Pizza-Porta Big Joe User manual

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Copyright!2017!Pizza-Porta!!!!All!trademarks!used!are!property!of!their!respective!owners!570XT-UM1!Ver3!
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Quick start Guide Big Joe
Don’t mess up your first pizzas – Read this first!
1) Forget the hacks that you have used to cook pizza. The Pizza-Porta™ cooks differently.
2) A pizza peel is necessary to cook pizza in the Pizza-Porta™. A long-handle 12” or 14”
wide peel fits. A wooden peel for placing and metal for retrieving is best.
3) Assembly (More details in later pages)
a) Assemble!4!sides!of!the!XL!Pizza-Porta!by!inserting!tabs!and!putting!screws!through!the!
holes!with!nuts!on!the!inside.!Note!there!is!a!top!screw!hole!toward!the!front.!!!
b) Put!long!screws!through!the!handle,!spacers,!heat!shield,!spacers,!door!and!then!put!
nuts!on!the!back!–!tighten!
c) Lift!the!lid!of!your!grill!and!set!the!Pizza-Porta!on!the!base,!aligning!the!edges!equally!
from!side!to!side,!with!the!front!latch!inserted!in!the!bottom.!
d) Lower!the!dome!lid!and!compress!the!hinge!enough!to!put!the!“D!ring”!over!the!grill’s!
top!latch!pin.
4) All grill hinges are adjusted a little differently. Test the fit before you start a fire. Your
Pizza-Porta is designed to shift around a bit to fit. A little air leak is ok.
5) Good Pizza starts with good dough – Google Peter Reinhart, or Tony Gemignani for
recipes. NOTE: It is much easier to make 2-3 12” pizzas than it is to make 1–16” pizza.
Dough handling, stretching, transferring are all easier with an 8 oz. dough ball. The Pizza-
Porta allows you to cook fast so 2 pizzas take only 8-10 minutes to cook.
6) 550°F to 650°F is a great for most raw dough – start there and experiment. Create an air
gap between the pizza stone and the heat deflector stone using aluminum foil balls, or
other spacers on top of the cooking grate.
7) Raw pizza dough should be floured so it is not sticky. Make sure the dough is floured well,
and then sprinkle a pinch of cornmeal on the wooden peel to make it slide easily. Make
sure it will slide before you put it in the Pizza-Porta. Never put cornmeal on the stone.
8) Rotate your pizza after 2 minutes and check the bottom – the fire will sometimes be hotter
on one side. Pizza needs to be watched, this is not a Boston Butt.
9) Make sure to lock the door closed when shutting down.
10) Practice makes perfect - and your friends won’t mind testing!

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Copyright!2017!Pizza-Porta!!!!All!trademarks!used!are!property!of!their!respective!owners!570XT-UM1!Ver3!
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Setup and Usage Instructions
Safety: Pizza cooking is done at high temperature (>500F). For this reason, extreme
caution must be observed when interacting with the Pizza-Porta™. Everything will be
very HOT.
• Never touch, adjust, lean against or contact parts other than the handle. It is hot.
• Use caution when lifting the door to close it – the edges are hot.
• Ensure that your table or other surrounding accessories are not in contact with the
outside of the kamado/BGE grill. This will be a high temperature cook.
• You may experience excess smoke and flame while your grill is getting up to
temperature. Burn off the excess grease before cooking pizza.
• Allow the kamado/BGE to cool before handling the Pizza-Porta.
• Use an oven mitt or pizza peel to adjust the air vents. They are hot too.
• Do not place stickers, paint, plastic or other materials on the Pizza-Porta.
For best results, the following accessories are recommended: Plate setter or other
diffusion stone, non-conducting spacer (metal grate), Pizza Stone (14”-16” is best), Pizza
Peel (wood and/or aluminum)
Assemble the unit

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Copyright!2017!Pizza-Porta!!!!All!trademarks!used!are!property!of!their!respective!owners!570XT-UM1!Ver3!
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Lay out all of the parts so that you get everything right-side up. The bottom is
flat, the top slopes down toward the rear section. The door hinge extends below
the plane of the base. Placing the bottom of the door over the edge of a table will
allow everything to sit on a table top. Lay the parts out as shown to ensure you have left
and right aligned.
Next, slide the double tabs from the door section into the bales on the side sections. The
pieces are carefully cut to align precisely. Install both of the side pieces before adding the
rear section. Configure so that the screw holes line up and then insert and tighten the
screws with the nuts on the inside of the unit. There are 6 screws for this step. The tabs
are designed to fit tightly under the bales, some maneuvering may be necessary to get
them started. The screws are tapered to drive the parts into alignment.
After these three screws are placed in the bales on each side, there is one more screw on
the top toward the front on each side that locks in the top panel.

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Copyright!2017!Pizza-Porta!!!!All!trademarks!used!are!property!of!their!respective!owners!570XT-UM1!Ver3!
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Assemble the handle:
Assemble the pieces as shown. The locknuts are the only part on the inside of the door.
Hold the screws with a screwdriver and tighten the nuts on the inside of the door. Make
sure that the door and the aluminum heat-shield are separated with the small spacer.
(Hint – push the long screws into the handle and tape over the heads to hold them in the
handle. Thread the pieces as shown.)
The door latch should be adjusted by hand when cool. Put thumb pressure on the latch
up or down to increase or decrease the closing force. Note that heat expands the door
slightly so the latch will be tighter at high temperature.

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Copyright!2017!Pizza-Porta!!!!All!trademarks!used!are!property!of!their!respective!owners!570XT-UM1!Ver3!
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Inserting the Pizza-Porta:
The KJ uses a spring hinge. To get proper alignment:
• Open the grill lid fully and place the XL Pizza-Porta
on the grill base.
• Locate the hole on the bottom of the Pizza-Porta
over the bottom latch of the grill.
• Visually align the unit left and right and front and
back.
• Carefully lower the dome down 1” above the Pizza-
Porta. adjust the Pizza-Porta left and right and fore
and aft so it aligns on the base.
• Press down on the grill handle to compress the
gasket.
• Flip the “D-Ring” over the top portion of the grill
latch
• The top “D-ring” can be adjusted so it aligns
properly.
Lighting and SETUP: (Experiment with your setup
before lighting). Load your grill with a full load of
charcoal (above the fire ring). Light your charcoal as per
normal. While the fire is getting established, arrange the
deflector stones on the top setting of the Divide and
conquer. Place the metal cooking grate directly on top.
Use foil balls or other spacers for ½” to 1” lift and then
your pizza stone on top. Use a layer of aluminum foil
under the pizza stone as an added deflector on the 21”
stone.
Airflow: Start with the Pizza-Porta vents closed and door
unlocked. Open the top chimney vent of the grill until it reaches
500F. Then, close off the top vent of the dome completely and use
only the Pizza-Porta vents from here. Each grill responds slightly
different to airflow, you can adjust the temperature by coordinating
the bottom vent with the two Pizza-Porta vents. Closing off the
kamado/BGE grill top vent retains heat in the dome and forces
airflow across the pizza.

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Copyright!2017!Pizza-Porta!!!!All!trademarks!used!are!property!of!their!respective!owners!570XT-UM1!Ver3!
!
One last Detail – The hinge bolt. The washer arrangement is
counterintuitive. If you need to reassemble, place the small
washer on the outside, the big washer between the door
and the unit. This arrangement allows the door to flex when
it is hot.
The ceramic of the pizza stone, dome, and plate setter require extra time to reach
temperature. Stabilize the temperature for at least 15 minutes. The temperature will
fluctuate with the door open before all of the materials get up to temperature. Do not cook
on a stone that is less than 400F using an infrared check. For thicker pizza use
temperatures in the 400F range for 8-10 minutes, while thin Neapolitan pizzas will cook at
600F for 3 to 4 minutes. Don’t cook by stopwatch - Check the pizza bottom often to
ensure it is cooking evenly and the top and bottom are progressing at the same rate.
Each pizza will cook differently. Often a mid cook rotation is beneficial. A full charcoal
load at 600F should last about 3 hours, or about 15 pizzas.
Cap the top to achieve optimal airflow
Pizza cooks with:
• Conductive heat through the stone
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Copyright!2017!Pizza-Porta!!!!All!trademarks!used!are!property!of!their!respective!owners!570XT-UM1!Ver3!
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• Radiant heat from the hot dome
• Convection from hot air flowing across the pizza
Cautions, Hints, and Tricks:
Pizza is part art and part science. Experiment with different temperatures and setups to
get your cooking dialed in. Aluminum foil under the pizza stone will deflect radiant heat if
needed.
The door will expand as it heats up. Minor adjustments to the latching tab may be
required. Adjust so that at high temperature the latch engages with a firm push and the
door remains closed.
Since you have contained the heat in the dome, you can use a doming technique. Hold
the pizza on a metal peel up high in the dome for 20 -30 seconds to top brown it.
Heating up all of the ceramic of the grill and the stone requires a great deal of energy.
Once heated and settled you can adjust the vents to hold your desired temperature.