Fire Bricks

This past summer I cooked pizza on our gas powered Weber grill and it was surprisingly delicious. I bought two, one lbs dough from Torino Bakery in Newburgh, NY, seven sliced Porcini mushrooms, and one green pepper diced and mozzarella cheese.

Basically, while the grill was warming up I cooked the mushrooms and peppers in a pan with a little olive oil inside the house. At the same time I took the dough and tried to spread it in a circular manner. The best way to do that is to place the dough on a lightly floured kitchen counter and use your fingers to force it to form an ever-expanding circle. Once you get it to be 7-8" in diameter, pick it up and begin to stretch it with your fists. The dough will stretch incredibly easy this way.

Carefully put some oil on a couple of squares of paper towels and rub them the grate with them. After the dough is stretched all you have to do is to drizzle some olive oil on it and place it on the oiled grate. It will take about a three minutes to cook the first side and you turn it over by simply picking it up with your hands. As soon as you turn it over have the mushrooms, peppers and mozzarella ready and arrange it on the dough. Close the grill cover and wait for about three minutes for the dough to cook. You can check if the dough is cooked by picking it up a little and peeking under it.

This method worked well but I want to try a different method now that I have the One Touch Gold 22.5" grill, a.k.a. Achilles. For this reason I called a few businesses that sell construction materials to builders and I found one business that sells fire bricks. The company name is Federal Block Corp. and they are located in Newburgh, NY.

The price was reasonable. They charged $1.46 per brick.

The physical dimensions are 9" x 4.5" x 1.5". Here are these bad boys on the floor of my car. As you can see I bought eight of them.

Arranging them on the grate of Achilles it took a few minutes but I had to get the best and optimal configuration. I used the beer bottle to get a better depth perception in the picture.

I will not have to add coals, but just in case, I still have access to the part of the grate that flips up for you to add additional coals.Here I am demonstrating this functionality.

I am preparing to cook the pizza for dinner this coming Thursday, February 28, 2013. Again I will buy the dough from Torino Bakery to simplify things. I will also wash the bricks to get rid of any particles that may be on the surface. I will load a lot (two fist fulls) of coal and let the internal temperature get to 600 °F. Then I will lay the dough on the bricks. 

Stay tuned.

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