Richard Stephen, CEO of Weber, can I get a grant for working on this simulator?

(... or a new Easy Bake oven for pizza)
I have at least one lingering issue regarding my Firedome project: Does the intake of air from the bottom hemisphere matter? What happens to inside if I take air in...
a. through the bottom center?
b. through the sides?
c. both?
d. is there a swirly kind of convection of air going on?
e. can I get higher temps by optimizing this pattern of vents?
etc.

Instead of carving up a zillion bottom halves of grills, I figured it was time for a simulation vessel.  I'll use tea lights initially for a heat source and measure temp differences with a thermocouple in the lid and try to use a smoke source (incense?) to visualize air flow patterns.  Of course, if I didn't dislike reading so much and I could figure out the math, I might be able to make a more sophisticated hypothesis, but this is more fun.  Also, there is a flat disc in the middle (cooking surface) that might screw up calculations, so here goes...

Bottom half drilled out bottom and side vents.
It is also affixed with a lower grate that will hold the fuel source.

Lower grate in the bottom half with tea lights, a proposed initial fuel source.

The bottom half now equipped with the upper grate, or in the real grill this is the cooking surface.  I need a teeny tiny clay surface for this.

The top half is affixed to the bottom with binder clips.  The top half is a model of the Firedome with 1" hole vent in lid and the famous hinged door.

Just an image of the chrome bad ass monster.  The entire apparatus will be suspended in a stand above the "ground" using a plant stand.

The simulator sitting on a rack suspended so air can travel in through the bottom and side vents.

Update:  Not learning much, I really need a good voluminous smoke source.  Incense isn't enough and it attracted hippies.

Waafer thin pizza

My preference in pizza is a medium crust, not cracker thin, not thick.  In my terms, about 225 g per 10-12" diameter.  

My preference is changing to a thin crust; I thought you might appreciate my reasons for the change:

1.  In the book Mindless Eating by Brian Wansink, he describes experiments that clearly demonstrate our ability to take a cue when we've eaten enough - stinks.  We pretty much eat all that is served.  Read the book, the experiments are awesome - especially the Pringles experiment.   One related  observation on this is we'll be just as satisfied when eating two meals of approximately the same volume, e.g., a double burger might make us just as satisfied as a single burger stuffed with veggies; there are better examples in the book.  I figured a thinner crust might serve as a substrate for the same 12" pizza with fewer calories.  Note: I realize I'm dangerously close to a low carb thing here, but I'm simply trying to find a great satisfying food with a few less calories.

2. I really love (some) thin crust pies, especially those of California Pizza Kitchen.  Thin, yet good bubbles on the surface, tender and wonderful flavor.

3. A higher veggie to carb ratio can not be bad (again, dangerously close to low carb stuff - warning! mid age belly burgeoning).
4. The wife and kid like the thin pies too.  

I want to make a thin crust pizza rivaling my current favorite, CPK.

The number of experiments - given my current understanding and experience making pizza at home - are limited.  I want some oil in the dough for tenderness, but the big question is a slack or stiff dough (high moisture or low moisture respectively) better?  The only way to start this investigation is pretty easy: try both. 

Commercially, a shop would use a sheeter to get dough this thin and even.  I'll just weigh the lump of dough, push it to half the diameter by hand and finish with a rolling pin.  Prior rounding of the lump of dough will give a disk of dough with adequate symmetry (important for density for the two pizzas).

The dough recipes:

Slack Dough (depicted below)
water, 220 g
unbleached white flour (Montana Sapphire), 300 g
sugar, 5 g
olive oil, 25 g
salt, 5 g
yeast, Red Star instant active, 7 g
Mixed, 1 rise, scaled to 150 g and rolled to 12" diameter (pretty exact)
topped with fresh thinly sliced tomato, chevre and basil, baked at 450°F

Stiff Dough
water, 180 g - all else the same
...stay tuned...