What's Cooking?

[Mitch f]

13 minutes ago, rps said:

Looks delish! What are the chunks under the fish in the middle that I can't quite seem to make out?

[rps]

6 minutes ago, Mitch f said:

Looks delish! What are the chunks under the fish in the middle that I can't quite seem to make out?

Potato. Under all, what you cannot see is the shredded lettuce with cheese chunks.

[BilletHead]

     Another foraged and angled meal. Today white bass, morels and wild asparagus. Did have a little forage trip to wally world for the beverage. More morels and asparagus will be consumed tomorrow

BilletHead

[rps]

Some weeks ago Nancy and I froze some of the leftover cassoulet that was a blog post subject. This afternoon, I took that out of the freezer and added a quart of chicken stock, half a diced onion, a diced carrot, and a diced stalk of celery. I also minced and added three cloves of garlic. I pulled the meat from the beans and chopped it up. We now have a thick, rich, and hearty soup going in a slow cooker. Pictures later this evening.

[ness]

Got a new toy. It sits on the Weber kettle. Charcoal and wood chunks at the back. No soaking the wood, just throw it on top of the coals and let it burn. That's where the high heat comes from -- around 700 or more

[Flysmallie]

4 hours ago, ness said:

Got a new toy. It sits on the Weber kettle. Charcoal and wood chunks at the back. No soaking the wood, just throw it on top of the coals and let it burn. That's where the high heat comes from -- around 700 or more

So you did buy one! How was it? Worth the cash?

[ness]

1 hour ago, Flysmallie said:

So you did buy one! How was it? Worth the cash?

I didn't need it, but I wanted it, so that's kinda hard say if it was worth it. I love pizza and the people I love do too so I guess that's all good.   Cost was around $140 for the unit, but I also got an aluminum peel and a new stone to go with it pushing the total bill to $205. I'm glad I got those two things. My old pizza stone is getting pretty rough on top, and the thin aluminum slides under a lot easier than my thicker bamboo ones.

A lot of it is technique -- coals at the back, stone towards the front. Preheat the stone, then throw in the wood and let it catch fire driving up the temp. You could probably use that same technique with just the kettle and a stone....

A lot of the reviews I read said they were getting up to 900 degrees. I topped out at 700 and it only stayed there for maybe 20 minutes then it began to fall. I was waiting to see if it would go higher and used up too much fuel -- I only got one pizza done before the temp started to drop. I think it was in there around 4-5 minutes. After that, I lifted the unit off and tossed in more wood but I couldn't get the temp back up there. By then the charcoal was petering out too. Second pizza didn't brown as nicely on top with the lower temp (got up to around 600) but I had to take it out because the bottom was done. Should have started the first one when it hit 700 -- I would have had plenty of time for two or more. Bit of a learning curve.

BTW -- that was store-bought frozen pizza dough. Next weekend it's gonna be ness dough. Maybe with sourdough if I get ambitious and can bring my neglected culture back to life.

[Flysmallie]

Yeah I've done it on a Weber with lump charcoal and NO pizza stone very successfully. I've also done it on a pizza stone in a Big Green Egg but liked the results I got out of the weber better. But I have more experience at that as well. Temp is everything with pizza.

 

 

[Chief Grey Bear]

6 hours ago, ness said:

Got a new toy. It sits on the Weber kettle. Charcoal and wood chunks at the back. No soaking the wood, just throw it on top of the coals and let it burn. That's where the high heat comes from -- around 700 or more

I could see this being a lot of fun. Way to go! 

I haven't grilled a pizza in a few years but I love them! I was cheap and just put mine right on the grate. My biggest problem was I always rolled the dough thin, I like thin crust, and added 10lbs of toppings!! 

 

[BilletHead]

        Ness,

I love you man!    Pizza party at NessVille.   Does that put me in the ones you love?

BilletHead