less than 10 minutes for a great tasting pizza.

It is a price purchase but well worth it!

The BGE is a great grill, no doubt, but it's no pizza oven. It may make a delicious pie, but it can't replicate a 2 minute neopolitan pie.

According to whom? My large BGE easily hits 800+ with a full load of fresh lump; if you don't make the pies too large, it's a three minute pie, tops, if your platesetter & stone are fully preheated. I get great results with my Mini BGE, two pizza stones, and a raised grid.

[ray goud]

Considering that jmolinari's talking about a two minute pie cooked at 750°F, for $150 in construction materials, I'd say that if your sole goal is pizza, this setup is probably better than a BGE. Certainly a better price/performance!

Since I scratch-built a backyard brick oven for about $400-600, I would certainly say that this topic's way to cook pizza at home is quite frugal. One very important advantage to this "LBE" is the much quicker ramp-up-to-temperature profile. I don't know very much about the Green Egg, except that it's overpriced.

Ray

[jmolinari]

I'm just presenting a cheap option to make neopolitan pizza at home. I'm sure there are other methods (although i've yet to see a BGE make a neopolitan pizza), but none that i know of offer the cost/benefit this one does.

I guess i should make a topic that offers people how to make neopolitan pizza at home, and just say "buy an Acunto brick oven from naples".

[vice]

There are many ways to the same end. If I crank my gas oven up all the way (way past broil), it will reach 700F in about an hour and cook a pizza in 3 minutes. jmolinari's method is intriguing in that it is much faster and doesn't turn the house into an extension of the oven (a not inconsiderable point in these warm months).

[Joe Blowe]

If I crank my gas oven up all the way (way past broil)...

Ah, you have one of those ovens that goes to '11'

[dougal]

If I crank my gas oven up all the way (way past broil)...

Ah, you have one of those ovens that goes to '11'

700F?

370C?

More like 15 than 11 ... that's quite some Tap !!!

[Rico]

I've got a natural gas connection that runs up through my deck to a grill. Do you see any reason I wouldn't be able to use that? Does natural gas burn as hot? And do you have any more pictures, specifically of ... all the cuts you made? I want to replicate this act of genius, but I don't want to waste a Weber in the process ...

[jmolinari]

natural gas doesn't burn as hot as propane, and the nozzles on the burner would have to be changed, but it should work with modifications.

I don't have an cutting specs, other than what i posted. It doesn't require all that much accuracy, just the general concept....

[Dave the Cook]

natural gas doesn't burn as hot as propane . . .

Propane has about twice the energy per cubic foot as natural gas, but they ignite and burn at pretty much the same temperature (source here).

[jmolinari]

natural gas doesn't burn as hot as propane . . .

Propane has about twice the energy per cubic foot as natural gas, but they ignite and burn at pretty much the same temperature (source here).

you're right. i should have said propane has more energy per cu.ft. burned.

[crinoidgirl]

Does the BGE make sense as a "multitasker", as Alton Brown would say?

[jmolinari]

Uhm....hell no

[dougal]

Does the BGE make sense as a "multitasker", as Alton Brown would say?

Uhm....hell no

Maybe if you were wanting a horizontal version of an Indian 'tandoor' ... ?

[jmolinari]

Does the BGE make sense as a "multitasker", as Alton Brown would say?

Uhm....hell no

Maybe if you were wanting a horizontal version of an Indian 'tandoor' ... ?

Yeah, that would work actually. Jsut remove the pizza stone, and put some foil underneath the top grill to catch drips...

[dougal]

I was just thinking of fashioning Naan into a teardrop shape and slapping it on the stone.

Add a few skewer supports to keep skewered meats from contacting the stone, so they cook from radiation and the hot air rather than direct stone contact, and you're done ...

You'd need short skewers to allow you to keep the lid tight shut. The stone is probably the safest thing to be dripped upon - just call it seasoning or patina!

[rooftop1000]

Attache a skewer holder opposit the top vent and slide them in carefully?

I have the remains of a webber in the yard just have to convince hubby