A Couple Questions About Wood-grilled Pizza

Hey all,

We've been using this old-style charcoal grill for the last week. Nothing fancy -- round thing with vents that starts with a chimney. I'd like to use it to cook up a pizza tonight.

Thing is, there were a bunch of free wood pieces down the street. So I grabbed them for the fire pit. Then I thought, wait, could I substitute them in the grill? Would that work? Or should I just stick with the charcoal?

Oh also, I'm not even sure if you can stick wood into this type of grill. It's not expensive, but I'd rather not wreck it!

WW

If it is pressure treated wood that could be used to build a house or deck then there are very toxic chemicals in it...DO NOT BURN IT AND DO ANYTHING TO INGEST THAT (although not fatal in small amounts, certainly very bad for you). If it is wood cut from a tree and not processed, go for it!

if it's a softwood, like Pine, I wouldn't burn that either. Do you know what type of wood it is? is it from a cut down tree or store bought?

The above comments are on the money. I use chunks of oak in my grills in combination with lump charcoal... but I have also built a fire with all hardwood when I was out of charcoal and wanting to grill (yes, too cheap to go to the store).

I use small chunks and give it some time to burn down. Same as charcoal, it is all about building a uniform coal bed.

The softer woods have more acrid taste (such as poplar, I have too burn that to coals if it is used... no smoke allowed). Pine is very resinous. It can be used, but it must be burned to coals as well.

You doing the raw dough on the grate, pulling it off and building the pizza on the cooked side, than back on indirect heat to finish? or on a pizza stone/ metal slab at high temp?

I broke a pizza stone while trying to use it in my charcoal grill. I'd recommend a cast iron griddle instead.

Yeah, I wish I had seen these posts before I did what I did...

Well, first of all we burned small pieces of wood in a fire pit. I have no idea what type it was. Then we burned particle board. Yes. I now understand that this was very wrong. Then we let the flames lick the cast-iron grill for, oh, about 25 minutes.

The bottom quarter-inch of the pizza was pure charcoal. Lesson learned.

It's back to the briquettes for me!

It is probably good that it was inedible. Some of the stuff you burned probably let off gases that you really should not be eating.

RayInUT said:

I broke a pizza stone while trying to use it in my charcoal grill. I'd recommend a cast iron griddle instead.

Click to expand...

Pizza stones will break eventually if used in a grill. If you get a ceramic pizza "stone" this won't happen.

I've never used cast iron for my grilled pizza I will try next time.

fire bricks work great for grilling pizza... ace hardware has them. home depot does not at my location