Delivery Pizza

[Haggis]

I recognize that whenever I order a pizza delivered to my home, it can't really be as good as it was when it first emerged from the oven. So for me, ordering a delivery pizza is a compromise from the getgo. I want a cheap, filling, and tasty carbo-fat feast that's as easy as a phone call. All of us want this at times.

The biggest part of the problem seems to be in what the pizza loses in heat on the way over, plus the crispiness that dissipates. No matter what container is used to transport, the pizza never arrives hot enough. I correct these problems with my own oven and a pizza stone. Doing so, however, often creates a new problem of overly browned cheese. My solution is to slather a tasty condiment over most of the surface of the pie before re-heating. This will protect the cheese. What I do for a large New York-sized pie of 20 or 22 inches is to saute in olive oil 3 medium onions, sliced; several cloves of crushed garlic; and 4 whole jalapeno peppers. Saute on medium heat until the chiles have blistered all over. Remove chiles from pan and turn heat down to low. Finely chop the chiles. Return chiles to pan, add black pepper to taste, and cook until the onions resemble an onion fondue. Transfer to bowl, mix and chop thoroughly. Then spread evenly over surface of pizza using a rubber spatula. I will usually heat the pizza covered with this condiment for 8 to 10 minutes at 375 degrees, but check to make sure your crust does not brown too much. I don't do this with all of the pizzas I get delivered to my home, because sometimes I want to eat without having to cook, but I do it about half the time. I really enjoy the taste (and the heat) of the condiment, and the re-crisping aspect also improves it a lot. This works best with a plain cheese pie that is unsliced.

Can anyone think of what my condiment might be called? I don't mean can you give it a name, I mean is there an existing nomenclature for this sort of thing? Anyway, try it if you like fiery foods, and are usually dissapointed with delivery pizza.

[tommy]

my usual procedure consists of putting it on a pizza stone when it comes. that sucker crisps right up, even more than when they first made it. in fact, as we speak, i'm roasting some artichokes to put on the top, as the pizza place doesn't put enough on.

[Nick]

Tommy, I actually bought some english muffins, linguica, provalone, and Contadina for lunch tomorrow. We'll see if those little pizzas are as good as I remember them.

[juuceman]

i'm big on the reheat.. lombardi's pizza happens to have the biggest delivery zone in nyc.. the fact that they make a pretty damn good coal brick oven pie, and deliver to my otherwise food deprived neighborhood qualifies them for sainthood in my book..

anyway, my routine is to order the pizza and preheat the oven to 450 at the same time.. pie arrives in about 45 minutes, and the slices go in individually onto the preheated stone.. of course, the first slice out is sacrificed to the stomach god, but the rest make it into the oven in a timely manner..

[Fat Guy]

Put the slices in a cast-iron skillet on the stovetop, on low heat. This will re-crisp the crust and heat the slice through without messing up the cheese.

I'm actually surprised nobody uses cast-iron for pizza ovens.

[Nick]

I'm actually surprised nobody uses cast-iron for pizza ovens.

The thermal mass of masonry stores the heat from the fire and radiates it back into what is being cooked as well as keeping oven temp up. Cast iron can't compare.

Has to do with specific heat of materials and mass.

[Dave the Cook]

I'm actually surprised nobody uses cast-iron for pizza ovens.

The advantage of cast iron is even heating and slow dissipation (i.e., it stays heated). I don't know how it compares to the usual material used for pizza ovens -- what is that stuff anyway?

If you've got a pizza oven, you keep it heated all the time, so these are not issues, and you don't have to reinforce your foundation to support cast iron. Unless you want to do a calculation on fuel savings?

Having said that, I think this way to handle pizza is a great idea.

Edit: what Nick said, since he actually know what he's talking about. For instance, he knows it's called masonry.

[Fat Guy]

Most pizza ovens are made of stainless steel and powered by gas. I was thinking if you replaced the stainless oven-floor surface with cast-iron, you might get some interesting results.

[Dave the Cook]

Most pizza ovens are made of stainless steel and powered by gas. I was thinking if you replaced the stainless oven-floor surface with cast-iron, you might get some interesting results.

If that's the predominant type of oven, I'd agree. Then again, if a take-out pizza place is willing to make that kind of effort, then they're more interested in good pizza than they are in getting it to your door in a certain number of minutes -- which means we're probably beyond the parameters of the originating post.

Speaking of which, I'm going to try Haggis' method next time I have one brought in.

[tommy]

Most pizza ovens are made of stainless steel and powered by gas. I was thinking if you replaced the stainless oven-floor surface with cast-iron, you might get some interesting results.

ah. because i was going to suggest that those bricks and stone draw moisture from the dough to aid in crisping. something that cast iron clearly cannot do.

nickn, don't forget the oregano. it's the single most important ingredient in english muffin pizzas.

[snowangel]

Peter, Diana, Heidi and I did a side-by-side pizza tasting, and the overwhelming favorite was pita pizzas (as opposed to english muffins), in the cuisinart toaster oven (set to max). Thinner crust + crispier crust. There was no general consensus on toppings among the 4 of us.

Edited June 10, 2003 by snowangel (log)

[juuceman]

Peter, Diana, Heidi and I did a side-by-side pizza tasting, and the overwhelming favorite was pita pizzas (as opposed to english muffins), in the cuisinart toaster oven (set to max).  Thinner crust + crispier crust.  There was no general consensus on toppings among the 4 of us.

yeah but did you try bagel pizzas?? they're the king of the toaster oven assembled pizza..

[Dave the Cook]

Juuceman: this is a great topic -- "Best Impromptu Pizza" -- but it will not get noticed down here in a thread about take-out. It would be great if you'd start a new thread.

[elyse]

Tommy, I actually bought some english muffins, linguica, provalone, and Contadina for lunch tomorrow. We'll see if those little pizzas are as good as I remember them. 

I was actually thinking of this too. What color is your linguica?

I hate oregano.