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A number of years ago, I got seriously homesick for NY Style Pizza. I’d been living in the Austin area for a number of years at that point, and had only found a couple of “ok” places who sold decent NY Style pie. I started researching to see if there were any recipes out there that would get me on the road to making my own pizza… at home.

In the midst of my search I came across PizzaMaking.com’s Forum. It was the turning point for my pizza journey. The site was like the Encyclopaedia Britannica of the Pizza world. A Pizza Community – full of folks that are CRAZY and knowledgeable about pizza. I knew I was home…

After a couple of years of making “ok” pizza in my home oven, I realized the limitations of said oven. It didn’t get hot enough. Without any modification, your home oven will only get up to 500 degrees and it’s not really all that efficient for pizza making. But a full blown Wood Fired Oven was just too far out of my reach. Living in an apartment at the time, I obviously didn’t have any place for one of those, not to mention the money. Then… I came across something that got my attention.

It was a thread about something called a “Little Black Egg“. It was basically a knock-off of the Big Green Egg smoker, only it was made from a Webber kettle grill, set upon a propane burner…. with a pizza stone. Hence the name “Little Black Egg”. A cheap, small, home made pizza oven. I was smitten.

It took a couple of years, but I was finally able to make one for myself from a used 18.5″ kettle grill. I’ve since moved up to a bigger 22.5″ kettle because I like making bigger pies. I gave the old LBE shell to Zane over at PizzaHunt.net awhile back and after seeing it in action, his brother, Brandon, decided he needed one as well and asked me if I’d give him a hand building it.

Of course I jumped at the chance because I’ve been wanting to write a how-to blog post on making an LBE for Steak, Chops -n- Hops for awhile now.

I made sure to have my daughter take pictures of the entire process so we could document it with as much detail as possible. I don’t know about you, but I’m a visual learner. I pick stuff up easier when I see it done, or when it’s documented with pictures, and when I’m trying to teach someone how to do something, I like to use the same method to do it.

And with that really long winded introduction… here we go…

 

You’ll need:

A kettle grill

A cordless drill

1/4″ drill bit

3/8″ drill bit

A hand held jig saw, with metal cutting blade

eye protection

Four 4″ bolts – FULL THREADS, 3/8″ shank

Eight slightly oversized washer

4 nuts to correspond to the bolts

Masking or painter’s tape

A pair of long, large channel locks

Last, but definitely not least… a Helper.

 

It’s your call as to what size grill would work best for you. I enjoy the extra space of the bigger grill, and looks like Brandon was thinking he’d be making larger pies with his LBE because he bought the 22.5″ kettle off of Craigslist. That’s where I got my first LBE kettle, too. It’s a great way to find one really cheap.

 

 

So, start out by removing the ash catcher and the legs. Turn the bottom of the kettle over to lay flat. (Pardon the mess in my garage – it was over 100 in the shade so too hot to do it outside)

 

You’ll want to drill the spot welds on the stars of the stumps where the legs fit.

 

After drilling out the spot welds, use a pair of channel locks to pry the stumps off the kettle.

 

Next step: You will be cutting out the very bottom of the shell. Lay down some type of masking tape over the section where you’ll be cutting. This will help the pencil marks to show up better on the black kettle, so you have something to follow with your jig saw.

 

Remember the old days when parents used to put a bowl over a kid’s head to give them a haircut? Same premise here. Use a larger, wider mouthed bowl to mark out the pattern for the hole to be cut.

 

 

Use a level to make sure the bowl is set correctly. If not your LBE will be lopsided (like my current one is, since I didn’t do this with mine. Brandon’s benefiting from my mistakes).

 

See? Level.

After using a pencil to mark out the circle, drill a pilot hole for your jig saw.

 

 

Pilot hole… up close and personal.

 

 

This is not the jig saw, but it gives you an idea of what it should look like when cutting. It’s my Dremel Trio. It wasn’t doing the job, so we brought in the jig saw. Unfortunately, my daughter didn’t get a clear shot of it cutting. She was too busy dodging shrapnel from the slice being made through the metal. Do yourself a favor, wear eye protection. ***And this is not a one person job… you’ll need someone to help hold the thing down. My first two I did on my own, without help. It was such a pain in the butt to keep the jig saw from shaking itself out of the cutting groove. With Brandon holding the kettle down, it was a lot easier to cut. Like butter!

 

 

It’s a metal frisbee!

 

Minus the metal frisbee…

 

 

Moving on, you’ll want to cut a notch out of the lid to give hot air a place to escape. We decided on a foot long notch. Find the center of the lid and measure out 6 inches to either side. Mark the spots, then connect them for the jig saw pass.

 

 

The spots marked out…

 

We (*cough* I *cough*) butchered it… sheet metal working is one of my strong points.

 

 

 

Next, we moved back to the bottom of the kettle. We’re drilling holes for the bolts to go in. The bolts will be holding up the heavier, stronger, smaller diameter charcoal grate. The original cooking grate is a lighter, thinner steel and absolutely will not stand up to the high temps from the propane burner. The charcoal grate will last much longer. The issue is that it’s narrower, since it sits further down inside the kettle. You’ll need 4 inch long, FULL THREAD, 3/8″ shank bolts. To keep it simple, we drilled the holes to the right of each of the original tabs that held the cooking grate up.

 

 

 

The bolts. You’ll need two washers per bolt. One for the outside, and one for the inside. And, of course, the nuts to secure the bolts. Make sure you bend the original tabs up, out of the way before installing the bolts.

 

Here is where Part 1 concludes. This is the bottom of the kettle with the grate installed.

 

Part 2 will move on to adding the firebricks, the cooking stone and the lid stone.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this instructional so far. Come back in a week or two for the next instalment.

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