Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Question for the BBQ experts

I've no clue about a pizza peel. Never had one before.

I can tell you Pizza on the GMG turns out great! My pizza stone does not fit, so I just laid the pizza directly on the grill and cranked it to 400.

There is one thing above all that I desire in a pizza. Crispy crust, and this one was crispy in spades.

Doesn't hurt that I've put zero heat into my apartment on one of the hottest days of the year either.

The peel is used to move and remove pizzas to and from the cooking appliance. They are long, wide and sometimes have lengthy handles to keep one from burning their hands too close to a 700F pizza oven. You can also keep the pizza stone in the oven for the next incoming pizza (assuming you make more than one at a time) as we always took the stone out with the pizza on top and afterward sliding the pizza off and onto a cutting board.

So far the poll results are telling me to go in one solid direction.


We've done pizza in the oven before in this same way, but the toppings don't come out as nice on the lower temp (can get overcooked) and the dough takes longer to cook sometimes the point of being more dried out. To get freshest toppings with a crispy crust but not dried out in the middle crust, you have to ratchet up the temp (or so i've read from various chef sites).
e.g.
http://www.thekitchn.com/want-the-best-homemade-pizza-you-have-to-turn-up-the-heat-163038

We went to a coal fired pizza place in town not long ago.
Takes about 30s per pizza to cook!
Crispy outside without being the 'break your teeth' kind of crunch, but soft inner crust that was moist.
No 'dip' required for the crusts with this pizza!

I'm using a pre-cooked crust. Most often, by the time I get home, I don't have the patience, energy, or time to make crust from scratch.

My temp was a WAG, but it seems to have worked well.

Our bread maker set up the dough for us so that it is ready when we come home to cook. It is really quite handy for making all types of dough.
I highly recommend one.

I'm going to do pulled pork for a family get together on the weekend.

The plan: 2 4lb boneless pork shoulders for 8-12 people (never know who won't be able to make it). I figure if I plan on starting 12 hours in advance (5:00am start) The pork should be done in time.

I plan on two sauces so nobody is stuck with one they don't like. I'm a big fan of a good mustard sauce, but not everyone is.

If there is room on the grill, I can try some other things like Jalapeno poppers during the day.

Never know how long a 4 pounder can take but you should be OK. If done to early wrap in foil and bath towel then put them in a cooler, they will stay hot for quite some time.

My favorite sauce for pulled pork is a vinegar based Carolina sauce.

I keep reading that every smoker is different and you just have to figure out what yours does.

I'll run it at 250 this time just to make sure. I've got a small cooler that will work just fine if I have to hold it.

I like to switch it up on sauces and like a Carolina sauce fine sometimes. I'm not sure how it would go over with the rest of the family though.

I figure I'll do a more traditional bbq style sauce for the second one.

The grown up mustard sauce is bubbling away as I type.

A 4lb pork shoulder (or Boston butt) at 250F should be about a 8h cook. We've done 6-7lbs and they finished before 10h.
The temperature probe is key. I take mine off at 195F and it usually climbs to no more than 200F while resting.
The equivalent 7lb brisket took about 12h at the same or slightly lower temp (between 225 and 250F).

We are doing ribs either tomorrow or Sunday. I'll nab some photos if the wine bottles don't get in the way.
Going back to the 2-2-1 idea.

I never cook at real low temps, for me it's 240 or 250 for most things except poultry. I never use a meat probe and really don't find it all the necessary. After a while you get a pretty good idea when things are getting done by feel or just using a meat therm like the thermapen.

It was told to me that inserting a probe before the out side of the meat hits 140 degree could introduce bacteria into the inside of the meat. Then with large muscle meat you run the risk of not getting out of the danger zone (40 to 140) in enough time (4 hours).

I agree taking the shoulder to 195 then letting it rest.

I got the PID controller in a week or so ago and had a chance to use it a couple of times. First time out the smoker temps were all over the place. It was +/-30 degree or better. It was driving me nuts wondering what was going wrong. Needless to say I was not a happy camper first time out.

Today I started the smoker at about noon. Loaded it up with charcoal as usual but instead of pouring the hot coals through out it was placed in one spot right by the fan. I set the target temp at 240 but waited to start the controller till it was around 180 or so. At first it over shot the temp by 5 degree then settled in right at the target temp. There was some fluctuation but it was only +/- 2 degree. To say I was happy about that was an understatement.

Decided to throw on a whole chicken so I upped the temp to 280. Once again it over shot by 5 degrees and settled back down to 280 and only fluctuated the same few degrees.

I can see this being a winner if this is this last time is typical of how well it runs.