An Appeal for a Peel, Pizza that Is

[scott123]

Now that I have the baking stone solution of my dreams for my home oven, I am now almost ready to make some pizza.

In another forum, a member recommended a metal peel as being much easier for delivering dough to the oven. Does anyone here have experience using a metal and a wooden peel? Any preferences?

Also, can the edge of a wooden peel be 'sharpened' by sanding? Are there kinds of woods that I should look for/avoid?

[slkinsey]

If you're going to invest in a dedicated peel I'd stick with a wooden peel, personally. If you use a moist dough (and you should), once the dough sticks to the metal you're never going to unstick it and save the pizza.

That said, you could also get an edgeless cookie sheet like this one and it will work just as well as a peel... plus you get double for your money because it's great for cookies too.

[Lyle]

Also, can the edge of a wooden peel be 'sharpened' by sanding?

Why would you want to do this? Most wooden peels are glued planks, and I would think that would lead to a risk of breakage. I've never had a problem with dough transfer from a peel. I've only had a problem removing my relatively wet dough from the counter.

Also, since most wooden peels are glued, don't soak them! They will warp.

I've never seen a metal peel and, being more conductive, I'd think it would be more likely for the dough to stick. Is it Teflon coated, or the like?

[agnolottigirl]

We have both kinds of peels and use both on the occasions when we have a make-your-own gathering. If the dough's good and has been adequately oiled or floured, and the person making the pizza remembers to throw some flour or semolina on the peel before they make the pizza on it, all is well--with either one. A metal one does work better if your dough is sticky.

The metal peels generally seem to have a longer handle than the wooden ones, which are more paddle-shaped. This could be a plus or a minus, depending on how your oven is situated and your personal heat tolerance.

The metal peels also seem to be quite a bit cheaper, esp if you buy them in a restaurant supply place.

Then again, you can't use the metal ones (or you shouldn't, probably) as a cutting board in a pinch.

[mdt]

scott - Getting a little off topic, but what is the baking stone solution of your dreams? I would like to set my oven up and figured the input would help.

[slkinsey]

mdt, go to your local building stone supplier and get a piece of inch-thick soapstone cut a little bit smaller than the floor of your oven. Best baking stone money can buy.

[scott123]

get a piece of inch-thick soapstone

I did a substantial amount of research/pricing on soapstone and was almost ready to buy one until the question of porosity hit me. Since I couldn't find anyone that used a soapstone for bread/pizza to ask, I ended up going with another solution (fire brick). Although soapstone transfers a substantial amount of heat to the bottom crust, does it wick away moisture as quickly as the ceramic stones do? From the research I had done, my impression was that the stone did not seem porous enough, and too much steam would be trapped between the crust and baking surface. Since you bake with a soapstone, I'm curious about your thoughts on this.

Mdt, although I'm extremely happy with the end results, my journey to a solution included some teeth grinding. I'll tell you my present solution and the one I'd choose if doing it all over again.

Present Solution (More thermal mass but also more complicated to configure)

Two 12" x 12" x 2" Fire brick tiles, purchased from a stone supplier for $6 a piece

For another $10 the supplier did three cuts on the second tile so I was able to form a rectangle 15 x 18.

Because the tiles were so heavy (60ish lbs.), I ended up buying kiln posts from a local ceramic supplier for another $5 to support my oven shelf.

If I were to do it again

"Half" Fire Bricks - 1 1/4" thick, very cheap (less than $8 to cover an oven shelf) and easy to find.

Thin enough to not require any support but yet thick enough so that the brick shouldn't slide when delivering pizzas/breads.

1 1/4" thick fire bricks will give you more thermal mass than any retail baking stone out there, won't have a tendency to chip like quarry tiles and will cost you about $100 less than soapstone.

Look in your yellow pages under "stone." Brick suppliers generally don't carry fire brick.

[Busboy]

We bought a metal peel and used and then bought a wooden peel two weeks later. We've never gone back.

[slkinsey]

get a piece of inch-thick soapstone

I did a substantial amount of research/pricing on soapstone and was almost ready to buy one until the question of porosity hit me. Since I couldn't find anyone that used a soapstone for bread/pizza to ask, I ended up going with another solution (fire brick). Although soapstone transfers a substantial amount of heat to the bottom crust, does it wick away moisture as quickly as the ceramic stones do? From the research I had done, my impression was that the stone did not seem porous enough, and too much steam would be trapped between the crust and baking surface. Since you bake with a soapstone, I'm curious about your thoughts on this.

Given the amount of heat stored in a stone of this size in relation to the relatively small amount of dough being baked on the stone, porosity is not a problem. Any moisture on the bottom of the dough will boil off pretty much immediately. For pizza in particular my experience is that having a very hot and very massive stone is the single most important thing for the home baker. By the way, I got the idea back in my old sourdough idealogue days from one of my coevals on rec.food.sourdough. He routinely bakes very large (5 pound) loaves on his soapstone and swears that it gives him oven spring and other results that he has been unable to obtain with any other thermal material.

[yellow truffle]

I use both a wood and metal peel when I make pizza. The metal is used for taking the pizza out of the oven and the wooded for putting in. If you are creating multiple pizzas for a party, you can prep your next pizza on the wooded (placing sauce and other toppings) while you use the metal to take out the pizza in the oven. I find the slimness of the metal edge is great for getting that pizza out. Its real easy, minimal shuffling involved. I use corn meal as the base before I place the dough on the peel. The wood holds the corn meal better the the metal, it just slides around too much.

Hope that helps.

[scott123]

For pizza in particular my experience is that having a very hot and very massive stone is the single most important thing for the home baker.

I agree 100%. I haven't tried it yet, but it was recommended that I use the oven cleaning cycle to make pizza. I'm not sure what impact a cleaning cycle every two weeks will have on my oven but I am open to trying it once.

I'm curious do you make pizza on your soapstone? Have you made pizza on regular baking stones? If not, do you know anyone who has that could compare the results?

Although I opted for fire brick at the time, I am by no means ruling out the acquisition of a soapstone slab in the future. If it makes a better pizza, I'm getting one.

[scott123]

We bought a metal peel and used and then bought a wooden peel two weeks later.  We've never gone back.

Busboy, what didn't you like about the metal peel?

[tommy]

I haven't tried it yet, but it was recommended that I use the oven cleaning cycle to make pizza. I'm not sure what impact a cleaning cycle every two weeks will have on my oven but I am open to trying it once.

i'm pretty sure ovens on a self-clean cycle get pretty hot, maybe upwards to 800 degrees even? but in my experience, ovens on a self-clean cycle lock and stayed lock until the temp drops to about 100 degrees. so unless you can get around the locking mechanism (which might not be recommended strictly from a safety perspective), or you like your pizza really really well done, this might not be such a hot idea. but i'd like to hear if anyone was able to pull it off.

Edited March 5, 2004 by tommy (log)

[Busboy]

We bought a metal peel and used and then bought a wooden peel two weeks later.  We've never gone back.

Busboy, what didn't you like about the metal peel?

I just found that my dough stuck to it, making it difficult to slide it into the oven. The fault may lie with my dough but, nevertheless, the wooden peel worked much better.

[yellow truffle]

Busboy, what didn't you like about the metal peel?

I just found that my dough stuck to it, making it difficult to slide it into the oven. The fault may lie with my dough but, nevertheless, the wooden peel worked much better.

Busboy

Have you tried a light dusting of corn meal or flour on the peel before you place your dough?

I don't think your dough is at fault. If you are doing a really thin crust pizza and its not all tacky, then I believe that the dough is not going to be up to your expectations.

[scott123]

i'm pretty sure ovens on a self-clean cycle get pretty hot, maybe upwards to 800 degrees even?

800 degrees is the realm of pizzeria ovens. For the best pizza, that's exactly where you want to be.

As far as cleaning cycle pizza, I don't know how to do it but the locking mechanism can be jimmied. The guy in this forum did it:

http://forums.about.com/n/mb/message.asp?w...6308.3&search=y

I PMed him a while back with questions. It's possible that I don't understand how to get PMs in that forum, but I yet to hear from him.

[tommy]

i'm pretty sure ovens on a self-clean cycle get pretty hot, maybe upwards to 800 degrees even?

800 degrees is the realm of pizzeria ovens. For the best pizza, that's exactly where you want to be.

i know. i'm just wondering if it's practical/safe to get the safety mechanism busted up. i'll check out that thread.

as far as peels go, i've been happy with my wood peel. i've never wanted to any sharper than it is, and nothing sticks to it with a little flour or cornmeal. seems to suck up tomato sauce, though, making clean-up a bit of a pain sometimes.

Edited March 5, 2004 by tommy (log)

[scott123]

i'm just wondering if it's practical to get the safety mechanism busted up

I get the feeling you can do it without busting the locking mechanism, you just need to fool the oven into thinking it's locked when it's not. Maybe a piece of metal the right size.

[phaelon56]

I use a wooden peel and would not dream of using anything else. The edge is already tapered but I do suggest oiling it with mineral oil as you would do with a cutting board. My local so-called wholesale and restaurant food supplier (Maine's) gets $25 for a short handled peel -- I was in search of Boos Mystery oil for my butcher block top peninsula and found the best price at

'A Best Kitchen" pizza peels

They were just over $12, shipped quick and also had the lowest price on the oil )which is wonderful stuff and well worth the price difference over mineral oil).

[slkinsey]

I'm curious do you make pizza on your soapstone? Have you made pizza on regular baking stones? If not, do you know anyone who has that could compare the results?

I've done both. In fact, currently I am without the soapstone as I lent it out and do not expect to get it back. The soapstone produces much better results -- especially for my kind of use. In general, I think it's too much hassle to go to all that trouble for one pizza. These days, whenever I make pizza it's because I'm having a pizza party at my house, in which case I am likely to be making 10 - 15 large pizze. When using a baking stone, there is a significant problem with the baking stone losing heat over time, and pizza #5 takes 4 times longer to cook than pizza #1 (there is some discussion about this problem on a professional scale at Grimaldi's in the NY Pizza Survey thread. This is simply not a problem with a big chunk of soapstone.

Rather than putting the oven on self-clean, I would suggest turning on the broiler if you have a regular gas oven with the broiler underneath. With the baking stone on the floor of the oven and the broiler firing more or less directly into the stone, you should get all the heat your oven is capable of producing.

[JAZ]

Busboy, what didn't you like about the metal peel?

I just found that my dough stuck to it, making it difficult to slide it into the oven. The fault may lie with my dough but, nevertheless, the wooden peel worked much better.

Busboy

Have you tried a light dusting of corn meal or flour on the peel before you place your dough?

I don't think your dough is at fault. If you are doing a really thin crust pizza and its not all tacky, then I believe that the dough is not going to be up to your expectations.

Here's a trick I learned from Cooks Illustrated, which works especially well for thin crusts (which is my preference):

Roll or pat your dough out on a sheet of parchment paper. The dough sticks to the parchment, which makes it really easy to get a nice thin even circle of dough, and very easy to get into the oven. Then, as the dough bakes, it releases from the parchment. It helps keep your stone clean too.

The only thing about this method is that the exposed edges of the parchment will burn. You can get around this by trimming the parchment, or you can do what I do, which is to prebake the plain crust for 5 minutes or so until the crust sets and releases from the paper, then take it out, then add your toppings and return it to the oven, minus the paper.

As for the "peel" -- I'm with Sam. I use a cookie sheet at home. At the kitchen where I teach my classes, I use either metal or wooden, because with the parchment paper, it really doesn't matter. I find the metal one gets under the crust a bit more easily.

[slkinsey]

One thing we saw at Patsy's in re to the pizza sticking to the peel.

As you can see, they load two pizze at a time. Right before taking the pizze to the oven, the pizzaiolo stretched a string over the peel and ran it under both pieces of dough.

[phaelon56]

Right before taking the pizze to the oven, the pizzaiolo stretched a string over the peel and ran it under both pieces of dough.

Will you clarify this? I'm not quite visualizing it. Did he hold the string at both ends and pull it down the length of the peel to sort of separate the dough from the peel after the toppings had been applied?

[jackal10]

Aga make a nice domestic size peel

[slkinsey]

Right before taking the pizze to the oven, the pizzaiolo stretched a string over the peel and ran it under both pieces of dough.

Will you clarify this? I'm not quite visualizing it. Did he hold the string at both ends and pull it down the length of the peel to sort of separate the dough from the peel after the toppings had been applied?

Exactly. Stretched the string across the peel using both hands. Pulled the string tight against the peel. Ran the string down the length of the peel, under the dough, to separate the dough from the peel. After accomplishing this, went immediately to the oven.