Between 485 & 705 SQ/FT Mid-Century Moto Mecca Makeover

[Uofime]

Gregor,
Like many other GJ members, I have begun to make pizza inspired by you. Do you mind sharing some ingredient suggestions from the master? What combinations are your family favorites?

Since I haven’t been to a restaurant in 3 months, these pizzas have been my savior every week. The pandemic has been a perfect time to pickup this new delicious hobby.

Three pizzas in one: Pepperoni, Greek and Margherita.


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I’m a big fan of sausage, spinach and mushroom. I make it a few different ways, this has mozzarella and pecorino Romano, sometimes I just do the Romano and I want to try feta or ricotta cause I think those would be good too. Tip here is to watch the moisture of the spinach and mushrooms or your pizza can end up a little soggy
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[quadrcr87]

I made the artichoke, jalapeño and bacon last night. It was amazing! The flavor of the crust with the olive oil is so good.


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[myamoto1]

My small contribution to the pizza (sub) topic of this thread... If you have a Traeger, it works amazing for pizza. Comes out tasting just like a wood fired pizza. It even works with frozen pizza. Oddly, for some reason, gluten free frozen pizza seems to take in the smoky flavor a bit more than regular pizza. Grab a cheese and let the kids put on whatever toppings they want. Win, win all around.

 

[sakurama]

Former (retired?) Louron racer here - what years were you racing?

I think first tentative forays were in 97 or 98 and then every weekend from 99 for the next 7 or so years tapering off as we started to compete nationally with USGPRU on 125's and 250's. I switched to off road rally racing in 2006 for a few years and then, after having Nadia quit until a few years back when I competed for fun in the OMRA enduro series.

Racing was a great way to stay focused and I miss it but I also just don't want to hang it out there that much. Injuries take longer to heal now and the cost/benefit is no longer worth it. That said I wouldn't mind still doing some off road racing.

I’m a big fan of sausage, spinach and mushroom. Tip here is to watch the moisture of the spinach and mushrooms or your pizza can end up a little soggy

Looks great!

One thing (of many) that I learned from Judiaann is that a lot of foods I didn't like were being cooked wrong. I was a picky eater as a kid and didn't like a lot of vegetables but as an adult I realized my parents (like most of the era) over cooked most things.

One thing I always hated was mushrooms - mostly for the slimy texture. Judiaann taught me that mushrooms are almost never cooked correctly. The first time she made me chanterelle's I was amazed how good they were. The trick is to cook them until the moisture is out, medium high heat and some butter, letting them crisp up on the edges. They end up being more meaty and firm with a more intense flavor.

So I would never eat mushrooms on a commercial pizza or one from a restaurant (always canned usually) but at home we'll occasionally sauté up some chanterelle's and put them on a pizza.

That is probably the wonder of pizza - you can put on anything.

Thanks for sharing.

I made the artichoke, jalapeño and bacon last night. It was amazing! The flavor of the crust with the olive oil is so good.

It always sounds like a weird combo but generally people really like it. We visited our friend John Roderick this weekend in Seattle and we ordered up a few pizza's for Nadia's birthday and that was one of them. John and I finished that one between us.

My small contribution to the pizza (sub) topic of this thread... If you have a Traeger, it works amazing for pizza. Comes out tasting just like a wood fired pizza. It even works with frozen pizza. Oddly, for some reason, gluten free frozen pizza seems to take in the smoky flavor a bit more than regular pizza. Grab a cheese and let the kids put on whatever toppings they want. Win, win all around.

I've not used a Traeger but our nephew has one. The Big Green Egg is our compromise and I like being able to burn anything. I agree that the smoke and fire are certainly a big benefit. Lately we've been on the lazy side cooking in the oven because it's a production to get the fire going and it only stays at peak temp for a short period.

We need a pizza oven...

Gregor

 

[myamoto1]

I've not used a Traeger but our nephew has one. The Big Green Egg is our compromise and I like being able to burn anything. I agree that the smoke and fire are certainly a big benefit. Lately we've been on the lazy side cooking in the oven because it's a production to get the fire going and it only stays at peak temp for a short period.

We need a pizza oven...

Gregor

That's the joy of the Traeger/pellet cookers. All you have to do is fill the hopper with pellets in the flavor of your choosing, turn it on to smoke for 10 minutes (pre-heat), then crank it up to 375, pop in your pizza and you're fully cooked in 15-20. No fire management required. It's about the same time from start to finish as using the electric stove in the house. I just toss a sheet of aluminum foil down on the grate, no need for a pan. Curious to see if a pizza stone would do anything different, but if it ain't broke....

 

[elvee]

We need a pizza oven...

Gregor

Gregor, my wife and MIL went in and bought me an Ooni table top pizza oven - the Pro model that can burn wood or charcoal or can have a gas kit added. It's not the massive masonry beast that I am working towards, but it is pretty good. It's easier to get up to temp than the BGE, and much easier to keep at temp once you are cooking. So far my fastest cook is around 90 seconds. The ability to play with temp and intensity is pretty impressive.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go feed my starter so I can get this week's doughs going.

 

[sakurama]

then crank it up to 375, pop in your pizza and you're fully cooked in 15-20.

I'm not sure if the Traeger can get to the temps I want for pizza - about 600-800F. My goal for pizza is 3-4 minutes. This is the round Neapolitan style pizza we make - not the pan pizza. This high temp makes things harder but we've had good luck with Convection Broil in our oven which can reach 575F and cook a pizza in 4-5 minutes. It's easy and very close to ideal but lacks the crispness that a wood fire gives.

Gregor, my wife and MIL went in and bought me an Ooni table top pizza oven - the Pro model that can burn wood or charcoal or can have a gas kit added. It's not the massive masonry beast that I am working towards, but it is pretty good. It's easier to get up to temp than the BGE, and much easier to keep at temp once you are cooking. So far my fastest cook is around 90 seconds. The ability to play with temp and intensity is pretty impressive.

A friend who's a professional chef in Denver got one and I've been watching him experiment with it. He says it's pretty impressive and the cook times are in line with a real pizza oven. His only complaint was that it has a lot of hot spots and so he says you need to move the pizza around a fair bit. Otherwise it sounds great and I could see getting one. Like you I'd like the "real deal" but since I can see me trying to make one and I don't need that in my life maybe this is the solution for now.

Gregor

 

[myamoto1]

I'm not sure if the Traeger can get to the temps I want for pizza - about 600-800F. My goal for pizza is 3-4 minutes.

The Traeger definitely won't work, if you're looking for those temps. 410 or so is about where mine tops out. However, the crust comes out perfectly crisp, like a woodfire. I already have the Traeger so it fits the bill for now.

Of course, you'll eventually cave and build some amazing one-off pizza oven that'll force the rest of us to step up our game... Until then, I'll enjoy the Traeger

 

[elvee]

I'm beginning to think we need a separate pizza thread for toppings, dough recipes, cooking tools....

 

[mfg0772]

I finally remembered to have the wife add the necessary ingredients to our weekly grocery order. I'll be giving it a go on Friday

 

[GJ50]

If you'll forgive another pizza post, I thought I'd share my gas grill method. Using a normal Weber three burner with a sear station I can get cook times around 5-6 minutes and temps around 600 in the summer.

I use a cast iron Lodge pizza pan directly on the grates, with a brick on either side. Then on top of the bricks I put a baking steel (1/4" plate). The pie goes in the middle, usually on a thin tin pan so the bottom doesn't scorch before the top is done. And of course close the lid.

The thinking is that the cast iron and steel will absorb heat during the 30-ish minute pre-heat and get the crust to "spring" when the pie is first put in, and the baking steel on top will also "throw" heat down to get some browning on the cheese and top of the crust.

An oven at 575 with broiler should be similar, with the broiler taking over for the steel as far as browning cheese/crust, but my oven is circa-60s and struggles to pass 425. The pizza in the picture isn't my most photogenic, but I think I've been hungry lately when we've made them...

 

[gearhead1960]

Hey Gregor,

Just a FYI, while I really appreciate your index, it should be keyed to the post #. As we can set our number of posts per page to what we want, your page correlation doesn't work for everyone, unless they know what your setting is.

 

[sakurama]

If you'll forgive another pizza post...
The thinking is that the cast iron and steel will absorb heat during the 30-ish minute pre-heat and get the crust to "spring" when the pie is first put in, and the baking steel on top will also "throw" heat down to get some browning on the cheese and top of the crust.

I've spent too much of my morning between client calls looking at Ooni and homemade pizza oven designs.

Your set up is good - that's the big trick with grill methods is keeping the base from getting too hot. Pizza ovens heat from the top and grills from the bottom and so you're fighting a losing battle.

My solution on the Egg was similar but with a ceramic stone and I'd use my IR temp gun to read the stones temp and then spray it with water to cool it down. This let me keep the fire full bore to get 6-700F inside but cool the stone down to 4-500F which worked.

There's a lot of voodoo in the pizza oven but I think the difficulty is that real ovens have size and mass and small ones don't and mass smooths things out and makes the sweet spot way bigger. Not sure there's a way to trick a small oven into behaving like it has mass.

I have started to think about how to make one. The smart thing to do would be to buy one of the Ooni's and just use it to see what can be improved. If it's good enough then you never bother and just use it. Sort of a win/win.

Hey Gregor,

Just a FYI, while I really appreciate your index, it should be keyed to the post #. As we can set our number of posts per page to what we want, your page correlation doesn't work for everyone, unless they know what your setting is.

Good point... I'll try to correct that and get it updated again.

Gregor

 

[chykal]

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go feed my starter so I can get this week's doughs going.

Thanks for the reminder to feed the sourdough starter.

My daughter recently is making bread from starter. She tried to make her own but we keep the house quite cool in the winter here in Michigan so she has a hard time getting her starter going. She found a place in Ann Arbor called the Jolly Pumpkin Café & Brewery where they sell bread starter with quite a history. It was first made in France over one hundred years ago. At some point some of the discard was transported to San Francisco and then to Ann Arbor. She has been pretty successful making breads with it and is working on her crumb. We named the starter Annapurna after the Hindu goddess of food and nourishment.

Tomorrow I’ll be making pancakes for my 2 and 3 year old grandkids with it.

Yeah it makes great sourdough pancakes!

 

[Krfjkm]

Speaking of pizza ovens here is the one I built— fun project and made amazing pizza. When it was at peak temperature it would cook a pizza in 90 seconds!

 

[youinreverse]

I've also got an Ooni and I highly recommend it. I've got the Koda 16, which is the gas fueled one with burners running down one side and the back. It makes great pizza and it's super quick. most only take 1-2 minutes. I got it over some of the smaller Ooni or Roccbox so I could have a little more room to work with and have bigger pizzas if wanted, and I haven't regretted the decision.

 

[wannabridin]

Hey Gregor,

Saw this the other day and there was only one person who popped into my mind that would appreciate it more!

Found it about 1 mile from my house, so much potential!

 

[quadrcr87]

Pizza has taken over the Moto Mecca! We need some garage updates before this thing gets too far down the rabbit hole and we can't get it back.

 

[H1Pete]

Thanks guys �� I too have spent way too much time looking at Ooni pizza ovens.

 

[myamoto1]

Quad - I'm convinced the rabbit hole is moments away from being filled, because I'm also convinced Gregor is already 1/2 way through planning his own pizza oven build. I'm sure it'll have an adjustable CNC rotary table for perfect pizza placement, quad fuel (pellet, gas, electric and wood) and require at least 4 new Festool acquisitions.

 

[sakurama]

I've also got an Ooni and I highly recommend it. I've got the Koda 16, which is the gas fueled one with burners running down one side and the back.

Sadly I don't have anything at the moment to steer this back on track. I'm living the freelance dilemma at the moment: The only thing worse than no work, is work. I'm going to busy with shoots for a few weeks.

More sad is that I have in fact spent way too much time looking at pizza ovens and you guys are likely tipping me in favor of just buying one... for now. I'd love to make one but I fear I'm too much of a masochist to not turn it into something... complicated.

Elvee and I talked about how we're very much purists in the fuel department: it needs to be wood. I think gas like the Koda makes perfect sense because you can easily put the flame where you want and that's key - simple, reliable, clean and easy. Instead of an electric stove I want gas, instead of a gas pizza oven I want wood.

Clearly all I want is the difficult option in any situation. This thread is a testament to those choices...

Gregor

 

[sakurama]

Hey Gregor,

Just a FYI, while I really appreciate your index, it should be keyed to the post #. As we can set our number of posts per page to what we want, your page correlation doesn't work for everyone, unless they know what your setting is.

So I just went to do some editing and I realized why I went with page numbers. If I do a post link I think it just opens up to that post as a single post and not in the context of the thread... Not sure if that's very helpful as most things take more than a few posts...

Hmm - I'll try to think on this.

Gregor

 

[E12-535iTurbo]

Instead of an electric stove I want gas, instead of a gas pizza oven I want wood.

Gregor

Instead of bought you want build. I'm waiting for you to do the research and to copy cat you. Last week Ken Forish his book was finaly delivered so it's perfectly in line there...

Although an Ooni one is fine too as I discovered yesterday that the importer for the Benelux is actually about 3km down the road.

 

[TwoBytes]

So I just went to do some editing and I realized why I went with page numbers. If I do a post link I think it just opens up to that post as a single post and not in the context of the thread... Not sure if that's very helpful as most things take more than a few posts...

Hmm - I'll try to think on this.

Hey Gregor, you might have missed my post a few pages back, but using the method I posted below will link to the post in the context of the relevant page.

Let me know if what I've said doesn't make sense and I'll try and explain it a bit better.

Regarding the index, I posted something on Shopnut's thread a while back that you might find useful.

Shopnut ran into an issue with the 10,000 character limit per post when building his index, and I pointed out a link format that uses a few less characters...

Not sure how fussed you are about the index these days, but I think I found something that might help save a few characters. As per this page...
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/misc.php?do=bbcode#post

You can use the [post] tag instead of the full URL to do the same thing.

So this:

[PLAIN]
[URL="https://www.garagejournal.com/xenforo/forumtmp/index.php?posts/37757/"]21[/URL]
[/PLAIN]

does exactly the same thing as this...

[PLAIN]
[URL="http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=37757#post37757"]21[/URL]
[/PLAIN]

and uses 21 characters instead of 83 for exactly the same result. That’s a 75% reduction!

It won't be enough to link all of your index entries, but it will help fit a bit more in, and it's easier to type out too.

And for some reason I just had a funny feeling that this sort of hack might appeal to the engineer in you.

 

[Jefrezicus]

Hey Gregor, long time lurker on this thread but first time replying! Love the thread and oddly pizza is what made me chime in.

The pellet grill route has a magic trick with a pizza oven insert. We have used this on our Green Mountain grill and it'll get the stone to 700 degrees.

I evidently haven't posted enough to include a URL, but look up Green Mountain Grill Wood Fired Pizza Attachment.

Our pizzas haven't neared the photogenic perfection of yours, but wanted to throw the option out there!

 

[Brian_P]

I would be lying if I didn't say I struggle with the idea of building my own bike - if it's something that I have any business doing. I'm not an engineer or even a machinist or fabricator. But I think that if I'm careful and considered and take the time to test and learn I can do this.

Gregor

Ironically, the fact that you have this concern may be the strongest argument that you are, in fact, safe to proceed with the project.

Forgive me as I go out on a tangent in an attempt to clarify.

There's a term used in psychiatry - "insight." In short, this refers to one's ability to recognize his/her own mental illness. Generally, people with certain disorders have good insight (for example, most people with a pathologic fear of flying recognize that their phobia exceeds a reasonable respect for the inherent risk) and those with others rarely do (narcissistic personality disorder or schizophrenia for two examples). Good insight is associated with better engagement in and response to treatment. People with no insight rarely do well.

I'm not a psychiatrist. That said, I am a physician in a procedural specialty, and teaching faculty in a training program. So I use the term "insight" to refer to how accurately a physician understands his/her strengths and weaknesses. We all have both, and no one is perfect at everything. Ultimately, being safe and competent comes down to an appropriate relationship between confidence and ability. The most dangerous situation is someone with poor procedural or intellectual skill who is highly confident. That individual has no insight into his/her actual abilities and will write checks he/she cannot cash (figuratively speaking), thereby risking patient lives. We strive never to graduate those people. Someone with no confidence whatsoever is also dangerous (even with decent ability) - in many specialties, the patient depends on having someone available with the confidence to act decisively.

For the majority of physicians who are neither of those situations, safety/competency requires that one's confidence be proportional to one's competency. A high level of confidence is safe (and even beneficial in some specialties; sticking a scalpel into a living human being requires the confidence that you can fix anything that goes amiss) but only if your ability matches it. Someone with an acceptable, but lower level of skill may still be safe and competent if he/she has an appropriately lower level of confidence, works in a setting/specialty where help is available, and has the humility to ask for help when needed.

Needless to say, there's a reason medical training takes 7-13 post-undergraduate years (and many do not make it); close mentorship and development of good personal insight is a large part of it. Meaningful positive and negative feedback (including clear, respectful criticism) is necessary to develop. And in answer to frequent questions, yes, millennial learners pose some challenges in this paradigm. And the more/faster/cheaper ethos of for-profit medicine impairs the process.

The relevance to your case - you may not have the skills of a high level professional bike builder or engineer, though your fab skills appear to be extremely strong. But your level of confidence seems appropriate to your ability, and given the intellectual curiosity to explore relevant questions and the humility to ask for help when needed, I suspect you're safe. Perhaps more so than some professionals, not all of whom have good insight or respect their limitations. I would personally trust a bike you built.

Apologies for the prolonged tangent - I've heard you report doubts about your ability a few times over the past years of this thread, and thought the perspective might be helpful. Just scroll past if not so much...

 

[sakurama]

Hey Gregor, long time lurker on this thread but first time replying! Love the thread and oddly pizza is what made me chime in.

The pellet grill route has a magic trick with a pizza oven insert. We have used this on our Green Mountain grill and it'll get the stone to 700 degrees.

Thanks. I finally plunked down and bought a pizza oven last week and should have it by this week maybe. I went with the Roccbox for a few reasons (supposed build quality chief among them) and I'm as curious as anyone how it will work.

I tried valiantly to make the Big Green Egg work and I was able to get good pizza from it but the design, with the heat from below, is antithetical to how a traditional pizza oven works. A real pizza oven has a rolling flame across the roof which heats the stone so that the greater heat is above. Our oven on broil is about 80-90% effective so I'm curious how well the new one will work. My hope is that it will work great and that it's portable enough that we can take the pizza show on the road when we go camping.

I'll report back.

Ironically, the fact that you have this concern may be the strongest argument that you are, in fact, safe to proceed with the project.

Forgive me as I go out on a tangent in an attempt to clarify....

The relevance to your case - you may not have the skills of a high level professional bike builder or engineer, though your fab skills appear to be extremely strong. But your level of confidence seems appropriate to your ability, and given the intellectual curiosity to explore relevant questions and the humility to ask for help when needed, I suspect you're safe. Perhaps more so than some professionals, not all of whom have good insight or respect their limitations. I would personally trust a bike you built.

Apologies for the prolonged tangent - I've heard you report doubts about your ability a few times over the past years of this thread, and thought the perspective might be helpful. Just scroll past if not so much...

Thanks Brian.

I think my approach has served me well over the years - tackle something bigger than I am prepared to handle and learn like hell to figure it out. Doing that as a photographer has never had lethal consequences!

Yet.

But the swingarm breaking and the subsequent crash was a big wake up call. Sean warned me about heat treating and I wasn't fully aware of how aluminum would react. I got lucky and learned a big lesson.

If I look at the collection of people that are currently building motorcycles I could count on less than one hand those that are qualified or have "valid" training. Much of this pursuit is simply experience learned as you go. The other part of this is that 90% of the "custom" builds are nothing more than decorating a motorcycle that's already built. Either they lack the skill or the will to do anything more than change parts or fundamentally rethink the purpose of what a motorcycle is.

I find that approach really depressing. I am not into decorating. I want to change the function of the machine and that comes with risks. I find my inspiration with bicycle frame builders. They have a level of perfection that motorcycle people can only dream of. Sean, in particular, is an inspiration because he's so completely perfected his craft but applies his same meticulous skill and curiosity to his other interests. I'd asked him why he's not built a rear suspension bike and his answer was interesting; that he wasn't an engineer and he didn't think he could significantly improve on what was out there. I think about that a lot.

Part of my attraction to older bikes is that there's plenty of room for improvement - even by someone like me. I am tentatively sketching out ideas. Borrowing heavily from both the BMW HP2 and my own boxer's frame. I am trying to rein in my desire to bite off way too much and focus on what I think is the key to the function: the frame.

This is both an attempt to limit creep and to focus on a place that I think my skills are appropriately developed. So I appreciate your thoughts Brian. I think I'm in that zone and I'm trying to work out the path forward. The frame is the heart of the project and if I can work that out the rest will fall into place.

Took a trip to Seattle last week for Nadia's birthday. The ladder held up fine!

I'm almost done with a short video on the building of it. The ladder took 3 or so days to build and the video has taken three weeks...

I'll post a link when I'm done.

Gregor

 

[chrismenke]

My solution on the Egg was similar but with a ceramic stone and I'd use my IR temp gun to read the stones temp and then spray it with water to cool it down.

Gregor

No worries that this might shock the stone into exploding?

 

[sakurama]

No worries that this might shock the stone into exploding?

Yes. I was!

The listing I bought it from had these encouraging words:

"1400℉ RESISTANCE AND ROBUST THERMAL STABILITY. It is resilient for many years and will not disrupt under 1400℉ when used normally. It can tolerate an implausible amount of heat."

I figured my grill was plausible, I was plausible and I was about half of what they considered a plausible temp of "disrupting" so I took a plausible chance.

I hid behind the lid the first few times I tried it. It's been stable. Here's the link to the one I got: https://amzn.to/3tfFrCw

It's been over a year and it's held up great.

Gregor

 

[Vertigo Cycles]

I find my inspiration with bicycle frame builders. They have a level of perfection that motorcycle people can only dream of

Gregor

With your ability to visualize the entire completed project as well as your ability to see how the small details fit in to the overal project, added to your formidable fabrication skills, I have no doubt that you're going to build an incredible motorbike frame.

It will undoubtedly be a challenge, but there are 232 pages of proof that you're up to it.

 

[rvieceli]

Gregor looking forward to your evaluation on the Roccbox. Hoping that it works for you. The price point makes it a really viable option if it can perform and also hold up in use.

Ron

 

[sakurama]

Gregor looking forward to your evaluation on the Roccbox. Hoping that it works for you. The price point makes it a really viable option if it can perform and also hold up in use.

Ron

So it showed up yesterday. I can't say that I know it or that this is more than just first impressions but I don't think I made the wrong choice. In both buying over building and in the one I chose: Roccbox by Gozney.

Damn.

It is small but very solid. There's a photo on one of the pamphlets that shows a person standing on it. I am not surprised - the build quality is really exceptional. It's dense - it's almost 50lbs but the size is smaller than a standard Weber.

Also, I want to admit that I was wrong. It comes with a gas burner standard and since I wasn't sure how much oak I had left and there was only an hour til dark when the kids and I decided to try it out I just pulled a propane tank off the camper (it has two and I keep both full all the time) and hooked it up. In about 20 minutes it was 700F on the floor.

Gas is very easy. So easy.

The oven itself is smaller - like maybe a 12" pizza is all you can do. I wish it was larger but the size is a decent compromise and larger pies are always harder. Still, even a few more inches would be nice.

That's what she said! Sorry. I'll never grow up.

Since it's smaller my normal peel is too big and the metal one that comes with it is quite nice but they suggest making the pizza on the counter and then transferring it to the oven. I can make a perfectly round pizza but the transfer makes that tricky. Better to make and move on a smaller wooden one so I whipped this up from some 1/4 baltic birch scrap.

In keeping with the Neapolitan tradition I went with a simple sauce of crushed San Marzano tomatoes with just a single clove of garlic and some salt.

The oven has already taught me a lot. This dough is not my normal 70 or 72% hydration dough. The super high heat needs less water so this is 60% hydration. My normal dough is 1/4tsp yeast, 12g salt, 350g H20 and 500g ** Caputo flour but for this pizza in a much, much hotter oven we cut the hydration to 60% so it's 300g of H20.

The process is simple; put yeast and salt in the water and let sit a few minutes. Mix flour in until combined and then let rest for 20-30 minutes. Kneed and let rise covered for 4-6 hours, make into dough balls and let final rise for a few more hours - all at room temp.

Mise En place.

Built in temp probe is very slick and simple.

And pretty accurate. But I'll still use my Fluke. This thing is perhaps the single most used tool in the kitchen after the digital scale.

The kids went crazy for the thing - flames leaping, funky shape and the pizza cooks so fast you can watch the whole process from start to finish with a childs attention span. Pizza's are done in about 90 seconds.

This is, I suppose, my first attempts at true Neapolitan pizza since I've not had acces to anything this hot before.

The speed is a double edged sword - it is blazing hot and cooks in less than two minutes but if you aren't paying attention for even just a few seconds you'll burn the pizza. The back is probably 200F hotter than the front and this seems like a problem but it's just what it is (it mimics a true pizza oven in this way). You deal with by spinning the pizza 2-3 times in the cook just like a real pizza oven. You need the crust to face the vertical flame as it comes up to get the spotting and charring. The top is super hot but more even.

This was roundly lauded as the "best pizza ever" by the kids and they're pretty harsh critics - I've made and they've eaten well over 1000 pizza's since I've started "Pizza Fridays". I feel like my pizza life has been learning to race an underpowered old Miata and suddenly I'm behind the wheel of a new Porsche - or for me a GT40. The power is amazing but can get you in trouble quick.

I'm going to try the wood attachment soon but right now the ease of turning on the gas is making me lazy and the fact that the high setting is Neapolitan and the low setting is NY style really takes the work out of the whole process. I was so wrong.

We got it yesterday evening and we've had pizza for every meal for the past 24 hours.

I can't wait to take this camping. I can't believe I waited so long to get this.

I'm so happy I didn't try to build one.

Gregor

 

[rvieceli]

very nice Gregor. Thanks for the review. Looks to be a good solution to the pizza oven dilemma.

Ron

 

[elvee]

Gas? It’s like we don’t even know you...

I started looking at the Roccbox when you mentioned t, and there are a lot of things to like. The deck size would be a tough one though. I throw 14-16 inch pizzas typically. I will be watching to see your longer term views on it.

 

[sakurama]

Gas? It’s like we don’t even know you...

I started looking at the Roccbox when you mentioned t, and there are a lot of things to like. The deck size would be a tough one though. I throw 14-16 inch pizzas typically. I will be watching to see your longer term views on it.

I know. Next thing you know I'll buy a new GS and move into a condo.

Honestly the size is the only thing I don't like about it. While it's only been two and half days we've made about 20 pizzas so far. The kids begged for pizza for breakfast and since I've just kept making dough every day it's really simple to just turn it on and then make the pizza and it's ready.

The kids now want to open a pizza restaurant. They made $10 on the lemonade stand and have visions of empires. Yesterday they wanted to make their teachers pizza for lunch and since we're only two blocks from the school it was pretty simple.

Pizza is truly the food of the gods.

G

 

[elvee]

I know. Next thing you know I'll buy a new GS and move into a condo.

Honestly the size is the only thing I don't like about it. While it's only been two and half days we've made about 20 pizzas so far. The kids begged for pizza for breakfast and since I've just kept making dough every day it's really simple to just turn it on and then make the pizza and it's ready.

The kids now want to open a pizza restaurant. They made $10 on the lemonade stand and have visions of empires. Yesterday they wanted to make their teachers pizza for lunch and since we're only two blocks from the school it was pretty simple.

Pizza is truly the food of the gods.

G

Yeah, Van talks about wanting to open a pizza place. Since he is only eight we have some time to get that empire figured out.

Breakfast pizza - Pennsylvania Dutch inspired. Use apple butter for the sauce, sharp cheddar (or farmer cheese if you can find it), and sage breakfast sausage crumbles. Works great on a whole wheat crust.

Don’t see the condo happening. You would be in front of the HOA monthly for something.

 

[hilld]

Don’t see the condo happening. You would be in front of the HOA monthly for something.

Hey, I resemble that remark.

Guilty as charged.

 

[Goikification]

Long time lurker, first time poster...happy to be caught up to the pizza portion of the thread.

Living in a pizza desert and having fallen for Detroit/Sicilian/Grandma pizza we, like many have spent our indoor pandemic times attacking cooking projects to fill the void left by dining out.

One thing that has helped our pizza quality immensely has been some very excellent, PNW made pizza pans. Lloyd Detroit style pizza pans hail from Spokane and are battleship tough.

Also the Serious Eats guide to Detroit style pizza has a good primer in addition to Gregor's great advice. Their dough recipe is nice.

Keep up these fun tangents. They are much enjoyed and always insightful.

 

[sakurama]

Long time lurker, first time poster...happy to be caught up to the pizza portion of the thread.

One thing that has helped our pizza quality immensely has been some very excellent, PNW made pizza pans. Lloyd Detroit style pizza pans hail from Spokane and are battleship tough.

Keep up these fun tangents. They are much enjoyed and always insightful.

Hey thanks for posting. Also, those pans look great. I'm going to need to pick up a couple of them.

No worries on tangents. I'm sure there will be more in no time.

Gregor

 

[ronjon1190]

Happy National Pizza Day Gregor!