Too good to leave at home....

[grubworm]

i've always sucked at grilling and just resigned many years ago to cooking on a stove with pots and pans...

last weekend we went camping with brother-in-law and he had just bought a Blackstone flat top grill. other than being in a Waffle House at 2am watching the guy use a grill to cook my bacon and egg with hair in it, i have never given a flat top grill any consideration. well, the 17" Blackstone brother-in-law brought on the trip did an amazing job on some rib eye steaks and totally killed it grilling vegetables. i got home and immediately went to order one. while looking, i saw that there is a 22" version that has TWO burners. BIGGER is always better, so i instantly hit the Add to Cart button. Nice!
after watching some youtube vids on how to use the flat top grill, i saw there was a pizza oven attachment available. and guess what? it is ONLY available for the 22" model! BIGGER is better once again!
of course i ordered the pizza oven attachment...well...because...PIZZA! the wife was totally onboard (not that it matters when it comes to PIZZA, but its always easier to row downstream rather than upstream) and after the Fedex truck left and i did a little assembly and the initial burn in...we soon had our very first homemade pizza done in a pizza oven. the attachment is basically a hood with a pizza stone on top and bottom and the temp got to 900 degrees. i was scared of the 900 degrees, so i lowered it to 700ish and popped the pizza in and in 5-6 minutes, i had a delicious pizza that looked and tasted just like the ones i bought where they were done in a brick oven.

yeah, this set up is a bit big and a bit heavy for traveling, but it IS going with me, even if i have to do a passenger seat delete...

 

[Sheedy614]

i've always sucked at grilling and just resigned many years ago to cooking on a stove with pots and pans...

I have a 17” for the rig and a 4 burner at home. Can’t say enough good things about the product
last weekend we went camping with brother-in-law and he had just bought a Blackstone flat top grill. other than being in a Waffle House at 2am watching the guy use a grill to cook my bacon and egg with hair in it, i have never given a flat top grill any consideration. well, the 17" Blackstone brother-in-law brought on the trip did an amazing job on some rib eye steaks and totally killed it grilling vegetables. i got home and immediately went to order one. while looking, i saw that there is a 22" version that has TWO burners. BIGGER is always better, so i instantly hit the Add to Cart button. Nice!
after watching some youtube vids on how to use the flat top grill, i saw there was a pizza oven attachment available. and guess what? it is ONLY available for the 22" model! BIGGER is better once again!
of course i ordered the pizza oven attachment...well...because...PIZZA! the wife was totally onboard (not that it matters when it comes to PIZZA, but its always easier to row downstream rather than upstream) and after the Fedex truck left and i did a little assembly and the initial burn in...we soon had our very first homemade pizza done in a pizza oven. the attachment is basically a hood with a pizza stone on top and bottom and the temp got to 900 degrees. i was scared of the 900 degrees, so i lowered it to 700ish and popped the pizza in and in 5-6 minutes, i had a delicious pizza that looked and tasted just like the ones i bought where they were done in a brick oven.

yeah, this set up is a bit big and a bit heavy for traveling, but it IS going with me, even if i have to do a passenger seat delete...


View attachment 243559

 

[Ragman]

One YouTube channel you might find helpful is ManKitchenRecipes as he does a lot on the Blackstone griddle. Sorta moved into some of the pellet grills now but still has many videos up that will give you some good ideas.

My Brother In Law has one of the larger Blackstones but I have never been around when he is cooking on it-sounds like I might have to insist!

 

[grubworm]

One YouTube channel you might find helpful is ManKitchenRecipes as he does a lot on the Blackstone griddle. Sorta moved into some of the pellet grills now but still has many videos up that will give you some good ideas.

My Brother In Law has one of the larger Blackstones but I have never been around when he is cooking on it-sounds like I might have to insist!

ill check that channel out. there are quite a few channels on flat top cooking and several that are pretty much dedicated to the Blackstone grills. never heard of a "smash burger" before, but now understand what they are and why they are so good. the wife really loves it and it was her idea to take it on our trips when we take the big trailer and have the room for it.

dont know if youre a pizza fan, but we found a great dough recipe using poolish that gives a puffy and crisp crust.

yeah, definitely check out your brother-in-law set up...like i posted initially, brother-in-law is who turned me on to these type grills. if this one turns out to be too big for travel, i'll just go get the 17". i saw several hacks for making pizza on a griddle that has a hood on it and all the Blackstone grills have hoods that go with them.

 

[grubworm]

i'm sure something like this will send a bug up a lot of people's asses...but the cool thing about "overlanding" is that everyone can go out and pretty much do what they want.
if i want a bad ass pizza out in the middle of nowhere...i can do that!

"overlanding" and pizza might just be one of the last american freedoms...

i'll eat to that!

 

[burbigo3]

It's really great, how much did you pay for it ?

 

[grubworm]

It's really great, how much did you pay for it ?

they are 2 separate items...

the 2 burner griddle was $154 on amazon when i bought it and is an amazing piece of gear on its own


and the pizza hood attachment is also made by blackstone, but for whatever reason is ONLY sold thru walmart and its $227



i did go ahead and also purchase the 17" single burner griddle ($140) and it comes with a hood, so i did a couple mods and welded an "X" out of 3/4" flatbar that is 12" and i use it as a standoff with a ventillated pizza pan to raise it up off the griddle and to let air circulate under it. i actually tried that out today and i got a VERY nice pizza from it. the blackstone pizza attachment did get up to over 900 degrees...my IR thermometer tops out at 900 and it was past that. the smaller grill with the attached hood and homemade standoff got to just over 500 degrees...so its still pretty hot. it took 20 min to do a pizza versus 4 minutes with the actual pizza oven. i didnt buy the pizza attachment to save time, i bought it because the traditional italian neapolitan pizzas are done at 900 degrees. totally different taste when done at that temp.

im a pizza fool and even do breakfast pizzas with scrambled egg, sausage, bacon, mushroom, etc. the wife really likes this setup and is the one suggesting we take it when we take the big camper, so to have her onboard with something like this says a lot...

 

[Tupenny]

Always enjoy reading your posts. I'm a bit of a pizza fanatic myself and specialize in Neapolitan style. Any questions regarding doughs and poolish and or just cooking at 900° I can share my knowledge

 

[John and Mandi]

i'm sure something like this will send a bug up a lot of people's asses...but the cool thing about "overlanding" is that everyone can go out and pretty much do what they want.
if i want a bad ass pizza out in the middle of nowhere...i can do that!

"overlanding" and pizza might just be one of the last american freedoms...

i'll eat to that!

Just depends on the style of overlanding. We ran into some Swiss friends at a free remote beach camp in a Mexican NP, tucked in between palm trees with the gulf a few yards away. They really wanted to use their "cooker". The husband asked me to help him retrieve it from his mini-class C that was built on a Troopy frame. He and I shoe horned into the tiny bathroom and he started popping the wall panel off that was behind his toilet. A few minutes later we were all standing around a circular 20 inch grill, about 2.5 ft tall, getting ready to collect wood for it. What an experience and a memory we will cherish forever. As we say, it's a lifestyle and the creature comforts are what make it sustainable.

 

[grubworm]

Always enjoy reading your posts. I'm a bit of a pizza fanatic myself and specialize in Neapolitan style. Any questions regarding doughs and poolish and or just cooking at 900° I can share my knowledge

YES! definitely have a question about how to do a pizza like that and not have the dough so sticky. the wife watched numerous vids on it and did a lot of reading online, etc and we still have the dough so sticky that it usually becomes a disaster getting it off the peel and onto the stone. we tried cornmeal on the peel, and that burnt and made rest of the pizza taste bad and i even got a ventillated peel thinking the holes would help. we flour the granite countertop and form the dough and then add toppings and then add flour on the peel and then try to load the pizza on the peel and same bad results every time....

 

[Tupenny]

YES! definitely have a question about how to do a pizza like that and not have the dough so sticky. the wife watched numerous vids on it and did a lot of reading online, etc and we still have the dough so sticky that it usually becomes a disaster getting it off the peel and onto the stone. we tried cornmeal on the peel, and that burnt and made rest of the pizza taste bad and i even got a ventillated peel thinking the holes would help. we flour the granite countertop and form the dough and then add toppings and then add flour on the peel and then try to load the pizza on the peel and same bad results every time....

It can be very frustrating trying to work with neapolitan dough as the hydration is higher than normal breads. Make sure you are using a high protein flour (14%) and mixing by hand is best; this will avoid creating too much gluten. After i make the dough i let it rest for 45-60 minutes before portioning then allow the portions to rest refrigerated for 2-3 days (3 days gets me the best results). Then I work the dough straight from the fridge minimally on a floured surface adding just enough flour to prevent sticking. A slotted peel is great as you can knock off excess flour before peeling into the oven lessening the amount of bitter charred flour on the floor.

it could be your toppings ratio. I use 3 floz of tomato sauce (room temperature) per 10/11oz of dough stretched to 11 inches, my (3oz) fior di latte is already torn, basil leaves already picked and sea salt/evoo at the ready. Anything to lessen the amount of time from stretching dough to peeling in oven.

Your dough being sticky could be the type of flour (higher protein better absorption), not resting long enough (hydration continues as it rests) or overworking. It could be the dough temperature (room temp is challenging) or the amount of time your stretched dough sits on the table before going into the oven. Once the dough is stretched the clock is ticking.

Hope this helps. If you want, share your process/recipe and I can maybe be of more use

 

[grubworm]

It can be very frustrating trying to work with neapolitan dough as the hydration is higher than normal breads. Make sure you are using a high protein flour (14%) and mixing by hand is best; this will avoid creating too much gluten. After i make the dough i let it rest for 45-60 minutes before portioning then allow the portions to rest refrigerated for 2-3 days (3 days gets me the best results). Then I work the dough straight from the fridge minimally on a floured surface adding just enough flour to prevent sticking. A slotted peel is great as you can knock off excess flour before peeling into the oven lessening the amount of bitter charred flour on the floor.

it could be your toppings ratio. I use 3 floz of tomato sauce (room temperature) per 10/11oz of dough stretched to 11 inches, my (3oz) fior di latte is already torn, basil leaves already picked and sea salt/evoo at the ready. Anything to lessen the amount of time from stretching dough to peeling in oven.

Your dough being sticky could be the type of flour (higher protein better absorption), not resting long enough (hydration continues as it rests) or overworking. It could be the dough temperature (room temp is challenging) or the amount of time your stretched dough sits on the table before going into the oven. Once the dough is stretched the clock is ticking.

Hope this helps. If you want, share your process/recipe and I can maybe be of more use

EXCELLENT info and breakdown. the wife is much better at this type of thing than i am and she has been finding bits and pieces of info, but you pretty nailed it in a just a few sentences. we are using the wrong flour, not enough fridge time, overworking it and then def used way too much sauce.
we're limited to shopping at walmart here in the swamps, so im ordering some king arthur pizza flour off amazon and following your advice.
greatly appreciated and i'll let you know how we did on our next try. i know it will take some practice, but its a lot easier when practicing the right way...

 

[Tupenny]

It can be very frustrating trying to work with neapolitan dough as the hydration is higher than normal breads. Make sure you are using a high protein flour (14%) and mixing by hand is best; this will avoid creating too much gluten. After i make the dough i let it rest for 45-60 minutes before portioning then allow the portions to rest refrigerated for 2-3 days (3 days gets me the best results). Then I work the dough straight from the fridge minimally on a floured surface adding just enough flour to prevent sticking. A slotted peel is great as you can knock off excess flour before peeling into the oven lessening the amount of bitter charred flour on the floor.

it could be your toppings ratio. I use 3 floz of tomato sauce (room temperature) per 10/11oz of dough stretched to 11 inches, my (3oz) fior di latte is already torn, basil leaves already picked and sea salt/evoo at the ready. Anything to lessen the amount of time from stretching dough to peeling in oven.

Your dough being sticky could be the type of flour (higher protein better absorption), not resting long enough (hydration continues as it rests) or overworking. It could be the dough temperature (room temp is challenging) or the amount of time your stretched dough sits on the table before going into the oven. Once the dough is stretched the clock is ticking.

Hope this helps. If you want, share your process/recipe and I can maybe be of more use

EXCELLENT info and breakdown. the wife is much better at this type of thing than i am and she has been finding bits and pieces of info, but you pretty nailed it in a just a few sentences. we are using the wrong flour, not enough fridge time, overworking it and then def used way too much sauce.
we're limited to shopping at walmart here in the swamps, so im ordering some king arthur pizza flour off amazon and following your advice.
greatly appreciated and i'll let you know how we did on our next try. i know it will take some practice, but its a lot easier when practicing the right way...

Awesome. Glad I could be of service. You'll be a pro in no time. If you're interested I can provide my recipes also to give you a tried and true base to start with.