[bobflorian]

I have the Kettle Pizza with Baking Steel, and honestly, it's garbage. It's not worth the effort to set up once a week to get mediocre, not very repeatable results. Pretty sure I've ruined my Weber Kettle by using it too.

I got a RoccBox last summer (after watching Kenji's review videos) and it's freaking amazing. It's not much more effort to setup. So easy to just turn on the gas and wait for it to heat up.

I've been making VPN-ish style pizzas for 10 years at home and have a lot of experience with gadget and tips and tricks, and the Kettle Pizza just seemed too gimicky after I got it, and tried it once. Was honestly disappointing I spent so much money on it.

This is my go-to guide: http://www.varasanos.com/PizzaRecipe.htm ; Jeff is a great guy; talked with him for few minutes in ATL.

[bobflorian]

The "baking steel" required too much maintenance, and rusted to pieces and started dropping rust flakes into my food. The radiant heat effect was very small, and I nearly always burned the bottom of my crusts before the top was charred, even when doming the food.

The sheer amount of fuel you have to put in to get up to temp was absurd too. Having a 900 degree raging fire in my weber kettle sure made me nervous, even for hours after I was done making pizzas.

[basch]

How did you dome the food, if the steel was above the pizza? What burned the pizza, the fire or the steel?

[bobflorian]

Really just brought the pizza off the stone so that the bottom wouldn't burn, and brought it close to the top without touching to get enough radiant "broiling" effect.

[basch]

When you say you ruined your weber did it warp?

I got a cheap piece of steel and had it in a gas grill and the front of the grill bowed.

[bobflorian]

didn't warp, but the enamel paint started flaking off the outside and rusted through in certain spots where the flames would have been the hottest. My kettle is 10 years old though.