I haven’t completely decided. I need to make more and differing things to fully evaluate. Like pizza
However, from today’s perspective, the thing isn’t twee. I no longer think the retail price for the Egg itself is outrageous. Where they bend you over is with all the BGE-branded supplies, tools and accessories. For instance, a small bag of fruit wood chunks is $28. Thankfully, there’s no shortage of aftermarket everything that is reasonable.
I can see that. So many things like that, like Boos brand mineral wood for cutting board or All Clad brand of stainless steel cleaner. I have a gut feeling that that Eggs are best for people enjoy slow and long cooking.
I had a large BGE for about 10 years and loved it, until I was seduced by this baby, a Komodo Kamado Big Bad 32
Although they can hold steady temperatures for many hours, I think kamados get used by most owners to grill, roast, make pizza, and do other higher temp, short-duration things. I’m impressed that you can do something quick, and then smother the fire and preserve most of the fuel.
Are you tempted?
The blue tiles and stainless trims are attractive to my eye. But the initial investment and the upkeep of the tiles / grout make it not the best choice for me. But I do think they’re the prettiest kamado option.
Nah. Not for now. I don’t have space for a Big Green Egg.
FWIW, other than wiping them clean I haven’t had any issues with the tiles and I’ve not had to do anything with the grout.
It is a joy to use.
They’re not all big…
Bumping this thread to ask if anyone here has experience doing pizza in a BGE. Yesterday Mr. FedEx brought a 16" stone, so I’m eager to try making pizza.
I’ve read that the Egg should be first heated to hold the steady desired temp, then the stone put in, then the pie when the “set” temp is regained. But I’m wondering why not preheat everyting all at once?
Also, what should that set temperature be, generally? If the dough contains sugar, should it be lower? If it doesn’t, how high can I go?
Thanks in advance.
It looks like it could be a cousin of R2 D2!
I have cooked a lot on a BGE and other kamado cookers; but I have no pizza experience with the BGE, though I do with the ooni.
We make thin crust pizzas that should bake in 1.5-3 minutes at around 850-900 F on the Ooni.
I can’t think of an advantage to heating the stone quickly as you describe. It seems it could potentiate the likelihood of cracking the stone, though this may not be a real issue.
What style pizza and what temperature are you considering? Sounds like fun, especially if you can slow the cook and get some smoke on the pie.
Yes, the only advantage would be saving a little time. The downside, as you point out, might be loss of the stone. I also wonder about using the regained AIR temperature as a mark for the right STONE preheat.
I was not considering temperatures as high as 800-900F. More like 600F to start. But if I can approximate real Neapolitan 90-second pies, bring on the heat. I recently saw a photo of a thermocouple readout, allegedly from a BGE, showing >1800F. This is smelting territory!
I have no experience with the Egg but pretty much everywhere it is always advised to not pit a pizza stone in an already hot oven as it will lead to thermal shock and can crack the stone
I see the physics and logic here, but that is indeed what BGE prescribes in one of its official cookbooks.
The method (putting in the cold stone and waiting for the dome temp to return) is presented as an easy way to tell whether the stone is hot enough to cook. This MAY imply that a fully-preheated stone may be too hot–relative to the radiant heat from the dome–for a balanced result.
I’m new to BGEs, so I don’t know how long, i.e., how gradually, the system takes to come back to temperature. I do know that whenever the Egg’s opened, a lot of the system’s heat is lost. So the thermal shock of this method, at least with a dry stone on a wire rack, may not be that severe.
Time will tell.
My family has baked a lot of pizzas in the BGE, but switched to indoors on a steel of late. Not much difference, and arguably a lot less fuss.
i wouldn’t put the stone in a hot egg unless you want it to crack sooner than it otherwise would.
Pretty sure the steel people make a 16” round now.
Thanks, this is useful.
When you cooked pies in the BGE, it was indirect, yes? And the stone, what level?
My first pizza is ready to bake, and I have the stone at the felt level. Much below that, a peel would seem problematic.
My steel could be cut down to a 16" round, if I find a friend with a plasma cutter.
I don’t know the technical term, but same grate level as we grill everything else. It gets very hot, so I don’t think you want it any closer to the coals.
The felt line is the level of the gasket.
I’ve seen mention of pizzas cooked directly on the “plate setter”, which sits lower.
The vernacular is confusing.
I like that your going to use the big green egg . The bottom of the pie is going to cook very hot .
Try using a high hydration dough at 65 % .
I cooking another pizza in the Gozney this weekend. I upped the yeast to almost 1 % . 64 % hydration. Ill be cooking at just above 900 degrees.
Im still tweaking the dough recipe.
I use Trader Joe’s pizza dough. We cut each pack of dough in half, roll it into a ball and let it proof all day in a bowl covered in cling wrap. Then we cook thin 12” pizzas with tomato sauce, mozzarella and mushrooms at 850-900 in an Ooni koda. I am not sure we are going to get into making our own dough from scratch. We live near a pizzeria and I’ve considered asking them to sell me dough balls.
