pizza on the grill question?

[browneye]

I have been dying to try pizza on the grill and my question is this: I only have a charcoal kettle (Weber) grill. I don't have a propane. Does anyone else have experience doing pizzas on the Weber? Since it doesn't get as hot as a propane, I am wondering if it would still work out okay for pizza..
Thanks in advance!

[lorilei]

Seconding this request, as I've never tried grilling a pizza on our grill -- but it's beginning to sound awfully tempting http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/wink.gif

[JHolcomb]

Probably, but I would make sure to grill over indirect heat.

[RunnerKim]

I would think it would. I have made pizzas while camping over a charcoal fire that was not very hot at all. Takes longer of course. I do cook my crust for a bit first before adding the toppings and you need to cover the pizza to get the cheese to melt - not an issue with BBQs but while camping I had to improvise an AL foil tent. Can't wait to use my new cast-iron Dutch oven this year though.

Kim

[Ralph]

I've made pizza on my Weber kettle grill several times & it's great. Direct heat is used.

Obviously, it'll have to be a thin crust. You first need to cook the crust a little as Kim suggests - carefully slide the uncooked crust onto a well greased rack, put the lid on & in a minute or two it will become quite puffy. Turn the crust over for another minute. Take it off the heat, add your toppings, then carefully slide it back onto the rack, cover, & cook until cheese is desirably melted.

Note that your toppings have to be already cooked (such as crumbled sausage) or ready to eat (such as pepperoni, veggies, etc.). You're not really "cooking" the toppings - you're just heating them in a very high temperature "oven."

[LaraW]

One thing that I have found that works well is to refrigerate your crust for 15 minutes or so before placing on the grill. It really makes the dough easier to handle.

[Chef Cindy]

I have been wanting to try pizza on an outdoor grill also. I saw a cooking show last summer where they had a pizza party and had the fixins for the guests to make individual pizzas. It seemed like a neat idea for a different sort of party and everyone was involved.

[kwormann]

I second putting the dough in the fridge first....we forgot that last time and it was sooo hard ti get it onto the grill!

Kim

[browneye]

Well, we did grill pizza last night and I thought I would share our mixed results..
First I must say that although it took me several tries to master homemade pizza in the regular oven, I now have that consistently mastered and it is some of our favorite stuff...

SO, here is what happened with the Weber grill version.. First, I think we used too many coals, because the first pizza we tried burned on the bottom, but just barely melted on the top http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/frown.gif we had fun picking the "smoked" mushrooms off of the top and eating them as appetizers while we let the coals cool for a while and tried again. Unfortunately, we may have gone to extremes on that too because the second pizza barely cooked at all!!!
All in all, though it was a unique experience. We did love the taste but agreed that maybe I should stick to my tried and true oven-baked method. I think this would be much easier with the more controllable propane grill.
We used a grill-pan with holes in it like they make to grill veges on the grill, which made it very easy to put the dough on and off and flip it over, etc. I would recommend it for you folks who have the grill pizza technique down.
Oh well, we had fun sipping the wine and chatting while we experimented http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/wink.gif