Did you know that you can bake many great treats on the old reliable Weber Kettle?
This crispy crust pizza is loaded up with some hot sausage mixed with burger, onions, bell peppers, smoked red peppers, pepperoni, cheese, and sauce. The calzone is made with the same meat and peppers, onions, sauce, herbs, and cheese.
To get started, I like to use a real stone hearth for my baking but it can be done with a different technique and I will cover that at the end of the article for the folks that don't have a stone hearth and want to consider pan baking. Both will work great on the kettle.
I set the charcoal up so it is in a circle slightly smaller than my pizza stone for this indirect bake. I always use lump charcoal for all my baking in any of my cookers/smokers. I have the charcoal containers filled about half full for this bake.
I started a small amount of lump in my charcoal chimney and when it was ashed over and ready, I poured it over the lump in my kettle.
I then added my ceramic plate setter and my 14" in diameter hearth stone. Plate setters can be found at any ceramic, clay, or kiln store. Put the lid on the cooker and waited until it got up to baking temp.
While my hearth was getting all heated up and ready, I started making up the first pizza. This picture shows the sauce, meat, and onions on the pizza.
Finished pizza ready to be carried out and placed on the kettle.
First pizza on the kettle running at about 405 degrees measured at the top of the hearth stone. Take about 18-20 minutes at this temp.
The old reliable Weber kettle doing its thing.
The pizza done and ready to come off the cooker.
While the first pizza baked, I got the second pizza ready for the cooker. I then placed this pizza on my hearth.
I think this one looked better than the first pizza.
While the second pizza was baking, I started on the calzones.
I rolled out the remaining dough and had enough for about 3 medium sized calzones left and I made up the first one.
By this time, the second pizza was ready to come off the cooker.
I then loaded the hearth with all three calzones and placed the cover back on the kettle. I made the calzones with a very thin crust and running at about 405 degrees will take about 12-14 minutes to bake.
Calzones done and ready to come off the kettle.
The results of this short baking session on the Weber kettle.
That is some good looking grub in my book.
Now, for the folks that don't have any method of making up a hearth.
The first thing you need is a way to make the cook indirect so about any type of pan will do as long as it is about as large as the pan you will use for your baking.
This is a standard sized cookie sheet that I have placed under my raised grid. You do need to get the baking grid as high up into the dome as you can for the best results. This baking grid has some bolts to raise it up to where it is needed.
This picture shows a pan on top of the setup and that is where your pizza needs to be cooked. Pan pizza is great on this cooker.
You know, it is really not rocket science and if nothing else, use a few beer cans to elevate a baking grid in the Weber kettle. Make do with whatcha got!
