Just when you thought the backyard grill had reached its limit, outdoor grilling has taken another turn. Outdoor grills have long been used to grill and smoke meats and vegetables. Now, thanks to specially designed pizza stones, you can turn your outdoor grill into a year-round pizza oven. Pizza stones have long been used for baking pizza indoors. Grilling pizza outdoors offers an exciting new dimension in taste.

Outdoor ovens have been used for thousands of years to prepare a variety of foods. Fired by wood, charcoal and peat, outdoor ovens have become a feature of backyards and patios across the country. While building a backyard oven can be a somewhat laborious task, pizza grilling stones can turn almost any backyard barbeque into a patio oven.

Before the introduction of conveyor-type pizza ovens, traditional pizzeria pizza was oven-baked. The floor of a traditional pizza oven differed little from ovens used for bread baking. The oven floor is made from stone or brick materials that can withstand the high temperatures, usually between five hundred and nine hundred degrees Fahrenheit. Pizza grilling stones are designed to be used over the direct heat of a backyard grill.

Similar baking stones for indoor use, while designed for high heat, are not designed to be used with your backyard grill. Exposure to direct heat is likely to crack the stone.

Grilling your pizza can take a little extra time but the results are well worth it. There are recipes galore that allow you to make truly unique pizza treats, including all of your favorite pizza toppings. You can use ready-made pizza dough or make your own. Making fresh pizza dough is not as difficult as you might think, though a little advanced planning is needed. The basic ingredients for making dough are an exercise in simplicity with nothing more than flour, yeast, a little salt, water and some olive oil.

Unlike American versions of pizza, grilled pizza is more a reflection of Mediterranean cooking. Toppings are put on in reverse order, with cheeses going directly on the dough. Some cooks will let the cheese melt slightly before adding other toppings. Some chefs will often shy away from using traditional pizza or tomato sauce when grilling a pizza. Tomato whether diced or cut into juicy slices is a delicious alternative to sauces. Other favorite pizza toppings can be added to your hearts content. Be sure to brushing the crust with a little olive oil.

Preparing the Grill

Charcoal grills, similar to the popular Weber Kettle, make great outdoor pizza grills. Cooking with charcoal does take some extra prep time and controlling the temperature can be a little tricky. Charcoal grills like the Weber can be fired with chucks of hickory or mesquite wood, adding an aromatic, smoky flavor to your pizza. Propane and natural gas grills take less time to heat, controlling the temperature is easier and you can still use wood to impart that smoky goodness. Small cast iron smoker boxes are available for gas grills that can be filled with wood chips. The chips are usually soaked in water and the grill will slowly heat the chips.

If you are using a charcoal grill, allow the charcoal or wood chunks to reach burn down before placing the pizza stone in the grill. Preheating the grill can take about twenty minutes depending on size and thermal output. With a gas grill, the pizza grill stone is usually placed in the grill while the grill reaches the right temperature. It is important to preheat the pizza stone before placing the pizza on the stone. For best results, the minimum temperature of the grill should be five hundred degrees. That sounds really hot, but not compared to traditional stone pizza ovens which can be much hotter.

Let the Grilling Begin

After sprinkling a little corn meal on the stone, carefully place the pizza on the stone and close the grill lid. Monitor the temperature and the cooking progress since it should not take more than a few minutes for your pizza to bake. Of course baking time will vary based on the size of the pizza, the thickness of the crust the grill temperature. Using a pizza peel, lift the pizza and check the bottom. When the crust is golden brown, use the peel to remove the pizza from the stone. Let the pizza set for a minutes before sli