Wednesday, May 28, 2014

New Toy, New Troubles, New TASTY




We bought a grill, a Weber Spirt gas grill that is my new favorite cooking tool.  So far we have made wings (heavenly, but still perfecting our spice rub), burgers (standard issue), chicken (meh, should have used a better recipe) and pizza.  Mmmm. Pizza.  The dough was delicious beyond delicious, but I am yet a novice.  I went into pizza making with only the vaguest of recipes and the most cursory of looks on the internet.

Here is what I learned:
  • Brush your dough with olive oil, it helps with the sticking.
  • Having a grill that tells you how hot it is, is magnificently convenient and helpful.
  • Wet toppings = sad, so keep them dry so they don't interfere with the crust's crisping.
  • Keep your toppings warm.  Ours got a bit cold.  I think next time I'll put them on the raised rack in foil while we do the crust so they go on nice and hot.
  • Cheese next to the crust, it's the best way to melt it.
  • Smaller is better, because it's easier to remove
  • Thin crust is a nasty nasty thing to try to lay on the grill properly.  I will be rolling out my dough thicker next time.
  • Cooking on the grill is one billion times faster than doing it in the oven (actually, no, that is a gross exaggeration, but the oven takes 6-7 minutes for the crust and then another 5ish minutes for the toppings.  I think we went from dough on to topped pizza and off the grill in under five minutes.
Here is what I need to know:
  • How do you transfer your dough to the grill? It seems like it should be easy, but alas, it was terribly hard and resulted in some tears and much swearing.  
I promise to make many more pizzas this summer and let you know when I have hit level win.

If you have mastered the art of pizza-on-grill please, please, please share your tricks, tips and techniques in the comments.  

1 comment:

K said...

We get our pizzas on the grill by using an oversized turner (http://www.crateandbarrel.com/wood-handled-oversized-turner/s628832) a regular metal spatula, and a bit of swearing. We oil one side, throw it down (sometimes literally) and then oil the other while it is on the grill. That makes it easier to flip the pizza onto the grill. You can also cheat it a little by oiling the grates before tossing the dough on.

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