Say hello to my latest KettlePizza modifications. It's more machine than KettlePizza these days (and I'm still looking for a good name for her).
Or him. Whatever.
Marvin?
Yes, I think I'll call him Marvin for this post.
(Yes it looks like a hack of a cutting job- but only because that's exactly what it is. A metal worker I am not)
So I added the little swinging door last week and finally got to try Marvin out today. Why a door? In the past I've misjudged how much fuel to start out with, so I end up coming short on the amount of heat I wanted. And taking the lid off Marvin to add more coals or wood is a pita to say the least. I've also had instances where it would have been beneficial to move some of the coals around for a more even heat. The addition of the door helps with that.
And it worked great! The first pizza I put in Marvin took too long to make (probably around 4-5 minutes), and the temp on the top was around 750° which was too low for outside cooking. So I swung open the new door and added some cherry and apple hardwood to the coals, waited a couple of minutes and was rewarded with a temp of about 900° (I'm actually having to guess on this since the thermometer only goes up to 700°).
The next two pizzas were awesome:
Next up for Marvin? Maybe a new door on top to keep the heat in. I'd also like something more sturdy to rest him on. The standard Weber tripod doesn't give me much comfort.
I'm also wondering if I can take Marvin on the road. He heats up relatively quickly (30-40 minutes for the coals to get ready, and then ~30 minutes with the lid on to get it up to temp) so I think it'd be great to setup somewhere and … make some pizzas for folks. The only trick of course is getting Marvin home. A pickup truck would work of course, but that's something I don't have. It would certainly fit in my Jeep but I don't like the idea of driving back home with 300° ceramic tiles sitting in the back.