Reheating Leftover Pizza

[bushey]

Weighing in here on the toaster oven side. It's fast, it's easy and there's basically nothing to clean up if you use aluminum foil. Once it's made (or carried in), pizza should involve no more work than is absolutely necessary.

[tommy]

Think about how pizza, or any kind of hearth-baked bread, gets made in the first place: It's not just the ambient heated air that does the cooking -- a big part of it is the conduction of heat directly from the hearth into the crust. You simply can't reproduce that effect with a toaster oven unless you start modifying the product. The cast-iron skillet, however, is quite similar to the floor of a pizza oven. It crisps the crust instead of just making it hot. And then when you bring the broiler into play you provide heat from the top and the whole thing comes out very nice. Everybody I know who has tried this method has become a convert. You need to tweak it to your stovetop, oven, and pizza, but it works.

Really, it's the way to go.

if the intention is to reproduce a pizza oven:

why not throwing it on a pizza stone?

if a cast iron pan so closely reproduces a pizza oven:

why not make pizza from scratch in a cast iron pan? never heard of that one!

[Varmint]

i'm betting your toaster oven sees more action than my deep fyer does!

Hmmm, you deep fry pizza??? Now that's a concept.

[Fat Guy]

A pizza stone could be helpful in theory, but there are too many problems with it vis-a-vis reheating a slice: 1) The stuff that melts off the edges creates an ugly situation -- stones are better for whole pies; 2) They take forever to heat up; 3) They're hard to move around so as to put them closer and farther from the broiler; 4) The cast-iron skillet is pretty well non-stick.

As for pizza never being baked in a cast-iron skillet, obviously you've never been to a place called . . . Chicago.

[Belmont3]

I am of the skillet/brioler method, this is a far cry from the microwave

[Miguel Gierbolini]

more recently, i've put the slice on a cast iron grill pan in the oven, with better results.  but it still takes a long time and doesn't always produce a good product.

A regular skillet is better because the full contact crisps the crust, and the trick is to get the pan moderately hot on the stovetop first, then place the slice in, then pop the whole package in the oven under the broiler to finish.

Did I teach you this trick?

How do you know it? I thought only I knew it. My grandma in SF taught me this. They order Pizza once a month.. and can never finish it all. This is how she heats it up the next day for lunch.

Not being an expert in anything cooking related, I am surprised that this is, more or less what I do. I buy large pizzas because I think they are a better bargain than a medium size. Eat two, perhaps three slices. So there are at least two additional re-heating sessions. I have a mini paellera to make Spanish paellas. A paellera, I guess is a thinner skillet with two metal handles. I put the paellera in the oven, heat it up, not sure what temperature probably 325 to 350 not too hot and throw in the slices. The flatness of the paellera ensures a crispy crust and everything on top re-melts through. The melting that falls to the sides is easily scooped up and voila: reheated pizza! Better than freshly made.

[IsItSoupYet?]

just recently, i've seen/read about people throwing the slice in a pan, toppings side down, and then flipping it over to finish the crust side.  skeptical, i tried this about 10 minutes ago.  i can say that this one test has me convinced that *this* is the way to go.  the whole thing is hot, and the crust is nice and crispy...probably crispier than it was 2 days ago when the pie was fresh.

Wouldn't the cheese and topping stick to the pan if you didn't grease it and just make a mess if it was? Don't get me wrong, reheating pizza that way sounds excellent, but I don't want to get cheese all over the place. What's the time frame involved?

P.S. Alas, I give cold pizza radar love most of the time. Just too impatient.

[Matt Seeber]

cold pizza in the morning beats everything hands down!

[Suzanne F]

Christine Lavin has a great song: "Cold Pizza for Breakfast, Warm Coke on the Side." Yup.

[Varmint]

The skillet/broiler method is clearly the best. It produces a charred crust and gets the top nice and hot -- all in about 7 minutes. You don't need a cast iron skillet, either, but it looks good.