Italy is famous for its pizza. They are often cooked on fires in pizza ovens, but have you ever tried a pizza on the BBQ? What could possibly go wrong?
To achieve the perfect crisp base and melted cheese on your pizza, a high temperature is required.
Normally a pizza oven will offer the ideal heat of between 250 to 260 degrees Celsius. You can’t get
your normal at home oven this hot, which is why pizzas cooked over flames can appear quite
different to the standard supermarket oven cooked pizza.
Can the BBQ in your back garden offer the same results? Simply, the answer is yes. A BBQ can reach
the same high temperatures needed as pizza ovens so therefore can cook your pizza.
It may take a while for your BBQ to reach the high temperature, but you could always cook up some
burgers or sausage whilst you wait. To ensure your BBQ gets to the high temperature required, you
should make sure that there is no remaining ash from any previous BBQ’s you have had. The coals
should be glowing red as this is when they are at their hottest.
You will need to leave the vents fully open on top of your BBQ to allow the smoke and hot air to
leave the BBQ. Pizza ovens normally have large chimneys which ventilate the air. They allow the cold
air to come in the front which feeds the flames. A BBQ with fully open vents can reach temperatures
between 230 and 290 degrees Celsius.
If the temperature of your BBQ is hot enough, the pizza should only take a few minutes to cook. It
could take as little as 90 seconds. You will need to keep a watchful eye on it to make sure that the
pizza does not burn at the edges.
A pizza stone could also be a great way to cook your pizza to perfection on a BBQ. Pizza stones hold
the high heats that the coals give out and distribute the heat equally across the stones allowing the
pizza to be cooked evenly. Pizza stones allow the crust to start cooking straight away which leads to
the ideal pizza as it will be nice on crisp without drying the dough out completely. Follow this link to
read more about the different pizza stones available to buy, or view a recommended recipe here
when using a pizza stone on a BBQ. If you don’t currently own a pizza stone, a heavy baking tray will
offer similar results because they will still distribute the heat equally giving your pizza that perfect
crisp base.
Pizza doesn’t require much preparation, or a large amount of ingredients, so why not give it ago
yourself? It could be a fun way to cook an already great meal.
For extra ideas, recipes and tips, don’t forget to take a look at our website
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