The Gear Forum Home Pizza Thread

[Byrdman]

Oh, that's colder than my bog standard kitchen oven then. I thought these pellet things would go quite a bit higher.

My pellet grill can get 750 F, but other than cleaning it, I never cook that high. In the pizza restaurant I worked at in college, we had a conveyer belt oven and cooked everything at 450F. A standard pizza oven usually runs temps higher, but you better be on your A game with it.

 

[Sascha Franck]

A standard pizza oven usually runs temps higher, but you better be on your A game with it.

Gotta say I'd like a way hotter oven for all my pizza (and also pita bread and stuff) duties.
Mine goes to 250°C (482°F) and it takes my pizza around 5-6 minutes to get done without pizza stone and grill trickery. When using the pizza stone, I usually switch the grill on once it's fully heated, let it go for another 5 minutes and then bake the pizza with the grill still on. That's reducing baking time to something around 3 minutes. But I hardly ever do this because if anything, pizza stones are huge in wasting energy (not as bad in case you bake many pizzas but I usually do only 1-2).
Recently I went for the "bake in two steps" method of Mr. Iacopelli and it was promising - but for whatever reasons the dough wasn't that great when I tried. Will do it again, though, as it's really making sense to do it that way at lower temperatures (just not as comfortable).

 

[Byrdman]

Gotta say I'd like a way hotter oven for all my pizza (and also pita bread and stuff) duties.
Mine goes to 250°C (482°F) and it takes my pizza around 5-6 minutes to get done without pizza stone and grill trickery. When using the pizza stone, I usually switch the grill on once it's fully heated, let it go for another 5 minutes and then bake the pizza with the grill still on. That's reducing baking time to something around 3 minutes. But I hardly ever do this because if anything, pizza stones are huge in wasting energy (not as bad in case you bake many pizzas but I usually do only 1-2).
Recently I went for the "bake in two steps" method of Mr. Iacopelli and it was promising - but for whatever reasons the dough wasn't that great when I tried. Will do it again, though, as it's really making sense to do it that way at lower temperatures (just not as comfortable).

Unfortunately, with a considerably hotter oven, toppings will over cook or burn and the crust wont cook properly. The crust may be done around the edges, but the middle will not be cooked all the way and when you go to peel it thinking everything is done, the middle will stick and catch.

You want the outside edge to rise a little to hold everything in but when a pizza cooks, gravity makes everything run to the middle naturally and if the outside crust cooks too fast, it will actually make the middle cook slower.

No stone for me either. I like using a screen because I'm usually cooking 4-6 pizza's one after another. Fine line between too hot and not hot enough, lol...

 

[Sascha Franck]

Unfortunately, with a considerably hotter oven, toppings will over cook or burn and the crust wont cook properly.

Hm, original pizza makers would disagree (or are you talking just about your oven?).

 

[Byrdman]

Hm, original pizza makers would disagree (or are you talking just about your oven?).

Technically speaking, you can probably cook pizza at any temperature above 350 F as long as the heat is evenly distributed, and hotter is better if you have a proper oven, IMO. I was specifically talking about cooking at home with most ovens/grills available for home use here in the states since few are going to buy a commercial pizza oven. I cooked pizza and calzones in a restaurant for years at 450F, so that is how I know how to make pizza and that is what works best for my pellet grill.

On a home oven or those small single pizza ovens you see advertised, the heat is a lot less evenly distributed and has hot/cooler spots and on a home oven, you are cooking on grates usually. Yes you can cook it hotter and it can be done, but you better be on your A game or you will have either a burnt or an undone pizza in my experience. IMO, sometimes its better to let the oven do the work vs you having to constantly rotate it to keep it cooking with out burning even if it takes more time to do so.

 

[Sascha Franck]

On a home oven or those small single pizza ovens you see advertised, the heat is a lot less evenly distributed

Yeah, these usually are shite and (as you say) tough to operate. But a mate of mine has what is pretty much a standard oven (admittedly a pretty solid one that cost quite some bucks), just that it's going to 320°C (IIRC) - and that's quite a different pizza game already, IMO a much more enjoyable one. That'd be what I'd try to get in case I'd be buying a new home oven (which might even happen next year).
Oh, fwiw, I'm always baking my pizzas with the ventilation on, works a lot better in my oven.

 

[laxu]

Technically speaking, you can probably cook pizza at any temperature above 350 F as long as the heat is evenly distributed, and hotter is better if you have a proper oven, IMO. I was specifically talking about cooking at home with most ovens/grills available for home use here in the states since few are going to buy a commercial pizza oven. I cooked pizza and calzones in a restaurant for years at 450F, so that is how I know how to make pizza and that is what works best for my pellet grill.

On a home oven or those small single pizza ovens you see advertised, the heat is a lot less evenly distributed and has hot/cooler spots and on a home oven, you are cooking on grates usually. Yes you can cook it hotter and it can be done, but you better be on your A game or you will have either a burnt or an undone pizza in my experience. IMO, sometimes its better to let the oven do the work vs you having to constantly rotate it to keep it cooking with out burning even if it takes more time to do so.

Not my experience with a home oven. Our current one goes to 300C/572F on the dial (whether it actually reaches that is another question) and usually 6-8 minutes has done a good job, just cooking on a plate. This particular one is nowhere near as bad for hot spots compared to the one in our previous apartment that didn't go that high in temperature either.

From a few weeks ago, a "throw leftover ingredients on it" pizza. Pepperoni, pickled jalapeno, cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, a bit of habanero and capsicum.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Fwiw, in case you like those thicker, fluffy kinda pizzas made on baking trays (and completely filling them up), I recommend going for a lower temperature and somewhat more hydration of your dough.
Possible issue being that the bottom might not get crispy, but then there's another trick I recently discovered: just bake it in an oven-compatible pan. You can even do a cheese crust that way by stuffing some cheese between dough and the pan edges, and after baking it in the oven (I think at something like 180°C only, for 20+ minutes), you just put the pan onto your stovetop and bake it until the bottom is nice and crispy. Only did that twice so far, but it came out nicely. You can as well do Chicago style pizza that way, but that's too much cheese for me (and I love cheese).
Big advance of those pan pizzas: One is enough for the family.

 

[la szum]

I like the heat and go as high as I can go. Need it! 560F inside using a Stone and Electric Convection
Oven. 650F outside on the Grill. Just can't get that epic carmelization (a little char!) without that level
of heat, in my experience. I struggled at lower temps.... consistency of the dough was just not where
I wanted it. Tough and chewy, or too dried out.

I also think you need that initial blast of heat to get those nice pillowy pockets in your crust and
cornicione. Less heat and the crust is just flatter and kind of lays there.

I hope to have a wood-fired outdoor kitchen one day, including a brick oven for making pizzas. I have
a Sicilian friend who has one and I love what 900F does to a Pizza. That Neapolitan style just can't
be achieved any other way.

 

[la szum]

 

[fretworn]

I like the heat and go as high as I can go. Need it! 560F inside using a Stone and Electric Convection
Oven. 650F outside on the Grill. Just can't get that epic carmelization (a little char!) without that level
of heat, in my experience. I struggled at lower temps.... consistency of the dough was just not where
I wanted it. Tough and chewy, or too dried out.

I also think you need that initial blast of heat to get those nice pillowy pockets in your crust and
cornicione. Less heat and the crust is just flatter and kind of lays there.

I hope to have a wood-fired outdoor kitchen one day, including a brick oven for making pizzas. I have
a Sicilian friend who has one and I love what 900F does to a Pizza. That Neapolitan style just can't
be achieved any other way.

I rented a house for a few years that had a Gaggenau oven in it… Absolutely stellar for cooking pizzas. Hotted right the fuck up!

 

[Holden Afart]

Our over goes to 550.

I use a stone preheated for about 40 minutes on the top shelf. We use a half pound of dough each because we like different pizzas. 6 to 8 minutes and done. NY style thin crust pepperoni pizza.

 

[la szum]

Similar here. But I put the Stone on the lowest shelf. Then I can put the Oven on Broil and pull the Pizza
with a Peel and put it under a hot broiler for 30 to 60 seconds at the end of cooking.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Thing is, the old hippie in me doesn't go along well with heating up an oven for so long just to bake a pizza. Without a pizza stone it's 10 minutes at best, way less energy consuming...

 

[Holden Afart]

Similar here. But I put the Stone on the lowest shelf. Then I can put the Oven on Broil and pull the Pizza
with a Peel and put it under a hot broiler for 30 to 60 seconds at the end of cooking.

I always used the center rack until I read Cooks Illustrated recommendation to use the top shelf and it seemed to work better. Great magazine that I've learned a lot from. They do experiments with recipes to fine tune them for home appliances or to have more flavor/better texture etc.

 

[la szum]

I found the top rack left the top too done and the bottom/crust not done enough.

 

[la szum]

Without a pizza stone it's 10 minutes at best, way less energy consuming...

And not as good.

Most of the energy used is in getting a stove up to temp, and not in keeping it there.

 

[Holden Afart]

I found the top rack left the top too done and the bottom/crust not done enough.

I hear ya. I'm sure it depends on the oven and/or the dough too. I'm just glad my pizzas have gotten better. Still not like a real pizzeria but damn close. I'm pretty sure I'll get that last 8% soon. LOL

 

[la szum]

Totally. I used to know how to consistently make a bad pie. For years!

It's so rewarding when you make those breakthroughs in technique, ingredients,
equipment, and approach----and then get to experience the results first-hand.

 

[Sascha Franck]

And not as good.

Most of the energy used is in getting a stove up to temp, and not in keeping it there.

Nah, not really, most consumer ovens have terrible isolation (ours defenitely falls into that category).