Last night was the third use of our new XL in as many nights. First night chicken, turned out awesome, second night flank steak, again awesome, and last night pizza. All I can say is I have tried to cook pizza on my old kettle grill, and have spent numerous hours and dollars trying to get it to work. Everytime the pizza has been either burned, too smoky (in bad way) or just a real pain to do. I have never been happy with the result. Mind you, I just do take-n-bake, so I am not even looking for gourmet results here, just edible pizza.
So, last night, I got the fire started, drip racks, D plates, grates w/ feet down, and a pizza stone. Let that heat w/ vents open till about 300*. At 300* started closing vents to maybe an inch gap top and bottom. At 400* put on first pizza, closed lid. Temp was stable, did not smell burned dough (like with past kettle), so I did not peek. About 10 minutes I peeked, and saw one side was browner than other, so I rotated pizza 180 degrees. Closed lid, another few minutes I looked agian, pizza was done.(Perfectly)
OK, on to next pizza. I noticed that opening the lid had got the temp to climb to about 450*, so I closed vents top/bottom completely. Added second pizza, closed lid. After about 10 minutes took a quick peek, things looked just about done. 2-3 mins. later rechecked, pizza perfect, so removed.
I noticed that it was hard to eat that pizza because after every bite I would tell my wife, "This is the best pizza I have ever BBQ'ed!!!"
I could not believe how well it turned out. No acrid smoke flavor, no burned crust, no raw spots, toppings cooked through, just perfection!!! And I was able to do this on my 3rd cook!! I am very happy with this grill, and have plans to donate my 2 kettles and maybe even my gasser. I just don't think I will ever go back to them!!
Ok, tonight is stir-fry with a wok. I have already tested, and the cast iron Lodge wok I have will fit all grates removed, wok handles resting on firebox. My only question, do I do the cook with the lid down as well? That might be hard to do for stir-frying, I think I will just not have a lot of fuel in the firebox so the heat wont run away on me. I will post again if I learn anything, or if things get crazy. Until then, know that there is another happy Primo owner out there.