how to obtain high heat for grilling and Pizza

lostfarm · Post by **lostfarm** » Tue Oct 06, 2015 2:11 pm

Any tips for getting the kamado up to a high temperature for grilling and pizza ? or is it as simple as building a big fire!

Muppet · Post by **Muppet** » Tue Oct 06, 2015 4:43 pm

Just leave the vents open longer

Kamados don't need weed whackers, blower vacs or flamethrowers to get hot... Although they help

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Bob S · Post by **Bob S** » Wed Oct 07, 2015 4:40 am

Weber makes a chimney that's good for setting up high temp cooks. Fill your kamado nearly full of charcoal. Fill the chimney full of charcoal and light it off using a couple of sheets of newspaper or a fire starter cube. Once it is well lit and the fire is leaping up out of the top, carefully (it's a good idea to wear welder's gloves for this part and to keep your face well away from the fire) dump the lit coals into your kamado. Leave it open for 5 minutes or so, then close it up and home in on the temperature you want to maintain. As was mentioned above, it is very important to make sure all your vents are wide open during the start-up process. It's also a good idea to put in your diverter as soon as you dump in the burning charcoal, so have that ready to go. My setup for pizza is to put in the diverter stone and then put the pizza on a pizza dish which has a bunch of small holes in it. I put the pizza pan on the top grate of my Vision kamado. I end up with a nicely browned but not burned crust. I try for 425-450F as my cooking temperature. If you are gong to do some high temp grilling, forget the diverter and aim for a grill temp of around 600F, which pretty much means the vents are all either wide open, or nearly so. When cooking at high temps, you must burp the grill every time before you open it. Failure to do so can result in a flashback and a serious burn.

TMAN · Post by **TMAN** » Wed Oct 07, 2015 2:39 pm

I have found that in my kamado (saffire) that the less I fill it with charcoal the better , at the start I use to fill the basket to the top , but not any more I get more air circulating with less and get up to temp quicker .

Buccaneer · Post by **Buccaneer** » Wed Oct 07, 2015 2:57 pm

lostfarm wrote:Any tips for getting the kamado up to a high temperature for grilling and pizza ? or is it as simple as building a big fire!

Just light the charcoal as normal, open the bottom and top vents, and watch the temp gauge. When it gets to about 380 close the top vent to half.
Set up for the cook before closing the lid after lighting.
The kamado's get to a max temp without lighting all across the fuel load.

urbangriller · Post by **urbangriller** » Wed Oct 07, 2015 8:37 pm

For Low and Slow, light a few bits at the top of the pile,

For High Temp, light in three places around the outer of the pile and leave the vents full open.....watch it though!

KamadoPaul · Post by **KamadoPaul** » Mon Oct 12, 2015 3:44 pm

Hi temp pizza cooking is great for a traditional pizza with mainly cheese or a bit of sliced tomato, I find a lower temp is great if you like a lot of toppings on your pizza otherwise your crust goes black before your toppings are cooked through.

I like 450-500f for lots of toppings and takes between 5 and 10 minutes to cook depending on the toppings.

If you are doing a thin based cheese pizza crank that baby up by leaving all the vents open and make sure your stone is at temp... you need to be quick because it cooks in less than a minute

HugoBoss · Post by **HugoBoss** » Mon Jan 11, 2016 5:39 pm

Hi
I have my komodo kamado at about 500 to 550f for pizza works fantastic make sure you use a pizza stone and leave it in long enough to get up to temp
Cheers

tfx · Post by **tfx** » Tue Jan 12, 2016 11:16 am

Clean out the ash a bit (just with some long tongs - doesn't need to be perfect), light under a pyramid of decent chunk (not shrapnel) with decent airflow and close lid with top and bottom vents fully open. It will act like its own chimney and get very hot very fast.

Having said that I usually light earlier and let it come to half heat for a while with the stone in. This cooks out any moisture in the stone or kamado if it hasen't been used in a while or has been exposed to rainy weather. Then open up for full heat. Probably over cautious but it has served me well and always cleaned the stone.

Unforgiven349 · Post by **Unforgiven349** » Sun Aug 21, 2016 10:42 am

Hi Guys,

Resurrecting this old threat to say thanks.

Found this information helpful, took my time in getting the fire up to 550F (P.S. why do people use F on the forums and not C?), anyways got up to 550f as I am still practising temperature control.

At 550 it took me about 6 mins a pizza, where the crust was nicely cooked without being burnt and the toppings were spot on. Can't wait to do more

.

Captain · Post by **Captain** » Mon Aug 22, 2016 9:28 am

Unforgiven349 wrote:
(P.S. why do people use F on the forums and not C?)

Yes very frustrating and disappointing isn't it. I don't get it considering that maybe only Two countries still use it.

BBQ pizza are the bomb and I love doing them also. I just need to find a decent pizza stone, they all break within the first couple of cooks.

Smokey · Post by **Smokey** » Mon Aug 22, 2016 7:59 pm

Why F & C ?
I'd say its because F has been around in cooking for so long that it just stayed that way.
Possibly the age of the writer. I'm 47 and sometimes use both F & C in the same sentence. As in Cook at 110C till 203F internal.
You just have to put up with that till those that lived through the change over all Kark it

Oh, And the Poms and seppos never changed over so we are forced to use both if we are to talk to them.

Aussie BBQ Forum