# Pizza on the MB Gravity 1050 - This is the way



## smokewaggin (Jun 16, 2021)

Did pizza on the 1050 for the first time tonight.  Had previously made it in the oven or right on the grates of a gas grill.  Bought a couple of 15x12 5/8" thick pizza stones and put them on the bottom rack.  I put a cast iron griddle on the second rack to reflect heat down from the top.  I used a mix of B&B lump and Royal Oak briquettes with a split of hickory set vertical in the middle of the hopper.  Got the coals lit and fired it up to 600 ℉. I let it run for an hour+ before putting the pizzas on.  Not sure what the stone temp was as I didn't have an infrared thermometer to confirm (Ordered one though!).  

Wife made a home made sourdough cast off(with garlic!) recipe for one, and a store bought rosemary/olive oil  for the other(Last minute guests so we needed more dough).  Used the last of our home made sauce from last years mater harvest.  Pics are attached.  Pic of the pizzas on the grill are part way through the cook, mainly to show how I have everything set up. The weirdly shaped one is the store bought rosemary and olive oil (Would not stay stretched out well), but it browned up perfectly.  Sour dough doesn't brown up as much so it is the one that is not as dark.  They both had perfect crunch, with soft perfectly cooked dough in the middle.  Best part was the flavor, it was just there.  I doubt I could tell the difference flavor wise between these and ones made in a wood fired pizza oven.  Everyone loved it.  Every slice disappeared, so now I don't have any leftovers for lunch like I normally do.  Doubt we will ever cook pizza any other way.


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## bigfurmn (Jun 16, 2021)

Dang that looks better than what bought at my favorite place tonight!!!


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## smokin peachey (Jun 16, 2021)

Wowzer you hit that pizza out of the park!


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## smokewaggin (Jun 16, 2021)

bigfurmn said:


> Dang that looks better than what bought at my favorite place tonight!!!


We stopped buying pizzas when we started making the sour dough cast off recipe and putting it right on the grates of a gas grill.  It's really good.  The combination of the the pizza stones and coal/wood fire just puts it over the top.  As soon as our garden tomatoes start coming in we are going to try a margherita style.  We did that last year multiple times with fresh maters and basil (Sweet and Purple basil) from our garden and it was fantastic, it can only get better on the 1050 we figure.  We've got the basil already, just waiting on the maters.


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## kilo charlie (Jun 16, 2021)

Fantastic looking pizza!


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## smokewaggin (Jun 16, 2021)

smokin peachey said:


> Wowzer you hit that pizza out of the park!



It definitely turned out better than expected.  I was a bit nervous since it was the first pizza on the 1050 and we had 3 extra guests that we didn't know about until 2 hours before.  Takes quite a while to make our normal dough recipe from sour dough cast off and we were in a bit of a scramble.  Wife ran to the store and grabbed the extra dough, which probably didn't get to sit out long enough. We had used it before and it usually forms out nicely, but this time it wouldn't.


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## bigfurmn (Jun 16, 2021)

It looks incredible! Glad everyone enjoyed it, even the store bought.


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## olaf (Jun 16, 2021)

Everytime I try that it turns into a disaster but your pizza is inspiring me to try again.


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## SmokinEdge (Jun 16, 2021)

Looks incredible.


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## Fueling Around (Jun 16, 2021)

My avatar is my brother's portable pizza oven.
(I'm still constructing mine.)
Wood fired


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## JLeonard (Jun 17, 2021)

Some good looking pies! I'd not turn it down.
Jim


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## smokewaggin (Jun 17, 2021)

Fueling Around said:


> My avatar is my brother's portable pizza oven.
> (I'm still constructing mine.)
> Wood fired


That looks cool as heck.  One thing I wish about the 1050 is that it was more portable. Its a big heavy SOB.  My cabinet gasser was easy to pick up and move around and I could get a ton of meat in it.  We camp multipke times a year and the smoker always came with us.


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## mcokevin (Jun 17, 2021)

Pizza is on my list of things to try on the 1050, and yours sure looks good.  My wife makes a mean pizza dough and I just know putting it on the 1050 with a split in the hopper will take it up a couple of notches.  I have a basic practical question if you don't mind -- how do you get the pizza on to the screaming hot stone in one piece?  We normally spread the dough and build our pizza on the (cold) pizza tray, then throw the whole tray into the oven.  Obviously not an option with a hot stone!

Nice look with the griddle on the middle shelf too.  Bright idea to make a makeshift pizza oven.




smokewaggin said:


> I let it run for an hour+ before putting the pizzas on.



My charcoal hurts.


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## SmokinVOLfan (Jun 17, 2021)

Pizza looks great! Nice job on that.


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## smokewaggin (Jun 17, 2021)

mcokevin said:


> Pizza is on my list of things to try on the 1050, and yours sure looks good.  My wife makes a mean pizza dough and I just know putting it on the 1050 with a split in the hopper will take it up a couple of notches.  I have a basic practical question if you don't mind -- how do you get the pizza on to the screaming hot stone in one piece?  We normally spread the dough and build our pizza on the (cold) pizza tray, then throw the whole tray into the oven.  Obviously not an option with a hot stone!
> 
> Nice look with the griddle on the middle shelf too.  Bright idea to make a makeshift pizza oven.
> 
> ...


The pizzas were built on parchment, then slid onto the stones(wearing high temp resist glives). Parchment was removed after about a minute or two.  Parchment can catch fire once you start getting to 500f so it can't stay in at these temps.  I also read you get a better crust with the dough directly on the stones. The parchment slid right out from under the pizzas once the crust cooked a bit.  In the future we will build on a peel(Already ordered) and use it to transfer to the stones.

I had read that often you need to turn your pizzas part way through cooks to make sure everything cooks uniformly, even with stones.  Luckily that was not the case with this set up, which was nice since I didn't have a peel.  The crust on the store bought was just perfect, the sourdough had a spot that didn't brown, but was still crunchy.  I think finding the right size stones so you have good spacing around and between them, along with the cast iron above them, helped.  I was thinking the cast iron wasn't quite deep enough, but seems to have done the trick.

Edit:As for charcoal use, it burned less than i thought it would. 1/4 to 1/3 down when I checked this am. Once I get an infrared thermometer ill be able to narrow time down.  This time i wanted to be sure stones were hot.


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## mcokevin (Jun 17, 2021)

smokewaggin said:


> The pizzas were built on parchment, then slid onto the stones(wearing high temp resist glives). Parchment was removed after about a minute or two.  Parchment can catch fire once you start getting to 500f so it can't stay in at these temps.  I also read you get a better crust with the dough directly on the stones. The parchment slid right out from under the pizzas once the crust cooked a bit.  In the future we will build on a peel(Already ordered) and use it to transfer to the stones.
> 
> I had read that often you need to turn your pizzas part way through cooks to make sure everything cooks uniformly, even with stones.  Luckily that was not the case with this set up, which was nice since I didn't have a peel.  The crust on the store bought was just perfect, the sourdough had a spot that didn't brown, but was still crunchy.  I think finding the right size stones so you have good spacing around and between them, along with the cast iron above them, helped.  I was thinking the cast iron wasn't quite deep enough, but seems to have done the trick.


This is great info - thanks for the feedback.  Yeah, I guess a peel would be easiest.  Flour it it up and the pie should slide right on to the stone!  Parchment paper is a good little trick too though.


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## smokewaggin (Jun 17, 2021)

olaf said:


> Everytime I try that it turns into a disaster but your pizza is inspiring me to try again.


Id definitly give it a go.  I wish I would have bought a pizza stone ages ago after using them last night.  Cooking directly on the grates if my gas grill tooka LOT of trial and error.  I had seen a few folks having lots of success on the gravity series with stones, then found a couple.of perfect size stones on Amazon on sale for $20 each.  Which made it an easy decision.


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## smokewaggin (Jun 17, 2021)

mcokevin said:


> This is great info - thanks for the feedback.  Yeah, I guess a peel would be easiest.  Flour it it up and the pie should slide right on to the stone!  Parchment paper is a good little trick too though.


Most folks seem to use corn meal on their peel.  Ive also read where they use rice flour as they prefer it over the more coarse corn meal.  It doesnt burn as easily as wheat flour and doesnt impart any additional flavor or gritty texture like corn meal. I will probably try both and see what works best.  The parchment sure worded well though so I may end up sticking with that. 

It will be easy to experiment once the veggies on the garden start coming in. We will have pizza once every other week or so once that happens .  All summer through late fall is pizza season for us.  Fresh sauce just makes it great.


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## mcokevin (Jun 17, 2021)

smokewaggin said:


> Id definitly give it a go.  I wish I would have bought a pizza stone ages ago after using them last night.  Cooking directly on the grates if my gas grill tooka LOT of trial and error.  I had seen a few folks having lots of success on the gravity series with stones, then found a couple.of perfect size stones on Amazon on sale for $20 each.  Which made it an easy decision.


Would you mind linking the stone you bought?  We have the exact same smoker, so if you have already done the research I'll be happy to take advantage of that


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## smokewaggin (Jun 17, 2021)

mcokevin said:


> Would you mind linking the stone you bought?  We have the exact same smoker, so if you have already done the research I'll be happy to take advantage of that


Looks like theyve gone up a $1 since I got them for $19.99. Still seems like a good deal for thick corderite stones. I think they were $25 when I first saved them while I was doing my search.


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## SmokinAl (Jun 17, 2021)

Excellent!
It doesn’t get much better than that!
Al


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## mcokevin (Jun 17, 2021)

smokewaggin said:


> Looks like theyve gone up a $1 since I got them for $19.99. Still seems like a good deal for thick corderite stones. I think they were $25 when I first saved them while I was doing my search.


Thanks!  Just bought two.


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## Fueling Around (Jun 17, 2021)

smokewaggin said:


> That looks cool as heck.  One thing I wish about the 1050 is that it was more portable. Its a big heavy SOB.  My cabinet gasser was easy to pick up and move around and I could get a ton of meat in it.  We camp multipke times a year and the smoker always came with us.


It is made 2 washing machine tubs.  Bottom half serves as a burn pit.  I can PM you more photos if interested.  I won't hijack your thread.


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## bill1 (Jun 18, 2021)

Even frozen pizza tastes good on a wood-burning cooker.


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## bill1 (Jun 18, 2021)

smokewaggin said:


> Looks like theyve gone up a $1 since I got them for $19.99....


Price is all over the map for these 5/8" thick cordierite stones in this size.  $21 is a good price.  Although here's one for $15.


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## kennnyp1 (Jun 18, 2021)

Do you mind indicating about how long the pizza was on the stone? Just wondering how long it takes to cook on the 1050. I've seen the videos for those backyard pizza ovens that reach something like 900F and can cook a pizza in about a minute.


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## 912smoker (Jun 18, 2021)

Looks great and I also need a stone !


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## smokewaggin (Jun 19, 2021)

kennnyp1 said:


> Do you mind indicating about how long the pizza was on the stone? Just wondering how long it takes to cook on the 1050. I've seen the videos for those backyard pizza ovens that reach something like 900F and can cook a pizza in about a minute.


If I had to guess It was less than 10 minutes. I didn't time it, but I will next time.  I've also got a infrared thermometer to check stone temp, and a pizza peel for my next go.  If you were doing a thinner crust it would cook quicker.  I prefer thin crusts but my wife and kids like it thicker so that's what we normally have.

Next cook i am  going to try raising it to 700.  Like you I've heard that wood fired pizza ovens get real hot and cook pizzas real quick.  I was trying to play it a bit safer with my first try, epecially since I had guests. I will also probably run straight lump instead of a mix.  I've heard it will burn hotter. Which is what I want.


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## smokewaggin (Jun 19, 2021)

912smoker said:


> Looks great and I also need a stone !


I kinda feel like a bit of a donkey for waiting so long to get one.  I'll never cook a pizza without one again.  Grill/oven/smoker. It'll get put on a stone.

Bonus is my wife makes home made bread and it makes some fantastic crust. She made a sourdough for me last night and it was perfect.  Her sourdough has always been really good, but something about it being on a stone kicked it up a bit.  I didn't even know she baked it on a stone until I asked her what she did differently.


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