Anything Pizza

You must be one FAST pizza builder, or you are cooking alot cooler than I do, as I don't dare leave my pizza once it is in the oven. Last night I finally got the perfect doneness on the crust and it took 5.45 min. I had the smoker temp set to 290 and with the infrared temp probe the stone was 600 - 700. Also I finally got the pizza off of the peel cleanly, but I cheated using parchment paper. This worked (finally I had a great crust) and I will keep working on doing the transfer "paperless". The paper chared in about a minute into the cook -which I saw when slipping it out

 

I slap it together in whatever time it takes, it goes in at a hot temperature (on a scale of cold to hot, it's "pretty hot"), and goes until the cheese bubbles.

Whole lotta science for a pizza there.

Actually one last night was in a 12" cast iron skillet, light coating of olive oil, light dusting of flour on top of that, dough in and built in the pan. Pan in oven. Cook 'til done. Enjoy.

 

I have the three burner gas grill on high, the stone is probably a little over 700, I should check that I suppose - takes about 5-6 minutes to cook and when I smell the bread starting to char, I know it is time to open it up and get it outta there. If I open the grill to early, it doesn't cook up right - the heat the lid traps seems to be important in getting the top/bottom done at the same time.

I have done it enough that I set the kitchen timer to 6 minutes before I take it out/put it in and then at 1:00 remaining I go out there and start smelling for the done/ness.

I dust the peel with cornmeal and that makes it slide off okay 90% of the time but if the dough is a bit too thin or I let it sit with the sauce a bit too long, the moisture makes it stick and I gotta jiggle it off. I would like to not use cornmeal at some point in the future - pizza goals.

I can usually shape #2 while #1 is cooking - depending on how relaxed the dough is, I might be able to start topping it if I had a second peel + I wouldn't have to wipe the peel clean/etc between rounds.

 

You could maybe try coarse semolina flour instead of cornmeal
I can’t imagine either of the dough recipes we use not sticking to the peel without help
Pizza screens work well too lol

 

Never done a cast iron one -- I have a great big 12 inch (OLD and valuable) Griswold frying pan which is very seldom used because of its size. This pan is seasoned to perfection. What are your best tips if I was to try making a pizza in this pan. I know this can be used in the regular kitchen oven, but how bout using it in my Weber gas grill and maybe in the Green mountain smoker pizza oven? Any thoughts

 

How long did it cook and what temp was the oven set to?

 

Grill?

First, oil the grates and slap the dough directly on the grates for about 2-3 minutes, then flip it over and put it in the pan, build the pizza on that.

Otherwise. I did it in the oven at 450° - no preheat on the pan, slight rub down of olive oil, and a light dusting of flour. Thin dough, NY/Neapolitan style. Without the pre-grilling step, on that one. But the grilled pizza is a game changer.

Also - make the sauce yourself. Cut up a couple roma tomatoes, bake 'em, blend 'em, add a pinch of sugar, lots of garlic and oregano, simmer for ~20 minutes, then good to go. Don't add water. Leave the skins on, let the food processor work its magic.

(store buy the cheese....)

 

You sound like my wife with your cooking - very good at what you are doing. I, on the other hand tend to overthink every move I make in the kitchen. This maybe because I am messing around in her domain, and I am afraid I am going to screw up something.

 

I'll be obnoxious "cook it until it's done".

About 10-15 minute range, I can't remember exactly. But the pan not being pre-heated adds some time to it.

I haven't done one covered before/dutch oven style. But I might as my next one. I don't have a lid for the 12" though, would have to be my 10"

https://www.freshoffthegrid.com/dutch-oven-pizza/

 

We have done the pizza on the grill grates method several times with "fair" success. Seems like everything has to go perfect for this to be a complete win!
Frying pan method - how long in the oven? This method seems like a "one pizza" only method as your pan would be too hot to make a second one in rapid succession. In other words, a good method for just us two -but not a method for guests

 

I’ve experimented with diff temps and times, it seems to vary with diff skillets. 350° for 20 min and finish under the broiler to 550° for 8-10 mins no broiler req’d
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/anything-pizza.488785/page-79#post-24376917

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/anything-pizza.488785/page-79#post-24381279

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/anything-pizza.488785/page-95#post-26758011

 

Depends, you could treat it like a stone too and run it hot.

again it's a "until it's done", not trying to be obnoxious, but sometimes if you run thin dough, thin sauce, light on the cheese it will cook faster than thicker dough/heavy sauce/heavy toppings/etc.

You're also limited on size. I have a 12" cast iron skillet and that b**** is heavy, but only does a 12" pizza. My old high school job was slinging 21" pies.

 

Yup - totally - I am very particular about my cooking, I have put alot of work/effort into this skill set and make sure it is on point; I do 100% of the cooking, cleaning and inventory management..

If my [now] ex screws around in the kitchen I know b/c I didn't use that/make that mess/etc.. it is really obvious and annoying. If he cleaned up after himself or emptied the dishwasher once in a while, I wouldn't care, but when I come home, go to make dinner and there is a mess [I didn't make] in my way - pfft - not cool..


I get where you are coming from and I'll say this - you should do/try what you want, just clean up when you are done - don't leave materials or tools out and wash up/put things in the dishwasher; leave it as you found it and there is little room to complain.

It is like if she went into the garage, left your tools strewn about and a half fixed X on the work bench - you wouldn't be happy with that

 

The stone on the grill is much easier than on the grill grates!

I have yet to do the frying pan method b/c my oven doesn't get as hot as I would like - and I second your concern about pizza #2 - how do I make that one work without burning myself.

 

3 beers in and you won't feel the burn.

Alternative snarky response: "Carefully"

Jokes aside, I will try that on my next pizza - pre-heating the stone. I dress my pies quick, I worked in a pizza joint for high school and college, so it's a skill set I grew over those years. You can slap a dough in, dress it, and get it back in the oven pretty quick. My only concern there is you'd probably want to be able to screen it after about 5-7 minutes, the bottom will cook pretty dang quick. Either that or peel and drop. flour on a wood peel works well. Be quick, for a couple reasons. The dough will start to stick if you let it sit too long, and if you use the same peel for the pizza removal, it can get hot. No bueno for making pies on a hot peel!

 

I have a new perforated aluminum pizza peel on its way from Amazon. I wanted to buy one of these locally, but I could not find one. One would think you could -but NO. I found a couple wooden ones, but I had already bought a Onni wood one from Lowes with my Vets discount. I am in the Capitol city of Missouri, no metal pizza peels?? I opted for a perforated aluminum model. I also found that a "Perforated aluminum Folding handle" model is hard to find -anywhere -even on line. I went with a shorter handle model

 

It’s happening!

 

Heck yeah! I just made two batches of dough. After a couple hours proofing I'll be right there with you.

 

Photo dump from tonight's pie cook.