Want to make wood-fired pizza at home, but don’t want to shell out a chunk of change for a custom oven? Tips and tricks guru Clifford Endo has your back. On this episode of You Can Do This!, learn how to convert your ordinary backyard grill into a pizza-making machine.
Make Your Own Pizza Oven
1 2-foot by 4-foot piece of aluminum
1 box aluminum sheet metal screws
1 tin sips angled
1 tin snips straight
1 pliers
1 pizza stone
1 pizza peel (could sub with long tongs or spatula)Cut two strips of 8-inch by 2-foot of aluminum using your straight tin snips. Use a guide line to make sure the cut is straight and even.
Place the two sheets of metal in your grill opposite each other, using it as a mold to get the round shape.
Using the metal screws, tack the pieces together about an inch in from the end of the each side of the two pieces of sheet metal. Use 12 screws in total.
Cut a 4-inch rectangular hole on one side of the metal where there is a single layer, leaving four inches of metal from the top (angled tin snips are a little easier here). Then measure two inches from the top and mark with a marker. Cut down to that mark about every three inches from the length of the hole, which is the pizza oven opening. Fold those flaps over and flatten the edges with pliers.
Using the remainder of your sheet metal, gut a 2-inch by 18-inch strip and tack the end together, making a circle.
Light your coals with a natural starter. When they are lit red hot but before they turn grey, use your pizza peel to push the pile to that back of the grill. Place your grate, then your metal circle, and then your pizza stone on top. The will heat your pizza stone slowly as the temperature of the fire builds.
When coal are completely red and grey and tips of flame are coming up over the back of your stone (about 20 minutes), you are ready to make pizzas!
Place your pizza near the back of the oven, near the most heat. You will have to rotate half-way through cooking. When your pizza is finished, using the peel, dome the pie by raising it to the top of the lid where there is the most top heat to get extra crispiness on the top.
The fire will last for around 5–6 pizzas if you work quickly.
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